America Officially Loses Its Measles-elimination Status After Continued Spread of the Disease (msn.com) 43
Reuters reports:
The Pan American Health Organization has revoked the United States' measles-elimination status, ending a 26-year run after determining the country failed to halt continuous transmission of the highly contagious virus for more than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday...
The reported decision by the Americas branch of the World Health Organization comes as the US battles the highest number of measles cases it has seen in more than three decades. Some 7,500 people in the US have been infected with measles and 13 have died since 2025. That period coincides with falling immunization rates and rising vaccine hesitancy under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has for years spread doubts, without scientific evidence, about the safety of measles vaccines... Canada, Spain and the UK recently lost measles-elimination status after review by WHO experts....
"It is a fully preventable disease. It is unconscionable that we have this amount of measles," said Noel Brewer, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina... William Moss, an epidemiology professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said loss of measles elimination was a hit to the United States' reputation as a public health powerhouse... For the average American, he added, it means that the United States will continue to have large outbreaks, putting people at risk of disease, hospitalization and death.
The reported decision by the Americas branch of the World Health Organization comes as the US battles the highest number of measles cases it has seen in more than three decades. Some 7,500 people in the US have been infected with measles and 13 have died since 2025. That period coincides with falling immunization rates and rising vaccine hesitancy under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has for years spread doubts, without scientific evidence, about the safety of measles vaccines... Canada, Spain and the UK recently lost measles-elimination status after review by WHO experts....
"It is a fully preventable disease. It is unconscionable that we have this amount of measles," said Noel Brewer, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina... William Moss, an epidemiology professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said loss of measles elimination was a hit to the United States' reputation as a public health powerhouse... For the average American, he added, it means that the United States will continue to have large outbreaks, putting people at risk of disease, hospitalization and death.
Vaccines work (Score:5, Interesting)
What I don't understand is, who is behind this push to spread the misinformation that vaccinations are harmful? I honestly can't see who benefits, but this is such a huge campaign somebody must be funding it. Who? Why?
Re:Vaccines work (Score:5, Informative)
RFJ jr,, the Trump administration and conservative protestants.
Re: Vaccines work (Score:2, Insightful)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
It's not just vaccines though, or even limited to the Internet. The English RT was reporting that 5g will kill people, for instance. It takes pretty stupid people to buy into any of that nonsense. But remember, we also have a lot of people who believe socialism works, the world is flat, oj was innocent, and more, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I'd add believing in the existence of an all powerful invisible man to that list, but unlike those, it can't be empir
It's not always about money (Score:2)
Yes, this seems to be playing the 'fear, uncertainty, doubt' card that advertiser use. That doesn't prove that anyone gains financially per se, though of course anti-vaxxer campaigners may find money turning up for their media appearances. The reality is that people are fear driven a lot of the time. Add in deep fear for your kids, and a perfect storm has struck. Add in the fact that the establishment has been lying to us for many years...
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"Add in the fact that the establishment has been lying to us for many years..." ...and you were doing so well.
Anti-vax is just conspiracy theory, playing to it is way to gain power. Joe Rogan does pretty well, you don't have to say intelligent things to make money.
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There are quite a few people who want to inflict suffering so people are more receptive to their ideas about how to fix it. They also like to push anti-science ideas because they tend to be religious or at least using religion to further their ends.
Not many people are receptive to revolutionaries when their stomachs are full and their children aren't dying.
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... who is behind this push to spread the misinformation that vaccinations are harmful? I honestly can't see who benefits ...
Those who are picking the public pocket by stealing from government programs benefit. Those who want more of us to die so fewer of us will be left to compete for the world's dwindling resources also get what they want. Those who profit more from treating the sick and/or burying the dead, than they would from selling vaccines, would also support this.
Those who want to control and inherit the world are happy to preemptively weaken and kill the 'nobodies' who oppose their plans. I'm willing to entertain the i
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Measles is a very poor way to achieve that end. When I was growing up there was no measles vaccine, and nearly everybody did quite well. ... Yeah, not everybody. But it's not going to have an effect on the population except perhaps of the American Indians and the Polynesians. (I think only some of the Polynesians had ancestries free of measles, but I'm pretty sure some did.)
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But they're not just against the measles vaccine, they're against ALL of them, and pretty much anything else that can keep the unwashed masses happy and healthy.
Re: Vaccines work (Score:2)
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The Bush family has been overheard referring to the rest of us as "useless eaters". As long as there are enough servants to attend their every whim they'd be happier if the rest of us just died off.
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There doesn't *need* to be a benefit - at this point, ani-vax is basically a religion. A kind of paranoid schizophrenia mixed with anti-government sentiment. It's become self sustaining.
That said, it started as a cash grab. Disgraced former doctor and un-indicted serial child abuser Andrew Wakefield pioneered the "research" associating the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccines and autism, and pushed that narrative hard, even though he himself was never anti-vax and openly advocated for separate vaccination
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Christian Religious Nutjobs are a component. You've heard of Snake Handling [wikipedia.org]? Shutting down vaccines, going maskless, is a way to make everybody handle the snake. Forces people to submit to "gods will".
That makes sense - especially given that most of what comes out of this administration's collective mouth strongly resembles "speaking in tongues". IIRC that also figures strongly in the whack-job sects which practice snake-handling.
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In my state the majority of the cases are from a single county, Lancaster.
Re: Vaccines work (Score:1)
They do work. But people will spontaneously make up conspiracy theories over anything if given the opportunity.
See for example conspiracy theories lacking any evidence whatsoever that Zuckerberg and co want you personally dead/poor/enslaved/sick/whatever. The parsimonious answer is that they want to be rich(er) and see you as a revenue source alone. The conspiracy theory is they're out to get you because reasons.
It's just human nature to seek narrative explanation for messy random reality. We have libraries
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While I think you have a point, especially about how badly things were handled during COVID, the nature of conspiracy theorists is such that just about anything will set them off. So while I agree we should act sensibly, I don't think walking on eggshells to avoid setting of conspiracy theorists
Re: Vaccines work (Score:1)
I didn't mean to imply it was sufficient, but I do believe it to be necessary.
It's a lot harder to earn people's trust than to lose it. And a good way to lose trust fast is to throw in with the faction that tells people they're morally deficient for asking perfectly valid questions or for pointing out blatantly obvious errors in reasoning.
There will always be an Andrew Wakefield or an RFK Jr waiting in the wings. Don't act in ways that make them seem like the lesser evil.
Re:Vaccines work (Score:4, Interesting)
The Anti-vax movement started with a guy named Andrew Wakefield [wikipedia.org], a British doctor (at the time, he lost his license as a result), who faked up a very, very small (not) study indicating that MMR vaccines caused autism, because if he could discredit MMR vaccines, an alternative vaccine that was more expensive, that he had a financial interest in, had the potential to make him very, very wealthy.
Subsequent actual (peer reviewed) studies found zero connection between MMR (or any other) vaccines and autism, and eventually, investigators managed to identify most of the kids (there were only a dozen or two) mentioned in his fake study. Most of their parents were unaware their children were supposed to be autistic. When his connection to the alternate vaccine was uncovered, he lost his license.
But the anti-vax nonsense had taken on a life of its own by then.
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What I don't understand is, who is behind this push to spread the misinformation that vaccinations are harmful? I honestly can't see who benefits, but this is such a huge campaign somebody must be funding it. Who? Why?
It's insidious how Trump and RFK was able to take over the public healthcare for (check notes) the US, Canada, Spain and the UK. Canada's outbreak peaked at 6.4k btw, versus 5.4k for the US. Not vested enough to calculate the per capita for you.
Canada, Spain and the UK recently lost measles-elimination status after review by WHO experts....
No measles vaccination no public school (Score:2)
The money the school district doesn't pay in capitation fees goes to pay for the measles children who cannot get vaccinated get...
RFK Jr is On It (Score:2)
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If I see a rabbit on the highway (the calculus changes at residential street speeds), the only thing I do with the pedals is lift off the throttle and coast. The only thing I do with the steering is make sure I have both hands on the wheel. I'm not going to risk crashing over a bunny. If I miss, great. If I hit it, I'd rather hit it while retaining control over my vehicle.
On a residential street, I'd brake (and brake hard if there was nobody behind me) but I still wouldn't swerve. The same goes if it's some
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I believe the modern Republican term is:
"Alternative Protein"
USA USA USA (Score:5, Insightful)
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Canada (Score:4, Informative)
Canada lost its measles elimination status back in 2025, because we also have our share of anti-vax nutters. Luckily, however, we are trending in the right direction [canada.ca] in 2026. See the epidemiological curve in the linked page.
We can't relax our pressure against the anti-vax nutters, though.
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What are the races of the people with measles?
White as mayonnaise https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/mea... [umn.edu] Why do you ask?
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There's been anti-vaxers around for decades, and RFK Jr. suddenly becoming the Secretary of HHS can't just 'wave his hands' and make this happen.
What happened in Canada, Spain, the UK, and US have in common over the past few years that could be part of the reason for this?
Could unchecked illegal immigration have anything to do with it? Nah, couldn't be.
A few million of third-world 'refugees' entering these countries couldn't possibly contribute to this, right? Or are we just too politically correct to ignore it?
It's dumbass white Christians in Canada. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada... [www.cbc.ca]
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Re-read what you wrote and think about it. Of course illegal immigrants have a higher vaccination rate than the group of people who are actively against vaccinations. Every group will have a higher vaccination rate than a group of people who 100% don't vaccinate.
Now, if you said that illegal immigrants have a higher vaccination rate than the U.S. population as a whole, then your statement would be more significant.
Has no effect (Score:2)
Sorry, it's not about immigrants; there have been some migrant-related measles outbreaks but they've been small -- not surprising, as the surrounding population is generally vaccinated. It's not about RFK Jr either, as the loss of elimination status for Canada, the UK, and Spain should tell you. I'm pretty sure none of them have RFK Jr in office.
It is about religious people, but the connotation of "extremist" doesn't fit these groups. We're not talking fire-and-brimstone televangelists nor "snake handler