As a deadly measles outbreak continued to kill children in Samoa, antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. His deceptive pseudoscientific talking points became the template for antivaxers seeking to deflect blame from themselves.
Last week, there was a small chickenpox outbreak at a Marysville High School in my state. Unvaccinated students were sent home. Now antivaxers are protesting. Same as it ever was.
Measles has arrived in the form of an outbreak on Oakland County, MI. That’s too close for comfort to Orac. Way, way too close for comfort.
It seems as though I have to write a post like this every year or two, as measles outbreaks keep raging and children keep getting sick and even dying. I feel obligated to “thank” the primary author of this misery, the man whose scientific fraud and other efforts have fueled antivaxers’ fear of the MMR vaccine. So thanks Andrew Wakefield. Thanks for the measles. Again. In 2018.
Beginning a little over a year ago, Romania has been enduring a massive measles outbreak. The cause is familiar: Low MMR uptake below what is needed for herd immunity. Is this a warning to the US?
