The scariest fact about the Disneyland measles outbreak
You don’t get vaccinated just to protect yourself. You do it to protect others.
Six of the cases were in infants too young to have been vaccinated.
Six of the cases were in infants too young to have been vaccinated.
Six of the cases were in infants too young to have been vaccinated.
Six of the cases were in infants too young to have been vaccinated.
“The measles vaccine is not licensed for use on babies younger than 12 months. That means that, for the first year of life, babies depend on the fact that everybody else around them gets vaccinated. This essentially creates a firewall: if other people are vaccinated, they won’t catch the disease — and won’t spread it to young children who cannot get protection.
This is what scientists call “herd immunity,” and its a huge reason we get vaccines in the first place. The shots aren’t just about protecting ourselves from measles, mumps, the flu, or other diseases. They’re about making it really hard for those who are medically frail (like the elderly) and those who can’t get the vaccine (often babies and pregnant women) to catch a disease that could be devastating to them. The vaccinated people form something like a fence around the vulnerable people, making it extra hard for the disease to come in.”
This is why everyone who CAN safely be vaccinated NEEDS to be vaccinated.
Not vaccinating for religious reasons, or because of misleading, debunked, ableist “concerns” about the “safety” of vaccines is horrific, unethical, and dangerous to everyone who comes in contact with you.
Measles is the reason I have astigmatism. (Well, measles promptly followed by chicken pox.) Got `em before I could get vaccinated and now I wear corrective lenses all the time.
People want to forget that these are diseases that can have permanent, negative effects on others, because “oh, vaccination is my choice.” Well, you’re not just choosing disability, disfigurement, and possible death for your children. You’re choosing it for the children of others.
Cut it the fuck out.
This is a thing too:
The most remarkable thing about the virus, however, is that it’s incredibly indestructible. A person with measles can cough in a room, leave, and — if you were unvaccinated — hours later, you can catch the virus from the droplets in the air that they left behind. No other virus can do that. It also lives on surfaces for hours, finding new hosts in the unimmunized.