With a “national incident” over measles in the UK, what’s the situation in Europe?
Europe is experiencing an “alarming rise” in measles cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday, with a more than 30-fold rise across the region in 2023.
More than 30,000 measles cases were reported by 40 of the WHO European region’s 53 member states between January and October last year, compared to 941 cases in 2022.
The increase in the number of cases is compounded by the hospitalisation of 21,000 people and five measles-related deaths.
damn, i really hope a someone invents a vaccine for that soon…
I feel like the only thing that could sound like a more British way to describe an alarming measles outbreak than “national incident” is “a National spot of bother”
Killing your own babies for literally no reason. Well done, humanity.
Let’s call it a testament to natural selection. A fine scientific reminder for those paying attention.
Wow, so glad so many people are dOinG ThEiR oWN rESeArcH.
I swear to god, we are going to be our own Great Filter.
A fucking pharmacist tried to talk my daughter out of the latest COVID vaccine (which I guess is its own thing and not just a booster). Wtf? This was at Walgreens. I’m proud of my kid, though.
Not that it’s anyone’s business, but what in the world was the pharmacist’s argument?
Probably not old enough to be in the at risk group is my guess… Everything we do has risk, and the vaccine itself is not risk free - are you more likely to have side effects from the vaccine, or from catching covid19?
The latter. This has been actively studied extensively over the past three years. There are minor potential risks from the vaccine (and from any vaccine, since the point is to cause an immune response), but I’d rather take my chances with side effects of my immune system reacting to a pretend infection than having to deal with the real one.
Even for 16yo? They’re told not to get a booster here in Australia as too young.
FWIW I’ve done 7, chasing the XBB but apparently they won’t give it to me here as I’m too young… 🤷🏻♀️
16 year olds can still have major negative long-covid complications from being infected.
Holy shit, for real?
In your shoes, I’d be filing a complaint. An antivaxer has precisely zero business being a pharmacist (or any medical professional). It’s like a mechanic who doesn’t believe in using antifreeze - yeah, most of the time it’s gonna be ok, but it’s gonna straight up not work in multiple completely feasible situations where a normally maintained car would work great.
Unfortunately, a fair number of people in medicine-adjacent fields that have less requirements on having knowledge on biology and vaccines, such as nurses and pharmacists, are anti-vaxxers.
Sure, but if they’re actively spreading disinformation they should be fired - and if they aren’t fired but actively defended then those people should be fired. It’s not unreasonable to assume that pharmacies need to employ people who don’t actively oppose public healthcare.
Pre-covid it looks like the numbers were 12k-71k. This is 2x the rate of the late teens. Still bad, but statistics around abnormal events are fucky.
If I have the measles vaccine do I need to worry about this or can I just laugh while nature corrects itself
I super understand the urge to laugh but then I think of all the babies, cancer victims, organ transplant recipients, and immunocompromised children who cannot get the vaccine and are now at significantly greater risk than a decade ago thanks to anti science wingnuts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0h815h8
The BBC More or Less podcast looked into it. The problem existed pre COVID and is likely more related to cuts in healthcare funding than anyone being anti vaccines.
It’s more about access and support.
