Vaccines - 2009/02/20 18:50
We had a discussion of MMR vaccine this morning with Michael Foerster. Michael sent me a couple of old news paper clippings to illustrate his point of view. Several listeners were of a different mind altogether.
MEASLES CASES DROP SHARPLY IN NATION
By BAYARD WEBSTER Published: April 25, 1981
The number of measles cases reported in the United States so far this year is 80 percent below the comparable period last year, a drop so dramatic that the Federal Centers for Disease Control predicts that, except for imported cases, the disease will be eliminated by the end of 1982.
125 Fatalities Was Expected
So far the data include only one measles fatality this year. ''To show how far we have come,'' Dr. Bloch said, ''in the same period before the vaccine we would have expected about 125 deaths. Now it looks as though we can totally eliminate measles as a cause of death in the United States.''
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Michael Foerster
Expert Boarder
Re:Vaccines - 2009/02/21 21:48
Let's extend the numbers from 1980 to today.
The measles vaccine has (back of the envelope estimate) saved around 200,000 LIVES!
The measles vaccine has saved more lives than the total number of folks who live in Grand Traverse, Antrim, Leelanau, Benzie, and Kalkaska counties, PLUS another 35,000 visiting tourists!
That's 200,000 families that didn't have to bury their babies.
And it's saved hundreds of millions of people who didn't have to deal with the disruption of having a member of the family really sick, and in quarantine for a month.
And that's just the measles vaccine - think of the great service to humanity, as other vaccines have all but eliminated many other diseases that for the history of mankind have been a scourge - polio, whooping cough, small pox, etc, etc, etc....
Those who not learn history are doomed to repeat it. It wouldn't take too much to return to the bad ol' days - where disease crippled kids by the boatload. Iron lungs, leg braces, and a world where too many kids do not live to adulthood.
Is that what we want? Is that the future we wish for our kids?
~Michael
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