Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Irony Of The US Measles Outbreak

I'm sure you have heard of the measles outbreak which apparently started at Disney theme parks and now has spread to eight US states and Mexico:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/chi-science-parents-vaccinate-kids-measles-20150130-story.html


Well, in spite of all the whining about vaccines, even the CDC now admits that the source of this outbreak is somewhere outside the US; i.e., the infection was brought into the US by one or more infected persons:


http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/disney-measles-outbreak-came-overseas-cdc-says-n296441


As you may or may not realize, most of the original inhabitants of North America, the so-called "Indians", were killed by infections given to them by European immigrants. One of the most common of these infections was measles:


When the Europeans arrived, carrying germs which thrived in dense, semi-urban populations, the indigenous people of the Americas were effectively doomed. They had never experienced smallpox, measles or flu before, and the viruses tore through the continent, killing an estimated 90% of Native Americans.


http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html


Although 17th-18th century medicine was primitive by today's standards, people back then realized what was happening and knew that the diseases they carried were killing the Indians. What did they do in response?


Just what we're now doing ... they refused to use the only effective method known to them - QUARANTINE - and continued to immigrate, mix with the Indians, even sometimes giving them contaminated articles to help kill them off.


Now here's the true irony of this comparison: the number of Indians killed this way may have been as high as 16 million (90% of an estimated 18 million), and yet our ancestors were not really concerned about what was happening. Yet today fewer than 100 people have been infected in this measles outbreak, NONE have died, and we're crying like a baby stuck with a pin over the fact that a few people didn't want their kids to get vaccinated.


Jeez!

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