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.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The virus practically disappeared in Europe during the COVID-19 lockdowns, but “the overall number of measles cases in the EU/EEA has been steadily increasing since June 2023,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its latest weekly threats report.
Last December, the country’s health ministry declared a national measles epidemic following a worrying rise in cases and a high number of hospitalisations among infected children.
Since the announcement, four unvaccinated people - three babies and one adult - died due to measles, according to local media and the National Institute of Public Health.
The UK’s health authorities warned last Friday that the surge in the West Midlands could spread to other towns and cities unless urgent action is taken to boost vaccination uptake.
“With vaccine uptake in some communities so low, there is now a very real risk of seeing the virus spread in other towns and cities,” said Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA.
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, according to the WHO, and “can cause severe disease, complications, and even death”.
The original article contains 700 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The majority of people refusing the measles jab also unlikely to have their biology homework copied. Not a coincidence.
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 surprised it was a Walgreens: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2022/07/21/walgreens-pharmacy-birth-control-condoms/10110827002/
The big pharmacy chains are all bad, each in their own special way. I’m fortunate to have a few small independent pharmacies to choose from. The one I go to is no nonsense, and I’ve never waited more than five minutes, and they know my name. Support them while you can.
I’ve had a doctor at a COVID vaccination station trying to talk me out of it. He said that with my age and three prior vaccinations there’s absolutely no benefit. After a few statements like that he admitted that he was required to allow anyone who really insists to get it, though. So that’s what I did.
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.
It’s like a mechanic that doesn’t believe in electricity
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.
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.
Not thoroughly tested vaccine; she is in precisely zero high risk groups. But, not that it’s his business, she lives with me and her mother. We both wouldn’t be the best candidates for covid or any of the seasonal infections. The funny thing is my daughter saw the flu shot marketing piece at the photo department register!
I think “not thoroughly tested” is code for anti-vax. Big overstep for a pharmacist. That’s between you and your physician, but here we are.
Being in a statistically low risk category does not necessarily mean that you won’t get very sick. It just means you’re more likely to be okay, but there’s no guarantees. You know unless you have the vaccine.
The categories made sense when the vaccine was in limited supply, but when it’s not in limited supply the categories are literally irrelevant. You don’t perform triage all of the time.
damn, i really hope a someone invents a vaccine for that soon…
Our medical technology is too good at this point, we can keep the majority of the disease spreaders alive to continue spreading disease on purpose. A sad consequence of technological advancement.
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 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.
It has mostly to do with this cunt. If you want to blame one person for this whole vaccine conspiracy bullshit, it’s him.
I’m more likely to blame various governments for failing to properly fund the NHS so that outreach programs can support young mothers pre/post giving birth, and providing the information about how and when to vaccinate their kids.
Otherwise they’re implicitly being told to “so their own research”.
As with any vaccine, it only lowers the risk of catching it, it doesn’t eliminate it.
Depends on how long it’s been. It was thought the series you got as a child was sufficient, but some people lose their immunity in the ensuing decades. Older people are sometimes getting another dose of their titers are low, but I don’t know the process to get those levels drawn.
Yeah I had to get some titers when I worked in a hospital and my measles immunity had already fallen below acceptable levels after just twenty years.
Went in, got a booster and a flu shot the same day, done.
Did we confuse a battle for a war with these diseases?
It’s been downgraded to a police action.
Ah, so we’ll go “sorry mate, no idea who he is” even with crystal clear CCTV and nothing will happen?
Who am I kidding… They don’t even turn up.
Maybe maybe having laws and regulations controlling misinformation on social media would be a great thing. Social media have to be accountable for it with huge fines.
A social media isn’t free speech or freedom of speech, it’s in most case a private company making profits. When someone post something on Facebook or whatever else, it’s cognitive work so meta in this case can make profits out of it. It’s fine to regulate them on what can and can’t be show to the user. These services aren’t the street.
The other important point is to educate people in the schools. We need programs of education to vaccination. It’s not magic. Virus and bacteria are still around. We didn’t magically kill them with vaccination. We are immune to them being around thanks to vaccines. Next to this, we have to educate on how we develop them too.
An other point is mandatory and free vaccination. Vaccines are too important for the human health. We can’t afford people not vaccinating their kids.
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.
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.
Andrew Wakefield strikes again I see.
Measles vaccines have always been free in the UK and probably elsewhere too, if your kid gets measles it’s your fault.
