Just two months into 2019 and the US has already had more measles cases than the whole of 2017 . Theroot suit of this – you guessed it – is misformation and myths about vaccine .
According to the latest statistics from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention , 2019 has already seen 159 individual morbilli cases in 10 commonwealth , more or less 50 pct of which were connect to one eruption around near Clark County in Washington commonwealth and Portland , Oregon .
By comparison , there were just 120 cases in 2017 and 86 slip in 2016 .
TheUS Committee on Energy & Commercegathered inCapitol Hillon Wednesday to talk about the “ growing public health scourge ” of measles outbreaks in the US ( video below ) mention “ vaccinum hesitancy ” and the rise of misinformation as one of the quality factors behind the ugly resurgence .
“ What is particularly upsetting , is that this is a public wellness problem for which science has already bring home the bacon a solution : a safe and in force vaccine,”saidChairman Frank Pallone , Democratic Representative for New Jersey .
He pass on to fault misinformation and myth as the primary cause of the growing number of cases , citing the part social medium plays in perpetuate awe about the measles , mumps , and rubella ( MMR ) vaccine . entree to vaccines in the US is also a divisor , he added , albeit to a lesser extent .
societal media giants , such as YouTube and Facebook , have recently hail under fire fortheir role in the spread of anti - vaxxer propaganda . In response , YouTube say they woulddemonetize anti - vaxxer video , mention a ban on “ severe and harmful ” cloth .
This hebdomad ’s hearing at Congress recognized that the remedy to the public health threat is to provide communities and parents with " substantial , skill - based data " about the safety and importance of inoculation .
“ Before the measles vaccine was developed in 1963 , there were half - a - million cases of the measles being reported every year to the CDC , 48,000 people a twelvemonth were being post to the infirmary and , as a result , as many as 500 people a year died as a result , ” Chair Diana DeGette said in anopening statement .
“ It was n’t until the development of the measles , mumps , and three-day measles vaccine – known as the MMR vaccine – that we , as a state , were able to stop this hideous sickness , ” she tot up .
“ But despite that succeeder , here we are again . ”
