Study shows refusing to vaccinate causes outbreaks. News at 11

That vaccines prevent illnesses, and that refusing to vaccinate leads to outbreaks, is something that’s so self-evident that anyone who’s too deep in an anti-reality zone to understand it isn’t going to be swayed by studies. But that won’t stop researchers from proving the obvious nonetheless:

People who don’t get vaccinated are the most likely reason for the steady increase in the rate of measles and major outbreaks in the United States, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

The findings, published in JAMA, add to the body of evidence linking failure to vaccinate with the spread of the highly infectious and potentially fatal disease. Once common in the United States, measles was eliminated nationally in 2000 but has made a return in recent years largely because of people who reject vaccinating their children, experts say.

[…]

In the latest findings, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed 1,789 measles cases among U.S. residents reported to the CDC from January 2001 through December 2015. They found that nearly 70 percent, or 1,243 individuals, were unvaccinated.

Babies and toddlers had the least protection. Of 163 infants ages 6 to 11 months who became sick, only two had been vaccinated. Among 106 toddlers ages 12 to 15 months, 95 were unvaccinated.

The very young, as well as the very old and the very ill (and the rare few who are genuinely allergic to vaccines), are the reason it’s crucially important that everyone who can vaccinate themselves and their children do so. Failure to do this not only puts their own health at risk, it endangers anyone around them who relies on herd immunity to keep them safe. Vaccines aren’t a personal choice; they’re a matter of public health.

As long as misinformed people put their refusal to vaccinate above public safety, these outbreaks will continue, and people, especially children, will die.

(via @radleybalko)