The main thing to know: MMR vaccines are highly effective and provide long-lasting protection. Outbreaks occur mainly among unvaccinated individuals. But here's more about boosters, young children, infection-induced immunity and transmission.
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The stakes are high: The U.S. is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in decades.
As measles outbreaks continue across the country, Democrats in the New York state legislature have created a solution to the ever-increasing problem of uninformed parents creating unvaccinated children: Let the kids choose.
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Jimmy feels that all of this anti-vaccination silliness is starting to snowball, so he invited some real doctors to address it. These are actual medical professionals so hear them out and then decide for yourself.
Measles, like polio and smallpox, is a horrible disease - it's still a major killer of young children in the developing world. The creation of a vaccine was widely welcomed. Measles is so contagious that it is used as the indicator disease to show deficits in immunization coverage of all vaccine-preventable diseases-which means the problem goes well beyond measles. We are now seeing outbreaks of whooping cough in the US, mumps in Britain and tuberculosis more widely.
Anti-vaxxers, your children don’t catch measles and then take it home like a jar of fireflies to enjoy alone or with a few close friends. Instead, they may unwittingly spread it to babies, people with certain medical issues, and a small percentage of the people who have done all they can to try to protect themselves but in whom the vaccine doesn’t work.
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