How many measles deaths have there been in the United States in the past ten years? Dr. Bob Sears has frequently said that there have been none.
It is easy to see that Dr. Bob is wrong, not even counting the latest death in 2015 2019.
Measles Deaths in the United States
Measles deaths are thought to occur in about 1 in every 500 to 1,000 reported cases. This is not just in developing countries or in people with chronic medical conditions.
Consider that in an outbreak in the United States from 1989 to 1991, amid 55,622 cases, there were 123 deaths.
More recently, measles cases and measles deaths in the United States include:
- 2000 – 86 cases – 1 measles death (infant) – endemic spread of measles eliminated in U.S.
- 2001 – 116 cases – 1 measles death
- 2002 – 44 cases
- 2003 – 55 cases – 1 measles death (1 year old)
- 2004 – 37 cases – record low number of measles cases
- 2005 – 66 cases – 1 measles death (1 year old)
- 2006 – 55 cases
- 2007 – 43 cases
- 2008 – 140 cases
- 2009 – 71 cases – 2 measles deaths
- 2010 – 63 cases – 2 measles deaths
- 2011 – 220 cases
- 2012 – 55 cases – 2 measles deaths
- 2013 – 187 cases (large outbreak in New York City – 58 cases)
- 2014 – 667 cases (the worst year for measles since 1994, including the largest single outbreak since the endemic spread of measles was eliminated – 377 cases in Ohio)
- 2015 – 188 cases – got off to a strong start with a big outbreak in California – 1 measles death
- 2016 – 86 cases
- 2017 – 120 cases
- 2018 – 375
- 2019 – 1,282 cases – 1 measles death (the worst year for measles since 1992, including the longest and largest single outbreaks since the endemic spread of measles was eliminated)
- 2020 – 13 cases
So that’s 12 measles deaths since 2000 and at least 9 measles deaths since 2005.
One of the last deaths, a woman in Clallam County in Washington, was exposed in an outbreak of mostly unvaccinated people in 2015. The other, a 37-year-old who died with meningitis during the 2019 measles outbreaks.
Why do people say that there have been no measles deaths in the United States in the past 10 years? Whether they are misinformed or intentionally trying to misinform people, they are wrong.
The Last Verifiable Measles Death in the United States
The CDC is actually contributing a bit to the confusion over measles deaths, in that when asked, they have historically said that “the last verifiable death in the United States from acute measles infection occurred in 2003 when there were 2 reported deaths.”
They explain the discrepancy between that statement and other CDC reports, like the recently published “Summary of Notifiable Diseases — United States, 2012,” which clearly documents measles deaths in 2005, 2009, and 2010, by saying that those reports are based on “statistical information about deaths in the United States.”
But that statistical information comes from death certificates that are sent in from all over the United States to the National Vital Statistics System. The system isn’t like VAERS, where just anyone can send in a report. You don’t necessarily have to be a doctor to sign and file a death certificate though either, which is why the CDC is probably hung up on saying that the last verifiable measles deaths were in 2003.
To be more precise when talking about measles deaths in the United States, since it doesn’t seem like the CDC has verified each and every measles death after 2003, it is likely best to say that death certificates have been filed in 2005, 2009 (2), 2010 (2), and 2012 (2) that listed measles as a cause of death code.
Of course, that still means that there have been measles deaths in the United States since 2003, especially now that the CDC actually states that “the last measles death in the United States occurred in 2015.”
Of course, that doesn’t include the last measles death in 2019…
SSPE – More Measles Deaths
Lately, in addition to deaths from acute measles infections, there have been even more deaths from subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE).
About 6 to 8 years after having measles, children with SSPE develop progressive neurological symptoms, including memory loss, behavior changes, uncontrollable movements, and even seizures. As symptoms progress, they may become blind, develop stiff muscles, become unable to walk, and eventually deteriorate to a persistent vegetative state.
Children with SSPE usually die within 1 to 3 years of first developing symptoms, including in the United States:
- 2000 – 5 SSPE deaths
- 2001 – 2 SSPE deaths
- 2002 – 5 SSPE deaths
- 2003 – 0
- 2004 – 1 SSPE death
- 2005 – 2 SSPE deaths
- 2006 – 3 SSPE deaths
- 2007 – 3 SSPE deaths
- 2008 – 3 SSPE deaths
- 2009 – 2 SSPE deaths
- 2010 – 0
- 2011 – 4 SSPE deaths
- 2012 – 1 SSPE death
- 2013 – 1 SSPE death
- 2014 – 0
- 2015 – 1 SSPE death
- 2016 – 0
- 2017 – 0
- 2018 – 2 SSPE deaths
- 2019 – 1 SSPE death
That’s 35 SSPE deaths since 2000 and at least 22 SSPE deaths since 2005. Why so many? Many of them can likely be attributed to the large number of cases associated with measles outbreaks from 1989 to 1991.
Fortunately, as the number of measles cases has been dropping in the post-vaccine era, so have the number of SSPE deaths.
The National Registry for SSPE, reported that there were at least 453 cases between 1960 and 1976. There were 225 deaths from SSPE between 1979 and 1998. The registry wasn’t established until 1969 though, and it is now becoming clear that the risk of developing SSPE is much higher than once thought.
A recent study of measles in Germany has found that the risk of developing SSPE is about 1 in 1,700 to 1 in 3,300 cases of measles.
Other Myths About Measles Deaths
One of the classic measles myths we hear is that measles was disappearing even before the measles vaccine was developed. It is true that measles deaths had been dropping since the turn of the century.
The measles death rate (deaths per 100,000 people) in the United States was:
- 1900 – 13.3 (about 7000 deaths)
- 1910 – 12.4
- 1920 – 8.8
- 1930 – 3.2
- 1935 – 3.1
- 1940 – 0.5
- 1945 – 0.2
- 1950 – 0.3 (468 deaths)
- 1955 – 0.2 (345 deaths)
- 1960 – 0.2 (380 deaths)
- 1963 – first measles vaccine licensed
- 1965 – 0.1 (276 deaths)
- 1970 – 0.0 (89 deaths)
- 1975 – 0.0 (20 deaths)
- 1980 – 0.0 (11 deaths)
- 1985 – 0.0 (4 deaths)
That’s not surprising though. The general death rate had dropped from 17.8 in 1900 to 7.6 in 1960. For infants under age 12 months, the death rate dropped from 162.4 in 1933 to 27 in 1960.
This simply reflects that vaccines were not the only medical technology that helped to save lives in the 20th century and not that measles was already disappearing. Penicillin, insulin, vitamin D, blood typing (allows transfusions of blood that has been typed and cross-matched), dialysis machines, and mechanical ventilators were all discovered in the early 1900s.
If you notice though, the death rate for measles got stuck after the 1940s at about 0.2 to 0.3, even as modern medicine continued to advance. That’s about 300 to 500 measles deaths each year in the United States. This was after World War II and through the 1950s and early 1960s, hardly a time of poor hygiene or poor nutrition or when Americans were without access to medical care.
It took about 20 years for those deaths to start dropping again, and it took the coming of the measles vaccine to do it.
So if we stop vaccinating, we won’t get to 7,000 measles deaths a year again in the United States. Modern medicine has improved a great deal since 1900. We would eventually get to about 320 to 960 measles deaths a year though (using our current population of 320 million people and a measles death rate between 0.1 and 0.3).
Other Facts About Measles Deaths
People still die of measles.
What else do you need to know about measles deaths?
- SSPE is caused by wild type measles. Vaccine strain measles has never been found in the brain tissue of anyone who has ever died of SSPE.
- Although SSPE was first described by Dr. James R. Dawson, JR as a new type of epidemic encephalitis in 1933 (Dawson’s disease), that it is a late complication of a natural measles infection wasn’t discovered until much later.
- People have recently died of measles in other industrial countries too. Basically anywhere there have been measles outbreaks, there have been measles deaths, including Canada, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and France, etc.
- Worldwide, about 400 people die each and every day from measles.
The latest measles deaths we have been hearing about?
Dozens of infants, children, and adults, almost all unvaccinated have died in large outbreaks since the beginning of 2016 in Europe.
Worldwide, measles again surged in 2019, reaching the highest number of reported cases in 23 years. And that came with a record number of deaths too. Worldwide, over 207 500 people died with measles in 2019, with measles deaths jumping nearly 50 percent since 2016.
What To Know about Measles Deaths
Measles is still deadly, even in this era of modern medicine, sanitation and good nutrition.
More on Measles Deaths
- The Myth That Measles Isn’t Deadly
- Who Dies with Measles?
- How Many People Die from Vaccine Preventable Diseases These Days?
- Did Better Hygiene and Sanitation Get Rid of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases?
- Everything You Need to Know About the Measles Vaccine
- What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Measles?
- WHO – Worldwide measles deaths climb 50% from 2016 to 2019 claiming over 207 500 lives in 2019
- CDC – What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations?
- Yep, measles is still a killing disease
- Measles Doesn’t Kill, Except When It Does
- A Death from Measles
- Cruel delayed death from measles
- sadly – another: Aliana has SSPE
- Yep, measles is still a killing disease
- SSPE: A Deadly and Not-That-Rare Complication of Measles
- Yes, California children are dying of measles. Today. It’s called SSPE.
- 35 Measles Deaths in Europe in 12 Month Period
- ECDC – Epidemiological update: Measles – monitoring European outbreaks
- CDC – Summary of Notifiable Diseases — United States, 2012.
- CDC Wonder. About Underlying Cause of Death, 1999-2016
- Study – Epidemiology of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) in Germany from 2003 to 2009: a risk estimation.
- Study – Epidemiology of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). A report of the SSPE registry.
- Notes from the Field: Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis Death — Oregon, 2015
- Measles is not better than autism: Debunking anti-vaccine arguments
i see….so almost no one dies from the measles, yet we’re all forced to get vaccinated. yup, makes sense.
There were 35 measles deaths in EUROPE IN 2017. Population 740 Million people.
Update is that there were 72 deaths from measles in Europe in 2017. Add in those from SSPE and you will get into treble figures.
And why is SSPE included with measles? Is it another attempt in inflating numbers to make a point?
Do you know what SSPE is?
Yes, and there are two points :
– There are multiple causes, and not just the black & white vaccinated-or-unvaccinated.
– Vaccinated also get it, usually in higher proportion relative to the overall population.
If SSPE is only (or mostly) a complication of measles, then it’s even more rare. It’s like saying influenza is deadly because of rare cases of pneumonia that result in death. It also doesn’t consider the type of immunity, nor the type of treatment received along with the condition.
Source? How many countries are we talking? Any of them not first world?
Insane right? It’s almost like the vaccine is working as intended.
It wasn’t intended to kill/injure millions, but it does.
35k people a year die in car accidents. Way more then the scary 11 deaths from measles in the last 19 years. And I bet everyone petrified of measles and wanted to force vaccinate everyone gets in a car everyday with their kids.
The point about measles is that it is entirely preventable.
But if you want to play the numbers game, I’ll bite… 600,000 die from cancer each year, so that’s “way more scary” than the 30,000 who die in car accidents, right?
So to be logical, I expect you to start arguing that there should be no seatbelts, airbags, ABS, roll-bars, speed limits or any vehicle safety measures whatsoever, just because “more people die from cancer”.
Car death are too entirely preventable! Don’t put your kids in a car!
Thirty thousand is more than 11.
Mike, when there are 30,000 measles deaths you can give us a call. The question I’d love for you to answer is why so much time, money, marketing dollars, etc goes into the measles vaccine when it only kills 11 Americans every 20 years. Why wouldn’t the great and glorious pharmaceutical and medical industries throw all that effort at things much more deadly? There’s a list of, oh I don’t know, 7,000 diseases and illnesses that kill more people and could desperately use the extra funds to find cures and treatments. But that doesn’t lead to big, quick, and easy profit now does it Mike?
Measles vaccine is causing outbreaks and here are studies that confirm that:
-Arch Intern Med. 1994 Aug 22;154(16):1815-20.
Failure to reach the goal of measles elimination. Apparent paradox of measles infections in immunized persons.
Poland GA1, Jacobson RM.
Conclusion: The apparent paradox is that as measles immunization rates rise to high levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons.
-Paper: The Re-Emergence of Measles in Developed Countries: Time to Develop the Next-Generation Measles Vaccines?
“The measles vaccine has failed,” he explained two years ago in a prescient paper, “The re-emergence of measles in developed countries.” In that paper, he warned that due to factors that most haven’t noticed, measles has come back to be a serious public health threat. Poland sees the need for a major rethink, after concluding that the current measles vaccine is unlikely to ever live up to the job expected of it: “outbreaks are occurring even in highly developed countries where vaccine access, public health infrastructure, and health literacy are not significant issues. This is unexpected and a worrisome harbinger — measles outbreaks are occurring where they are least expected,”
Dr. Gregory Poland is Professor of Medicine and founder and leader of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group. Poland is one of the world’s most admired, most advanced thinkers in the field of vaccinology.
-Study titled, “Outbreak of Measles Among Persons With Prior Evidence of Immunity, New York City, 2011,” Oxford Journal
Look the studies up.
Also read:
PLoS study: “Difficulties in eliminating measles and controlling rubella and mumps: a cross-sectional study of a first measles and rubella vaccination and a second measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination. China has one of the most vaccination compliant populations in the world. In fact, measles vaccine is mandatory. So why have they had over 700 measles outbreaks from 2009 and 2012 alone? “The reported coverage of the measles-rubella (MR) or measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is greater than 99.0% in Zhejiang province. However, the incidence of measles, mumps, and rubella remains high.
New study in Vaccine Journal:
An important new study published in the highly respected journal Vaccine titled, “Assessing measles vaccine failure in Tianjin, China,” brings back into the foreground the underreported paradox of measles outbreaks in some of the most highly vaccinated populations in the world:
-“Despite increasing global measles vaccination coverage, progress toward measles elimination has slowed in recent years. In China, children receive a measles-containing vaccine (MCV) at 8 months, 18– 24 months, and some urban areas offer a third dose at age 4–6 years. However, substantial measles cases in Tianjin, China, occur among individuals who have received multiple MCV doses.” The clear failure of the measles vaccine to generate herd immunity has caused major concern among public health officials in China.
The study reveals that vaccination coverage is as high as 97% for the 1st and 2nd dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV). The researchers hypothesized that,
“This study reveals that within a small subset of measles cases in Tianjin who have recorded vaccination history, there is a high burden of measles among those who have been vaccinated. As such, a vaccine effectiveness (VE) study may be warranted to explore potential reasons for these breakthrough cases.”
Exactly right it’s all about the money Sid’s stands for sudden immunization death syndrome
There have been over 100 deaths from the MMR Vaccine in the same time frame..
No true 🙂
Actually, I would say more then that. The number of deaths with SIDS is high
Everyone’s on here throwing out ‘stats’. Stats that are unverified and a lot of likely estimates.
Here’s a better question: can anyone provide even 1 link to a research paper that proves the efficacy of Vaccines? A paper that actually looks at long term effects of vaccines in a vaccinated population vs a non vaxxed?
People often look at the impeccably healthy Amish – but let’s go deeper and look at a scientific research paper.
Here’s a hint: you won’t find one.
went on pubmed and the studies that match vaccine efficacy are over 35,000 so yeah not JUST one.
Maybe go on Pubmed yourself and search about vaccin etc. They work as intended.
Double-blind placebo cohort studies do not exist for vaccination, unless maybe if you go back multiple decades. They compare numbers of shots, or two kinds of vaccines, but it’s never a comparison between vaccinated and non-vaccinated.
Jake, I agree. And this comment is for everyone too, even the Pro Vaxxers. I had to make that tough decision about vaccination regarding my daughter. Fortunately, I made the point of searching out two Great MD’s with an Alternative to the vaccine schedule and vaccination in general. Both of our Doctors contracted wild measles back in the late 70s as children and so did I. The only thing we gave my child was the Vit K shot, they really scared the s*#t out of us with all the bleeding brain nonsense and I didn’t feel comfortable administering Vitamin K drops. She’s beautiful, healthy and four years old . We also have her on a good diet, she takes a great organic multi vitamin. A probiotic since she was 2 weeks old, Dha supplement and D3 in the winter. My wife did not get any of the Doctor recommended prenatal vaccines, followed a detailed plan of nutrition and supplements for each trimester. My wife breastfed or gave gave my daughter breastfed milk and supplemented it with a grass fed powdered goat milk formula from Austria. Now we have to bust our butts to circumvent the system so she could go to school without getting her vaccines thanks to a bunch of bought-and -paid-for Legislators, the pharma-embedded Media and a bunch of irrational inexperienced bloggers and their even more ignorant followers. who just had to read , study and research the Manufactures’ Real, not Patient , Package inserts to feel confident that a decision to vaccinate is irresponsible.But instead of doing their own pain-staking research , they chose to join this religious-like ProVax I will post the links that I am referring to in a bit. Thanks a lot idiots.
7o,000 over 70 thousands people died in the us in2017 of fentanyl overdoses up from 35 thousand in 2016 how about we not give our children drugs from birth on. If you have the right to kill babies after their born. We should have the right to not pump ours full of animal cells and cells from the babies you kill.
There are no foreign animal cells or infant tissue cells in vaccines. That’s just your ignorance, wilful I’m guessing since you don’t seem the type that likes to have your precious preconceived notions challenged with fact.
I’m not going to bother to argue with you further because you’re one of those people.
I will only say this. I bet you’re fully vaccinated. Also, vaccines meant you didn’t get polio, but maybe nature should make an exception for you (that means I think anti-vaxxer people should be infected with polio to let nature take its course).
Um. Wow? Fentanyl is related to the prevention of childhood infectious diseases with vaccination how? We’ll ignore that. Vaccines are not drugs. We are not giving them drugs. No one kills babies after they’re (notice: “they’re” — you do want to be convincing, right?) And your babies are breathing great gobs of “animal” germs from the first breath they draw to the last. I’m pretty sure you’re pumping them full of animal cells on a regular basis. We call it food, though. Just sayin’. And the human cells that are used to grow the viruses are no longer from aborted fetuses. That has not been the case for over 50 years. I don’t understand why people who don’t read offer opinions. It’s just too easy to discount you.
Hey Tim, guess Tallicat missed this one.
From the CDC website-vaccine ingredient link: CDC.GOV
Vaccine Excipient & Media study:
Notes for Tallicat:
-MRC-5 (Medical Research Council cell strain 5) is a diploid human cell culture line composed of fibroblasts derived from lung tissue of a 14 week old aborted caucasian male fetus.
MRC-5 – Wikipedia
–Vero Cells (from African green monkeys)
—MSG (known excitotoxin when injected)
…and then let’s throw in a little Thimerosal(ethyl-mercury) just for fun in their recommended Flu shot.
Just chose some of the ones that are on the CDC’s Children’s Recommended Vaccine Schedule: Hope you already ate!
Varicella (Varivax)
Refrigerator Stable
MRC-5 human diploid cells, including DNA & protein, sucrose, hydrolyzed gelatin, sodium chloride, monosodium L-glutamate, urea, sodium phosphate dibasic, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium chloride, neomycin, bovine calf serum.
Tdap (Adacel)
aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde, 2-phenoxyethanol, Stainer-Scholte medium, casamino acids, dimethyl-beta-cyclodextrin, glutaraldehyde, modified Mueller-Miller casamino acid medium without beef heart infusion, ammonium sulfate, modified Mueller’s growth medium
Frozen
MRC-5 human diploid cells, including DNA & protein, sucrose, hydrolyzed gelatin, sodium chloride, monosodium L-glutamate, sodium phosphate dibasic, sodium phosphate monobasic, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium chloride, EDTA, neomycin, fetal bovine serum
Polio (IPV – Ipol)
Eagle MEM modified medium, calf bovine serum, M-199 without calf bovine serum, vero cells (a continuous line of monkey kidney cells), phenoxyethanol, formaldehyde, neomycin, streptomycin, polymyxin B.
MMRV (ProQuad) (Frozen)
chick embryo cell culture, WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts, MRC-5 cells, sucrose, hydrolyzed gelatin, sodium chloride, sorbitol, monosodium L-glutamate, sodium phosphate dibasic, human albumin, sodium bicarbonate, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium chloride; potassium phosphate dibasic, neomycin, bovine calf serum.
DTaP-IPV (Kinrix)
Fenton medium containing a bovine extract, modified Latham medium derived from bovine casein, formaldehyde, modified Stainer-Scholte liquid medium, glutaraldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells, Calf serum, lactalbumin hydrolysate, sodium chloride, polysorbate 80 (Tween 80), neomycin sulfate, polymyxin B
Influenza (Fluzone) Quadrivalent
formaldehyde, egg protein, octylphenol ethoxylate (Triton X-100), sodium phosphate- buffered isotonic sodium chloride solution, thimerosal (multi-dose) (Ethyl-Mercury)
To follow up on the comment by tjmarecki , the ingredient formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that causes myeloid leukemias. Personally, I would not want a known carcinogen that causes a blood cancer to be injected into my body, no matter how small the amount in the vaccine dosage! Neurotoxicity and other toxicities of many of the adjuvants and other ingredients in the vaccines have NOT been adequately tested to warrant injecting them into our bloodstreams.
7o,000 over 70 thousands people died in the us in2017 of fentanyl overdoses up from 35 thousand in 2016 how about we not give our children drugs from birth on. If you have the right to kill babies after their born. We should have the right to not pump ours full of animal cells and cells from the babies you kill.
Whats even more funny is not did this author list that of those people who did die with the measles, did not die “because” of the measles. They died of secondary complications. I.e. lung infections, low immune system or something else that was going on. Nor does this person mention how many of those people that did die were vaccinated because they almost all wre lmao…. Yes, and somehow “WE” and surly Dr. Bob are all idiots and dont do our research. Good thing for freedom of speech, maybe this person should look,I,to freedom of the library, or even google for that matter lmao!
I will resist the urge to edit your post for grammar, punctuation and plain common sense, mostly because it lends your post the credibility it deserves to leave it, replete with your ass laughed off. Not convinced by your “research.”
Really ACP? If grammar is so important to you then maybe you should move your A#s over to the Writer’s Digest Comment Board.
Hey wait ! I found a bunch of grammatical errors on the CDC and FDA’s sites. Hopefully, they will both have their a*#es laughed out of the Government.
And…it would be difficult to be “impressed” by latteme94’s “research” since he/she/something else only made a statement based on another’s observation. Although we shouldn’t be surprised that you didn’t recognize this , Pro-Vax and Research aren’t exactly synonymous.
Nor are they capitalized.
Nope. Fewer die b/c fewer are exposed b/c the rest of us who are vaccinated are protecting you. You, however, are putting at risk those who cannot be vaccinated. It’s a pity the disease doesn’t just target those who lack critical thinking skills.
I agree Angie, You should definitely get vaccinated then.
Herd immunity is a lie, more than half of the adult population is not up to date on their shots. We are all walking around basically unvaccinated. Do some research and try again. Have you ever considered that those that cannot be vaccinated (other than infants) got that way because of previous vaccines or vaccines their mothers received while pregnant? We don’t know and probably never will know the truth.
Yeah and over 80% of the people that get the measles were vaccinated! Works very well doesn’t it!
That is simply not correct. It is extremely rare to contract the virus from the vaccine. If you think so, you don’t know how they work, for starters, and you haven’t done sufficient research. All those cases were in individuals with compromised immune systems, but were not aware of it at the time. Even infection w/ HIV does not make you susceptible. It is a far cry fro 80%! That’s just a ridiculous number.
It seems like more people die from the flu?
Ralph, I’m assuming “almost no one” means SOMEONE died. So, unless that “someone” is YOUR loved one, it may not matter to YOU. I’m 100% sure it mattered to THEIR family. And if they were old enough to know what was happening, I’m sure it mattered to the one who was dying.
Yes, perfect logic. Don’t forget, it’s so incredibly contagious that on a bad year, there are about 1000 people who catch it!! (that’s like 0.000004% of US citizens) Not to mention that most people who die “from measles” already have dramatically compromised immune systems. Not to mention that something like 20%+ of people infected were already vaccinated against measles. I wish my business model required that every child in school had to receive 3 of whatever I’m selling. That’s good money.
I have a question: how can the reduction of measles deaths be related to the vaccine? Measles related deaths would be counted upon individuals’ contracting measles. The reduction in deaths attributed to measles can’t be credited to the vaccine.
The rate of infection went from 3.1/100K in 1935 to .2/100K in 1940 (or thereabouts). That’s 30 years before the vaccine. Before we freak out about the latest outbreak, let’s take a moment and consider the treatments and possible mitigations against spread.
So deb, why the debate? It’s confusing to me. Why did the deaths go down?
So why the vaccinations?
What do I do?
Can u please guide me?
Thanks.
Lies usually are confusing. Hopefully I can clarify this for you.
The article states: “1963 – first measles vaccine licensed” and then a gradual drop in measles related deaths (doesn’t mention number of vaccinated people – meaning we are missing any link between BEING vaccinated and protection from getting the measles. We are supposed to assume that). What is missing are the other inventions that came out. IV fluids became widely available in the 1950’s, acetaminophen/paracetamol was invented in 1956, and ibuprofen in 1962. Between the ’60’s and ’80’s, these fever reducers became more popular. (Not that they are perfect either.) High fevers and dehydration are usually what cause most complications in these types of diseases. We can now treat them at home with things like over the counter fever reducers and Pedialite. Seriously. All three of my kids are getting over the flu. They are 3, 5, and 8 years old. They slept a lot and didn’t eat much for a few days. However, they are recovering very well. I kept them home to avoid contact with anyone and I stayed away from people too in case I carried it. (I work from home and they are home schooled, so that was possible for us. I know that’s not the case for even most people.) I had the flu every year as a kid and my parents treated it the same way – fluids and fever reducers. (And I was fully vaccinated for everything on time as a kid – I was also sick all the time. Ear infections, flu, strep, bronchitis, seasonal allergies, digestive problems, etc. Some of these are listed side effects in the vaccine pamphlets. This is the first time any of my kids have ever had a fever or ear infection.)
The other thing that causes the most severe problems and is most likely to result in death from these diseases is encephalitis. However, this can usually be treated with antibiotics, which weren’t widely available until the 1940’s; this is where you see the biggest drop in measles cases – before the vaccine was invented. Severe brain swelling can now be treated by removing a piece of the skull in an emergency situation. (Also not ideal, but very rare). I couldn’t find the information on when this procedure was invented, but the first brain surgery wasn’t done until the early 1900’s – shortly after anesthesia and hand washing became a thing. And of course, brain surgery is complicated, so I’m sure the death rates were high in the beginning. Not to mention, they probably wouldn’t have even known about the brain swelling since CT Scans weren’t invented until 1972 (and x-rays aren’t great at seeing brain swelling). Not that these treatments are ideal or the only option, but they do usually address the problem at hand and side effects are temporary or less severe compared to death and even compared to some of the side effects caused by vaccines, like paralysis (not to mention, who knows what kind of other things they put or could put in there – it’s not like they have a history of transparency).
Did you not even read the article?
OMG. Start by talking to a DOCTOR, instead if an internet anti-vaxxer who tells you that you can treat a viral infection that induces encephalitis with anibiotics and brain surgery (like this is somehow preferable to a vaccine) for starters, and who decries the apparant lack of causation between decreased infection rates and the vaccine — all while offering personal anecdotal “evidence” of causation by pointing out that they were vaccinated and “sick all the time” with common childhood illnesses whose symptons coincidentally were similar to some vaccine side-effects, but which still failed to kill him but are offered as suggested causation for his illness. Stop getting advice from unqualified people on the internet. The only considerations are: do the vaccines work? Are the risks they pose worth it?
Measles deaths still are a function of the number of people who get measles.
>>”The rate of infection went from 3.1/100K in 1935 to .2/100K in 1940s”<<
No, that is the population mortality rate, as the article explained.
The INFECTION rate is the number of CASES of measles infection in the population. This rate has been constant, as before vaccination, almost everyone got measles.
Deaths were declining because of factors like better quality medical care, antibiotics to treat secondary infective complications, better nutrition etc. However, as the charts show, deaths had plateaued out at around 400 per year in the 1950s, because despite optimal nutrition, good medical care there will still be a proportion of measles cases who get untreatable, fatal complications such as encephalitis.
But since vaccination in the 1960s reduced cases to nearly zero, obviously deaths will drop to near zero also.
So, what you are saying is that the measles vaccine cannot 100% prevent death from the measles. Interesting!
No, what he is saying is that with universal vaccination, there will be no measles cases, so of course then you have no deaths. Didn’t you bother to read the article?
Well that’s completely false. That argument assumes a 100% efficacy rate in the vaccine, a percentage that has never even been dreamed of by any vaccine. The flu vaccine, even by the CDC’s own numbers (which are highly suspect to say the least), rarely breaks the 50-60% mark in efficacy.
@ Wally I am from the last generation to have been vaccinated for smallpox. You now have zero chance of contracting smallpox, like everyone in the whole wide world b/c we eliminated it for you. You’re welcome.
These are the known side effects of the MMR vaccine reported by the actual vaccine manufacturer. These numbers are in the thousands!! The number of “outbreaks” of measles compared to deaths is less than 1%. Yet the risk of side effects and other complications is much higher. Why is this such an argument? Why are people so quick to give up their rights because some “higher authority” says we should?
The CDC is a corporation that owns patents on vaccines. Wonder if they are biased in their opinions?
You mean side effects like mild swelling and soreness at the injection site? God forbid.
Oh my goodness!!! The ignorance is so mind blowing. Actually read the insert of all these drugs. And by the way, so many more children have been vaccine injured. That’s why congress wants to pass the law that nobody can sue anymore when their child is injured from vaccines. So some real research and you will find some real information.
Smallpox vaccine was effective in total elimination of Smallpox because the vaccine did not involve the Smallpox pathogen. Similar success cannot be achieved with the current Measles strategy, because the vaccine itself is keeping the pathogen alive – albeit “weakened”. As long as a live pathogen is used to vaccinate, a success like we saw with Smallpox will never be achieved.
Joe, I double-dog dare you to read the entire data sheet on ALL your medication. I”ll wait right here while you spend your pharmaceutically-enhanced lifespan recounting every, single reported side effect. Go ahead. What you call “higher authority,” the rest of us call “scientists.”
The CDC states that in the decade before 1963 there were 3-4 million measles infections, only approx. 500,000 reported. Of this there were between 450-500 deaths, that’s about 1 in 8,000. However, they go on to say that 1-2 deaths occur out of 1,000 infections. That means that if there were 4, 000,000 infections there should be 4,000 to 8,000 deaths, not 450-500. And as stated above there were 380 deaths in 1960 and 276 in 1965. If you check the VIERS web site there was 108 awards for measles vaccine deaths between 2005 and 2015 and they estimate that this figure may actually be only 1% of the actual reality. In other words there may be over 10,000 measles vaccine related deaths in the USA over that 10 year period. Let’s see, that’s over 1000 a year. Looks like the measles vaccine is killing far more now, than 3-4 million who were infected in 1960 that resulted in only 380 deaths. Let’s also look at the fact that Autism at that time was over 1 in 15,000 and now below 1 in 50. Not that vaccines may be the sole cause of autism. What about increased allergies and other auto immune diseases? Maybe injecting poison and aborted fetal tissue into our bodies are not a very good idea. Too bad you cannot sue the pharmaceutical companies for vaccine injury. Wow, real incentive to develop a safe product.
Quite a few errors of fact and interpretation there…
The CDC states the number of NOTIFIED cases were 500,000 per year and the number of NOTIFIED deaths were 500, giving a case fatality rate for reported infections of 1 in 1000.
But that doesn’t account for unreported cases and deaths, so the true figure would be roughly 1000 deaths in 3.5 million cases (a CFR of one in 3,500 cases). In Europe, the REPORTED case fatality is just below one in 1,000 (72 deaths in 80,000 cases in 2017) but again there will be under-reporting, and the true CFR is more likely to be one in 3 or 4 thousand.
The CDC doesn’t make it clear sometimes which figures are based just on reported cases and which on estimates. However, it is clearly wrong to derive a case fatality rate based on REPORTED deaths and ESTIMATED cases as you have done to arrive at a CFR of one in 1000.
The VAERS data are not verified as deaths due to vaccine [and VAERS is not a database of “awards”] and VAERS data should not be used to estimate rates of complications, as the website makes very clear.
Independent analysis of reports shows the majority are unrelated to vaccine, and only 3% were “definitely caused” by the vaccine, so there is a lot of over-reporting going on, as well as under-reporting. We also know from studies that serious vaccine reactions are far more likely to be reported than minor ones. One study showed over 50% of reactions like seizures or paralysis were reported, but fewer than 5% of reactions like rashes.
None of these “108 deaths” are medically confirmed as being due to vaccine, and even if they were, that would amount to fewer than 10 per year (while without vaccination there would still be 300-900 deaths per year from measles (as described in the article).
Please put source link from CDC on the number you provided. Would like to read the paper on that.
Thanks
It’s important to note that VAERS is self-reported and contains duplicates. Reporting deaths from measles is mandatory, as are known complications from vaccines. However: “What to Report to VAERS
Anyone who gives or receives a licensed vaccine in the U.S. is encouraged to report any significant health problem that occurs after vaccination. An adverse event can be reported even if it is uncertain or unlikely that the vaccine caused it. Reporting to VAERS helps scientists at CDC and FDA better understand the safety of vaccines.” In other words — these are unverified.
You can’t employ logic to support your argument and deny that same logic when it doesn’t suit your preferred version of the “truth”. Indeed, there is no irrefutable proof of causation for anything under the sun. There is no absolute proof that Measles cause any deaths whatsoever. It could be a coincidence that all those people were going to die at that time regardless of whether they had Measles. VAERS reports represent probably less than 1% of actual vaccine related deaths because of the dogmatic religious-like support for vaccines and our medical community refusal to recognize causation. The dogma of pro-vax people refusing to accept obvious causation is as logically flawed and at least as ridiculous as the crazy assertion that there’s no proof of any Measles caused deaths.
Please provide source links to the material you are quoting from because why make people dig for the information you have already looked up. Makes it look like you are just making statements.
Thanks
And how many recorded deaths from Measles vaccine? What over 400 in the US alone!! And 10,000s of injuries??! And not counting those 95% that go unrecorded or are listed as SIDS??!
Do you have links to real studies saying that? You won’t find one credible source because that’s not true.
VAERS has recorded 468 Measles vaccine related deaths. They can’t prove there are no errors in reporting. However, neither can they prove that Measles can cause death. Though strong repeated correlation is usually sufficient evidence, pro-vaccine sentiment and dogma keeps professionals from collecting the necessary evidence and deters the majority of actual cases from being reported in the first place. So I would agree that very likely, not all 468 of those cases were caused by the vaccine. I would also expect that even more likely, this number represents less than 10%, probably only 1% of actual vaccine related deaths. Most go unreported, and/or uninvestigated.
As P Lance Sheldon says, 468 reported deaths from the vaccine. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that 100% of deaths were reported, and that only 10% of those were actually caused by the vaccine. That makes 46 deaths. Compare that to the 12 who have died “from measles” in the last 20 years, and that would mean that the vaccine is over twice as deadly as measles itself. Something is wrong here. We could make all sorts of comparisons and compromises with this data. Say that the 468 deaths caused by the vaccine is an accurate number. Compare that to the 12 who died in the last 20 years… which is more dangerous? Do you have a greater chance of dying from the MMR vaccine or measles??? What about the other extreme? Let’s say that the 468 is only a small percentage of those who actually died from the vaccine. Maybe the actual number is closer to 4000?? Do you still recommend that ever man woman and child get the MMR vaccine? Vaccine makers and big pharma do everything they can to discredit data that shows any link to injuries from vaccines. Does that not bother you? VEARS is treated like fake news, and thrown out as a conspiracy theory. I feel sorry for anyone who has been injured by vaccines… which is probably more people than we realize. We may all be injured and just don’t have strong symptoms.
The two charts of measles over the 20th century and zoomed in to show a drop in the 1960’s are not the same. One is measles deaths, the other is measles cases. There were fewer than 5 deaths per 100k as early as 1930 per the long term chart.
Yet according to the CDC, more people die in one year from vaccine injury in the US, then did since 2000 of the Measles. Hmmm??
Care to link those studies? Because we don’t see that here in Europe at all.
That is just not true.
As of January 2, 2019, there have been 1,258 claims filed so far in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for 82 deaths and 1,176 injuries that occurred after measles vaccination. Of that number, the U.S. Court of Claims administering the VICP has compensated 483 children and adults, who have filed claims for measles vaccine injury
American Population – 325.7 million
Percent vaccinated against MMR – 91.1%
Number vaccinated – 296.7 million
Number of verifiable claims – 483
Percent of vaccinated people “injured” by vaccination – .00016279% or 1.6 per million people
African Population – 1.216 billion
Percent vaccinated against MMR – 77%
Percentage of people in Africa that DIED due to measles since vaccination rate is so low – .0030% or 30 per million
Number of DEATHS – 36,000
To vaccinate or not? Hmmmm, tough choice.
No choice at all. Nobody dies due to not being vaccinated. Even in Africa. They die due to poor sanitation, dirty water and food that doesn’t provide proper nutrition. Diseases only speed up the process of their dying. We would save many more lives by providing vitamins where they are deficient. But then, what happens to the world? Most of the same people behind vaccines are part of the ‘sustainable population’ movement, who want to bring the world’s population down from 7 billion to about 500 million. Coincidence?
1.6 out of a million injured? Keep in mind that less than 1% of injuries get reported.
This article might be the best case for not using the measles vaccine that I have ever seen. Dr. Lannelli establishes very well that the measles vaccine could only be responsible for .2 of the 13.3 -> 0.0 measles rate decline. Then he proceeds to make the absurd closing point that not vaccinating would cause us to “eventually get to about 320 to 960 measles deaths a year,” which assumes no medical advancement made between 1960 and 2019 could possibly help lower the measles rate. How bizarre.
Again, a woeful misunderstanding and interpretation of the article and the data…
Measles vaccine is responsible for the near-elimination of measles, and with measles eliminated, deaths will also disappear. Before vaccination there were 450-500 reported deaths per year. These would drop to zero if there was no measles. What is so hard to understand about that?
Regarding medical advances to treat measles, the major improvements came in supportive care (higher quality medical care, availability of intensive care for ventilating patients with pneumonia, antibiotic use to treat secondary bacterial complications of measles) in the mid 19th century.
The main problem faced by medical science in dealing with measles is that measles itself has no specific antiviral treatment available. No current antivirals are effective, and none are in development that have any promise of being effective. The main reason people died in the 1950s and 1960s was because they developed measles encephalitis, which is often fatal and affects one in 1,000 measles cases. There is no known treatment or way to prevenet this. Then there is the delayed and invariably fatal complication of SSPE, which affects between one in 7,500 -100,000 cases of measles, dependent on the age of acquisition.
The fact that medical advancement has not been able to reduce the complication rate for measles* or reduce the fatality associated with encephalitis is unfortunate, but it is a reality, and not “bizarre”.
*The exception to this is in patients who are malnourished, where vitamin A supplementation helps reduce complications, primarily in the third world setting.
Your statement is exactly why it is so hard to understand: if you want to comment relative to ALL of the data in this article, then the graphs clearly show the dramatic reduction in deaths due to measles *before* the vaccine was introduced and the incidence of measles was falling as well (before the vaccine).
Also, ALL of the data collected purposely does NOT correlate other issue – side effects – due to the vaccine (and for the sake of limiting that topic let’s just restrict it to the measles vaccine): doctors are actively and strongly discouraged from ever reporting any related side effects due a vaccination and they amazingly are always attributing issues to other causes and *never* the vaccine, which is just an incredible cognitive dissonance or willful ignorance of outcomes. The CDC does not collect this information. The pharma companies are absolved of responsibility for negative outcomes by way of extensive lobbying for regulations in their favor.
And, you seem to ignore the proven cases where these companies have purposely manipulated results and lied about issues and complications. One company was even shown to have taken a vaccine off the shelves in the USA due to verifiable problems with the vaccine, and rather than destroy the vaccine, they sent it off to Africa (unchanged) to make more money (and hurt more people).
Vaccines, scientifically, make sense, but ignoring the side-effects, dangers, and long-term effects is irresponsible, and anyone supporting that is irresponsible.
Tell that to the people who still die from polio and other preventable diseases in 2nd and 3rd world countries.
So when did you get your polio vaccine? I mean, did you even? No? I wonder why that is!
Might want to research the actual cause of polio.
MMR, Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) is a blended vaccine. A good start would be to separate out these vaccines to individual injections at least 1 to 2 weeks apart, with no systemic reactions.
The vaccines used in the U.S. are different than those used in Europe.
A different production manor and base content.
I have 3 children all received their vaccination, MMR included. We elected to obtain separate vaccines. My children experienced ZERO problems from the individual vaccines.
Seems to be good information, however not comforting or statistically sound to say cases of SSPE are “likely” attributed to previous measles outbreaks. This terminology sounds like opinion hidden in a statistical article. What research is behind this correlation? Thanks in advance for the transparency.
Article funded by Pfizer.
Your source?
I agree. If people are to put statements about the article they need to either use what is listed in the article as evidence or provide an external source.
Also it should be noted that anyone can put anyone else’s name on a public post. You could be Randy or Jim the keyboard SJW.
It is a nice touch that you would put a real person from Pfizer on here. I would like to think you are the actual Richard Friedman as it would be really cool that you would be reading the comments on a random article not funded by Pfizer.
80,000 died from the flu last year in the US alone. With the flu much more common. Why should I worry about measles?
And you are even more likely to die in a car accident. So why worry about the flu vaccine, when you are wearing your seat belt?
Now check how many are injured AND/or die from the vaccine. Much higher than the measles.
This article absolutely validated my decision to not vaccinate. I am 100% convinced that the measles vaccine is worthless. There is NO way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the measles disappeared because of the vaccine. I’m a numbers person. The numbers were going down dramatically. Statistically on a chart, the vaccine didn’t do a darn thing. Fabulous article.
The number of cases per year were not “going down dramatically”. The number of total DEATHS per year had been decreasing gradually but there was a limit to how much we could prevent complications and deaths from measles and that death rate had become “stuck” at around 1 death per 2,000 infections. Keep in mind that the death rate in that chart is measured as a percentage of the total population rather than as the death rate of those infected. The number of infections per year had been fluctuating between about 200 and 600 per 100,000 until the use of the vaccine dropped the number of infections per 100,000 to effectively zero.
Fascinating information. How many kids who’ve had measles go on to get SSPE? Or is it only the wild type ever? That was kind of a fuzzy point not explicitly made.
Excellent article. I like that it includes verifiable facts and helps to make an intelligent argument. You are not just making a declaration.
I am curious as to why it is always the unvaccinated that are the cause to get vaccinated people sick? If the unvaccinated and the vaccinated alike can become sick is it not logical to understand that measles could be and is spread from people traveling to other countries and becoming infected and bringing it back infecting others? Just blaming the unvaccinated is disingenuous and misleading. If the unvaccinated are the only ones who can bring it back into the US and the vaccinated cannot then the vaccinated cannot become infected by the unvaccinated when they bring it into the country.
Also I am not saying people shouldn’t vaccinate. Just saying that the statement about the unvaccinated is not factual or logical. If you are a parent and want to vaccinate, do so, if you don’t think it is needed that is, and should be, your choice as well. The numbers presented in this article show that the majority do vaccinate and there is no epidemic in any of the developed countries. We should vaccinate where there is an epidemic and not force an otherwise healthy group of people to take precautions about something that is clearly not as deadly as crossing the street.
The article doesn’t state that unvaccinated people are responsible for getting vaccinated people sick. People who are unvaccinated because they or their parents choose not to vaccinate are responsible for helping to spread diseases to people who are too young to be vaccinated or whose immune systems are compromised.
People who have been vaccinated can still contract measles of course. The vaccine is approximately 97% effective but 97% does not equal 100%
With vaccination rates high (90-95% is often the goal) the virus can’t continue to spread to new hosts fast enough and the virus will die out. When rates fall below that level it is much more likely that the virus can continue to infect host after host and propagate through a population. Because there will always be individuals who CANNOT receive a particular vaccine for legitimate and known medical reasons it is important for as much of the remaining population as possible (ideally very close to 100%) to be vaccinated in order to prevent outbreaks.
Think of it this way. If you’re personally “okay” with the risks of contracting a certain disease you might think that it makes sense not to vaccinate. But by doing so you risk not only contracting the disease yourself but also spreading it to other people you come in contact with who CANNOT receive the vaccine. Measles is EXTREMELY contagious and can be spread from an infected person to an unvaccinated person without them even being in a room together at the same time.
You can argue that you should have the right to choose not to protect yourself or your children with vaccines. However, I could also make the argument that my children and I have the right to be protected from you or your children infecting me with a vaccine-preventable disease that I cannot be vaccinated against for legitimate medical reasons (like being immunocompromised for instance) or that my children cannot be vaccinated against due to being too young to receive the vaccine.
I’m curious how much real thought the author of the article gave to their argument. Though I’m sure the author would stridently disagree, this entire piece (including the charts and statistcs) actually demonstrates that Dr. Sears’ statement is essentially correct.
Let’s do a quick analysis.
1) Sears says “The risk of fatality is not zero,” but that it’s “as close to zero as it can get without being zero.” Even the 2014 record of 667 deaths represents only 1 in ~477,000 Americans dying from Measles. Compare that to ~33,000 vehicular deaths, ~88,000 alcohol-related deaths, in that same year ~480,000 smoking-related deaths (and ~52,000 deaths related to prescription drug use in 2015).
I’d say the numbers seem to favor Dr. Sears.
2) The charts used also appear to support Dr. Sears’ conclusion. They also make it fairly clear–even to those not good with numbers–that the trend for measles-related deaths was headed steadily (and at a good clip) toward zero literally years before the vaccine was introduced.
I’m a bit confused by the chart caption that suggests measles was “very deadly” when even the second chart (which simply tracks cases of measles, and not deaths–which is what makes something “deadly”) points out a maximum of 700 deaths/100k people at its highest. That’s an unfortunate number, certainly, but hardly comparable to many other health risks in terms of lethality, as I mentioned above.
Though there seems to be a clear correlation between the number of cases and the introduction of the vaccine, it seems far less readily apparent that the vaccines made any significant impact on reducing total number of deaths–which, statistically, weren’t very high at that time anyway.
3) The article (after mocking a medical doctor in a rather juvenile manner) opens with the notion that “Measles deaths are thought to occur in about 1 in every 500 to 1,000 reported cases.” The key term there is “thought to occur.” It’s good that the article shares some data (the numbers work out to 1 in ~452 cases resulted in death), but it would also be nice to know what *other* factors may have contributed to those deaths (age, general health, income level, access to care, proper early diagnosis, etc.).
Numbers may not lie, but they certainly don’t tell the whole story.
4) The numbers provided (2000-2018) indicate that 1 in ~242 cases of measles resulted in deaths. It’s also worth noting that only 8 out of 18 years saw any deaths at all. Given that it doesn’t take much to get from 0 to 1-2 deaths, that “1 in 242” number could have easily changed one way or another with only minor fluctations in the number of deaths.
While any death is unfortunate, consider that 11 deaths (in a population of over 300 million) in 18 years is nothing resembling a public health crisis. Again, this seems to support the statement that measles lethality is “as close to zero as you can get without actually being zero.”
5) Tacking on the data on SSPE-related deaths seems to be an interesting attempt to bump up the supposed lethality of the deaths. As before, any death is unfortunate, but even 33 deaths in 18 years is not what I (or, I suppose, many other Americans) would consider “deadly” on a national level. Especially as the article not only mentions that the correlation between measles and SSPE is still somewhat uncertain, and that the German study reveals that even among those (comparative few) who do get measles, the odds of then contracting SSPE afterwards hovers between “1 in 1,700 and 1 in 3,300”.
Since we’re going with tentative correlations, let’s use the numbers in the article. In 2014 (the bad year), 667 Americans got measles–667 out of 318.6 million. That’s a 1 in 477,661 chance of contracting measles (pretty good considering ~9% of the US is reportedly unvaccinated against measles). So if we go with the generous estimate of 1 in 1,700 measles cases might result in SSPE (and again, this is just math; it’s *not* the whole story), then 1 in 477,661 ÷ 1 in 1,700 = 1 in 812,023,988. A very rough correlation, but it seems on par with the rigor shown in the article’s efforts to correlate SSPE deaths to measles. I think it’s fair.
6) “The last death, a woman in Clallam County in Washington, was exposed in an outbreak of mostly unvaccinated people in 2015.”
Even the CDC and the Mayo clinic are good enough to state that vaccination is not a bulletproof guarantee of getting sick. While it may have been the case that the Clallam County episode involved a majority of cases among those unvaccinated, the only truly *relevant* fact is that the woman contracted the disease. It doesn’t matter whether she got it from someone who was or was not vaccinated.
I have some personal experience with this. 10 years ago, my son came home with chicken pox. The rest of my kids soon came down with it too. Half the kids in our neighborhood also got the disease. The source? Another child at school–one who *had* been given the chicken pox vaccine. Thus, when he started showing small spots on his arms, his parents assumed his vaccine would entirely immunize him, and that the spots must be insect bites.
They sent him to school. A simple mistake, but illustrative all the same. Who knows who the poor woman in Clallam county got it from. Perhaps her odds on catching it would have been decreased had more people been vaccinated, but I suppose we’ll never know.
Either way, to interpret the numbers and charts in this article as “deadly” takes some very different semantics than I use. And no, you don’t have to be a trained medical professional to read and comprehend those statistics and trends.
I’d say that the article, for all it tries so very hard to discredit Dr. Sears, actually does an excellent job vindicating him. I find it rather disappointing that the author is either unable or unwilling to see this.
Best wishes.
S Johnson, your first point should cite 667 CASES, not DEATHS in 2014. The amazing thing is, supposedly the large number was from an outbreak in unvaccinated Amish communities and THERE WERE NO DEATHS! So this outbreak has conferred immunity to many Amish now – the strong natural immunity of which the rest of us have been deprived. And their bodies were healthy enough to withstand it (I guess not eating fast foods, beer and packaged highly processed food “snacks” has some merit?). The 2014 outbreak is exemplary of how healthy people with healthy immune systems strengthen the gene pool with regard to surviving diseases… no need of vaccines, thank you!
It would be nice if you actually cited where you got your information from. No, actually it is expected, especially from a doctor. Could you please provide us with the references you used to determine that an infant died from measles in 2000 and 1-year old children in 2003 and 2005. Thank you.
What the phuck is “Vaxopedia” and why should I consider it an authority on anything?
I had the real mumps measels and chickenpox-no problem. I was mandated to get the MMR (for rubella OMG) and Hep b and bomb major problems ever since chronic illness. WTF!
No one dies from Measles. Death comes from weakening the immune system, which is what happens when you pump babies full of 15 – 20 vaccines at a time.
Wrong. Babies are exposed to the germs around us all the time in “doses” that exceed anything they get from vaccines. Their immune systems are not overwhelmed by vaccines., which are deceased or attentuated (weakened) microbes that stimulate (not weaken) the immune system, unlike the everyday bacteria/fungi/viruses we are all exposed to. The science does not back up this assumption. What it does support is the dramatic and unmistakable decline in childhood preventable infectious diseases and by extension, deaths due to complications from those illnesses — like the encephalitis that kills people who have the measles. If what you are saying is true, then their weakened immune systems would make them vulnerable to the vaccines organisms and they would be getting the actual diseases the vaccines were designed to prevent, right? People who don’t understand basic principles of science should not be commenting on the efficacy of vaccines. That would be you, sir.
Not to mention they never speak about the numbers of those who die from the vaccinatiin which is far larger than those who die from actual measles. Those who died from measles mostly had underlying conditions to begin with.
They totally do. It’s like 1 in 1,000,000 adds that you will die from a vaccine. And It’s more accurate to say that the possible death rate from preventable childhood illness FAR exceeds the possible injury and death due to vaccines. It’s more accurate to say you don’t want to hear that b/c you’ve already made up your mind. No one has underlying encephalitis.
There is a big difference in exposure to germs by ingestion (or inhalation), and exposure via direct injection into the blood stream alongside adjuvants which, as you stated, stimulate an immune response. These deceased or attenuated microbes, adjuvants like aluminum which crosses the blood brain barrier and accumulates, food proteins, and a host of other ingredients including human and animal DNA are all injected directly into the bloodstream starting at birth, or into the bloodstream of the mother during pregnancy, despite serious risks and lack of true safety studies.
If you watch Stanley Plotkin’s deposition regarding the making of vaccines, he reveals under oath a plethora of horrifying details, and confirms that not only were 76 aborted fetuses used in *one* study, but that the cell strains are not immortal, meaning they will need to be replenished in time. Oh and that they also used orphans, handicapped people, and babies of incarcerated mothers to study on. This man is the patron saint of vaccines, so if you don’t want to listen to anyone else, you should be willing to listen to him at the very least.
I’m so tired of people leaning on discounting anyone with vaccine safety concerns as ignorant, when those I know with concerns have spent hours educating themselves. Spend 9 hours listening to Stanley Plotkin, spend your evenings poring over CDC data, reading actual package inserts (as a comment above asserted, this is extremely time consuming), reading about the ingredients the media wants to insist aren’t in vaccines but are clearly listed by the manufacturers, studying the link between these ingredients and chronic illness and neurological disease, to say nothing of those who had to come to their conclusions after watching their children suffer and being told it’s just a coincidence or that brain swelling and seizing are “normal” side effects of vaccination.
Do you think people want to have to stand against the media and the government? Do you think people want to endure ridicule and death wishes (see comment above about polio taking it’s course. Hateful)? Do you think parents really care so little about their kids that they buck the entire medical system based on some other mom’s Facebook status? When you start with one genuine question and end up with hundreds of hours worth of info to digest regarding not just vaccines, but the corruption, fraud, and multi-billion dollar profits..when you realize the CDC owns vaccine patents, and that there is zero liability for vaccine manufacturers, and that our politicians are paid shills, it keeps you up at night. People are grieving that they know this information, and risking almost everything to speak out because now that they know, they want better for humanity.
I would like to know the number of people who die of measles each year in comparison with the number of people who die as a result of having gotten the vaccine. I realize many of the cases in which people die of the vaccine have to do with mishandling of the vaccines, but the risk is still there. I seem to recall a number in the range of 60 per year, which is MUCH higher than the number of deaths per year, or even the cumulative number of deaths in the last century. Some have died of measles they were exposed to from the vaccine (since the measles vaccine uses a live virus). Some have died of anaphylactic shock. All of these deaths by vaccination should be included in the risk assessment.
The vaccine did not stop measles. What stopped the epidemic is that enough people got the disease that it no longer had a large unprotected population to keep it going. Herd immunity works, just not through vaccinations.
Why did you not mention that a vit A dose will help with reducing the longevity and severity of measles? (* a study referenced from Barclay AJ, Foster A, Sommer A. Vitamin A supplements and mortality related to meadles: randomised clinical trial. BMJ 1987 Jan 31; 294: 294-96.) (**a study D’Souza RM, D’Souza R. Vitamin A for the treatment of children with measles-a systematic review. J Trop Pediatr 2002 Dec; 48(6): 323-27)
Where did you get your statistics from?
So, according to your own research above, only 11 deaths in last 20 years in USA from measles, since year 2000. Obviously, measles is not a problem. More people died from slip and fall accidents in just one year. We have much bigger things to worry about. In fact, according to US govt’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), more people have died from measles vaccine than from measles in same time period. Since year 2000, an incredible 199 people have died from measles vaccines, including the combo vaccines for MMR. So, 19 times as many people die in USA from measles vaccine than from measles itself. No thanks. Try again, Mr. Scary Pants. Vaxopedia, pfff, Ha, ha. If you really cared about this, you’d try just as hard to stop the illegal aliens who keep bringing it into USA. You are aware there are at least 19 different strains of measles in the world, and US vaccine only works for the one found in USA, so they can vaccinate people all day long but you’ll never get rid of measles until immigrants come legally and are quarantined when sick, as is the norm with LEGAL immigrants. And, FYI… legal immigrants hate illegal aliens.
So 11 measles deaths in almost a 20 year period? That hardly sounds like an epidemic in a country of 325,000,000 but the media is being paid to make sure it sounds like it is. Where is the information on how many have been killed by the vaccine? How about how many have been injured? If you put those two things together I bet the number would be in the millions (that’s quite a bit more than 11!) but those numbers aren’t available. Why? Because anyone in the medical/research fields along with pharmaceutical companies, if they do admit vaccines cause injury/death, will not do it publicly out of fear. The human race is a giant vaccine experiment, they just don’t know it.
Curious why there are no sources listed for this information. I’d like to trust the data, but I’d rather verify it and there are no sources cited.
H: I posted some sources, but the post is “… awaiting moderation”. It appears that they are either confirming my sources, or simply blocking my post.
So 0.1 to 0 3 would now die from Measles? And we are freaking out over that and wanting to make vaccines mandatory? If this was REALLY About health why are cigarettes not banned? Between 1st hand deaths and 2nd had deaths, 521,000 die a YEAR from cigarettes. And 16 million people a year have illnesses from cigarettes. This includes adults and children and yet, let’s keep cigarettes around.
Oh and a side note, not everyone reported or went to the doctor when their kids had the measles. Most parents stayed home. It was something they knew would happen. Much like chickenpox, my parents knew what it was, same with other illness, we stayed home unless there were complications. So they percentage of deaths is much lower.
Summerlynn: Agreed. What they don’t tell people is that they only focus on the things that make them money. Cigarettes are heavily taxed. MMR vaccine is all but required to go to school (You can still get a doctors note in my state; WA). No one cares about our health… unless it affects their pocket book. Same with alcohol… And as far as measles goes, if you catch it and don’t die (virtually everyone lives through it), then you will be immune for life, and will never catch it again. A vaccine doesn’t do that… and something like 20%+ of the people who got measles were vaccinated (I think it’s more like 25%… but the CDC changed their measles PDF and it no longer has that data)
You proved that measles is not a worry hahaha and that it is not worth injecting that deadly cocktail into an entire population ! Good job hahaha !! Jesus is Lord!
The woman who “died from measles” was actually vaccinated and had measles antibodies. Isn’t this a case of vaccine failure rather than measles because of failure to vaccinate? She was also on immunosuppressive drugs, which contributed to her pneumonia. It is also possible that the measles virus in the vaccine caused her infection, similar to the case of a young man who died from a vaccine-derived measles infection. Please don’t fudge the facts just to put the blame on those who don’t vaccinate.
VAERS shows 76 deaths associated with MMR shot between 2000 and 2019. So according to your own data – the shot is 7.6 times MORE dangerous than the measles itself.
Sorry – that’s not how math works. Millions of people got the vaccine, and only 76 deaths were attributed to the shot (and remember the vaccine court doesn’t require strong evidence of cause – it bends over backwards to give out awards). Out of the few thousand cases of measles, we have multiple deaths.
76 over millions is much less than even 1 death in a few thousand.