Anti-vaccine folks have gotten pretty good at pushing propaganda to keep you scared to vaccinate and protect your kids.
Now, they even have quizzes to help test how much of that misinformation you remember!
Fact Checking an Anti-Vaccine Measles Outbreak Quiz
A quiz about measles outbreaks by the ironically named Physicians for Informed Consent was recently promoted by Dr. Bob Sears.
Let’s take a look at some of the questions and the anti-vaccine answers…
While mortality rates did indeed decline for most diseases and conditions in the early part of the 20th century because of advancements in living conditions, nutrition, and health care, that effect had plateaued by the mid-1930s.
It is true that vitamin A deficiency increases the risk for more severe complications and death from measles, which is why it can be more deadly in undeveloped countries where malnutrition is a big problem.
“Because of gaps in vaccination coverage, measles outbreaks occurred in all regions, while there were an estimated 110 000 deaths related to the disease.”
Measles cases spike globally due to gaps in vaccination coverage
Unfortunately, the other big problem in many of these countries is that these kids are unvaccinated because of a lack of access to vaccines.
Immune globulin is a treatment option if you have been exposed to measles, but it is not actually a treatment once you have measles. And high dose vitamin A mainly benefits those with a vitamin A deficiency, which is unlikely in an industrial country, like the United States.
The only benefit of having measles, which you have to earn by having measles and surviving without complications, is that you will have developed immunity to measles.
In addition to having no other benefits, you will then be at risk for SSPE and may have wiped out your immune system for a few years.
While you are at risk for encephalitis and seizures after a natural infection, after getting a dose of MMR, one risk is a febrile seizure, which is typically thought to be benign.
The risk of having a febrile seizure after the first dose of the MMR vaccine is about 1 in 2,500 doses. There is also a small risk of having a febrile seizure if the flu vaccine is given at the same time as a Prevnar or DTaP vaccine.
It is important to note that vaccines are not the only reason that children have febrile seizures. Many infections, including vaccine preventable infections, can trigger febrile seizures, in addition to causing more serious types of non-febrile seizures.
It is very unlikely that any of the kids who develop febrile seizures after a vaccine will later develop epilepsy.
“Febrile seizures can be frightening, but nearly all children who have a febrile seizure recover quickly, are healthy afterwards, and do not have any permanent neurological damage. Febrile seizures do not make children more likely to develop epilepsy or any other seizure disorder.”
Febrile Seizures Following Childhood Vaccinations, Including Influenza Vaccination
Without any risk factors (parent or sibling with epilepsy, having complex febrile seizures, or abnormal development), a child with febrile seizures has the same risk of developing epilepsy has any other child.
Like many other vaccines, the package insert for MMR does say that it has “has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or potential to impair fertility.” That doesn’t mean that it hasn’t undergone safety studies for its potential to cause cancer, genetic mutations, and impaired fertility though.
Wait, what? Yeah, all vaccines have preclinical toxicology studies, including single and/or repeat dose, reproductive and developmental, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, and safety pharmacology. If any issues are found, further studies are done.
The only way to think that a natural measles infection is safer than the MMR vaccine is if you believe that all reports to VAERS have been confirmed as being caused by the vaccine (they aren’t) and you don’t think about the fact that relatively few people get measles any more (so you don’t see or hear about many measles deaths) because most folks are vaccinated and protected!
How did you do on the quiz?
Did you easily spot all of the anti-vaccine propaganda?
More on Fact Checking an Anti-Vaccine Measles Outbreak Quiz
- VAXOPEDIA – Who Dies with Measles?
- VAXOPEDIA – Does Having Measles Protect You from Cancer?
- VAXOPEDIA – How Many People Get Measles Each Year?
- VAXOPEDIA – Why Do We Only Worry About Measles?
- VAXOPEDIA – Measles Propaganda from The Physicians for Informed Consent
- VAXOPEDIA – When Was the Last Measles Death in the United States?
- VAXOPEDIA – Measles Deaths in the 21st Century
- VAXOPEDIA – Graphs That Show Vaccines Don’t Work
- VAXOPEDIA – Did Better Hygiene and Sanitation Get Rid of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases?
- VAXOPEDIA – Did the Measles Vaccine Have Only a Meager Effect on Deaths?
- VAXOPEDIA – The Value and Cost Savings of Getting Vaccinated
- Measles infections prevent heart disease – an anti-vaccine trope
- CDC – Febrile Seizures Following Childhood Vaccinations, Including Influenza Vaccination
- Do Vaccines Cause Seizures?
- WHO – Measles cases spike globally due to gaps in vaccination coverage
- Measles Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for Non-Symptomatic Susceptible Contacts
- Immune Globulin for Measles Postexposure Prophylaxis