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What’s Your Chance of Getting Measles Right Now?

It shouldn’t be a surprise that a lot of folks are thinking about their risk of getting measles right now.

But with record levels of measles cases this year, some of us are thinking about our level of risk much differently than others.

rIf you are unvaccinated and exposed to someone with measles, you risk is actually 1,000,000 times higher…

While most of us simply want to make sure we are vaccinated and protected, anti-vaccine folks are taking every opportunity to downplay their risks.

What’s Your Chance of Getting Measles Right Now?

So what’s your chance of getting measles?

“Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. It is spread by coughing and sneezing, close personal contact or direct contact with infected nasal or throat secretions. The virus remains active and contagious in the air or on infected surfaces for up to 2 hours. It can be transmitted by an infected person from 4 days prior to the onset of the rash to 4 days after the rash erupts.”

WHO on Measles

That’s actually not that simple to figure out, but depends on:

Those who have had two doses, with no plans to travel, and who live in an area with no reported cases, are at extremely low risk to get measles – the risk won’t be zero until measles is eradicated.

In this kind of low risk situation, kids don’t need early doses of MMR vaccines and most adults can probably get away with just having one dose of MMR.

“Measles is highly contagious and spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is so contagious that if one person has it, 9 out of 10 people of all ages around him or her will also become infected if they are not protected.”

CDC on Measles is Highly Contagious

On the other hand, if you are unvaccinated and were at the AMC Theater on Lemon Street in Fullerton, between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. on April 25, then your chance of getting measles is about 90%!

Wait! That’s a little more than the 0.000092% chance that anti-vaccine folks are throwing around…

The odds of being hit by lightning are low because we practice storm safety and don’t run around outside when we see lightning!

To think of it another way, if you knew that your chances of getting hit by lightning were a little over 1 in a million, would that make you think it is okay to go outside and play golf during a severe thunderstorm?

Would you think the risk is so low that you could let your kids play outside if you heard thunder and saw lightning flashes nearby, or would you all rush inside?

That’s right! The risk of getting hit by lightning is low because most of us don’t take chances when we hear thunder or see lightning.

It’s the same with measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

The overall risk is low because most people are vaccinated and protected!

If you aren’t vaccinated and protected, as we see more and more cases, your risk of getting sick, and getting others sick, is going to continue to get higher and will always be much higher than someone who is fully vaccinated, no matter how much you want to believe in shedding, mild measles, or whatever myths help you justify keeping your kids unvaccinated and unprotected during an outbreak.

Remember, you can’t hide in the herd if you are scaring away too much the herd

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are obviously necessary.

You can avoid getting measles.
You can greatly reduce your family’s risk of getting measles.

Make sure your family is protected so they don’t get caught up in a measles outbreak

More on Your Chance of Getting Measles


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