Why do some folks think that the Samoan measles outbreak is fabricated?
It’s more than the usual suspects.
Understanding the Anti-Vax Response to Measles Deaths in Samoa
It is because wild conspiracy theories are the fuel of the modern anti-vaccine movement.
No one should be surprised either that they have invented 101 different theories about why kids are dying in Samoa.
It can’t simply be that they are unvaccinated and that measles is a life-threatening disease! That would interfere with their whole world view that it is okay to leave their own kids unvaccinated and unprotected because they think that vaccines are dangerous, aren’t necessary, and vaccine-preventable diseases aren’t that big of a deal.
Is the Samoan Measles Outbreak Fabricated?
And that gets us to the idea that the measles outbreak in Samoa is fake or unnatural.
Was the measles outbreak in Samoa started by shedding from vaccines sent by UNICEF in early October?
Wait, why did UNICEF start sending measles vaccines to Samoa in October?
Yeah, that’s right. The first cases were actually in September, triggered by visitor from New Zealand in August.
Anyway, the strain in Samoa is D8, not A as you would expect if it was a vaccine strain.
And the idea that the outbreak was fabricated by Merck to sell more vaccine?
That seems reminiscent of the CDC price list conspiracy that anti-vax folks were pushing last year…
No one is making any money on the vaccines being used in Samoa anyway.
But they are forcing people to get vaccinated, right?
Even those who have been made to think that the vaccines are toxic?
Nope.
While there is a vaccine mandate, no one is being forced to get vaccinated.
Most were very happy to get vaccinated and protected!
What about the rogue strains of mutated measles that Bobby Kennedy warned the Prime Minister about?
They aren’t causing the measles epidemic in Samoa…
Again, neither are vaccine strain measles.
What about the idea that kids are only dying in Samoa because it is a third world country?
Well, it’s not. It is a developing country and more people with measles are dying everywhere, as we see more and more cases.
“This would be news if outbreaks of similar intensity occurred in first world countries, such as the United States or the European Union. But they don’t. Nor do they occur in a similar scale or severity. This means that hygiene, nutrition, refrigeration, and potable water—items many in the modern world take for granted—are the real delta between measles deaths in the Third World versus mild measles cases in the first, which come and go, and rarely result in fatalities.”
Measles Hysteria – from Samoa to the Congo
While we are lucky that there have been no measles deaths in the last few years in the United States, there have been 100s in Europe.
Can you blame the 8 measles deaths in Italy on poor nutrition?
And the deaths are not because kids have been getting Tylenol or not been given vitamin A.
It is because they are not vaccinated and not immune to measles!
Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are very obviously necessary.
Don’t spread anti-vaccine propaganda that helps contribute to these kinds of outbreaks and epidemics.
More on Samoan Measles Epidemic Conspiracy Theories
- The Tragedy in Samoa Was Not Caused by the MMR Vaccine
- Remembering When Everyone Had Measles
- The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- What Are the Greatest Tricks Anti-Vaccine Folks Use to Persuade Parents to Skip Vaccines?
- More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
- The Fatal Flaw in the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- Sherri Tenpenny and James Grundig: Desperately denying that measles kills
- Antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. writes to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi about measles in the middle of an outbreak
- Antivaccine activists and the deadly measles outbreak in Samoa
- Suspected measles outbreak in Samoa
- UNICEF delivers over 260,000 vaccines and medical supplies to fight measles outbreaks in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga
- Samoa’s devastating measles epidemic – why and how bad?
- Samoa arrests vaccination critic amid deadly measles crisis
- Dozens of Samoan children have died of measles. So New Zealanders are sending child-size coffins.
- Editorial: Measles outbreak in Samoa shows what can happen when vaccine opponents prevail
- Anti-Vaccine Propaganda Spread Through Social Media Contributed To Samoa Measles Outbreak, Columnist Writes
Maybe the antivaxers would like to take their unvaxed families to Samoa and help treat the sick there. Since they have such healthy kids, they won’t get the measles. I’m sure they need the help.
God I dislike antivaxers.