That translates into about 500,000 reported cases each year. Technically, it was likely closer to about 4 million cases in the United States each year, but either way, we know that lots of people got measles.
Then we got a measles vaccine and not surprisingly, cases of measles dropped. Except for a small uptick from 1989 to 1991, we were on our way to eliminating measles.
And we did, in 2000, when the endemic spread of measles was eliminated in the United States. From then on, all measles cases were imported.
In 2004, we had an historic low of just 37 measles cases in the United States!
Will we ever have fewer than 37 cases in a year?
And from 2000 to 2012, we averaged just 87 measles cases each year, which is far below the US average of 283 cases we are now seeing.
No, measles never completely left. It was not eradicated.
But it is certainly making a comeback and soaring to levels that we haven’t seen since 1992!
Just think about it… We had 37 cases of measles in 2004 and this year, we often had 37 cases in a single week!
While the idea of chickenpox and measles parties now seems ridiculous to most people, in the pre-vaccine era, it might not have been so strange. Since getting these diseases was inevitable, it might make some sense to try and control when your kids got sick. Did did pediatricians actually encourage parents to have measles parties?
Did Pediatricians Ever Encourage Parents to Have Measles Parties?
Some folks think they have evidence that they did!
This is not evidence for measles parties…
Wait, did they really have measles?
As most folks know, German measles is another name for rubella or 3-day measles.
Not exactly…
These kids had German measles – better known as rubella. Of course, that is not the same thing as measles or rubeola.
Measles vs Rubella
Why do we worry about rubella? Unlike measles, it’s not because it can make kids very sick, but rather because if a pregnant woman gets rubella, then it can be devastating for their baby.
The idea for rubella parties started in the UK in the 1950s.
That’s why some folks tried to get rubella when they were kids, well before they reached the age when they could become pregnant.
How did that strategy work out?
Many articles advocating for rubella parties (German measles) appeared in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Of course, those rubella parties didn’t prevent the rubella epidemics that came in 1964-65 and caused 12.5 million rubella virus infections and “resulted in 11,250 therapeutic or spontaneous abortions, 2,100 neonatal deaths, and 20,000 infants born with congenital rubella syndrome.”
In addition to spreading rubella to pregnant women, at these parties, younger children could get exposed to other diseases that are more serious, like measles.
“So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of “wild” polio reported anywhere in the world. By “wild,” public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment.
By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year.”
Mutant Strains Of Polio Vaccine Now Cause More Paralysis Than Wild Polio
It was from two years ago.
There were only 22 cases of wild polio in the world in 2017. We are on track for many more cases this year.
He doesn’t even mention the main reason that mutant strains of polio vaccine are now causing more paralysis than wild polio.
“Global efforts to immunise children with the oral polio vaccine (OPV) have reduced wild poliovirus cases by 99.9% since 1988.”
Fact Sheet: Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus
And that is simply because most people are vaccinated and protected and we are very close to eradicating polio!
“As recently as 30 years ago, wild poliovirus paralysed more than 350,000 children in more than 125 countries every year. In 2018 there were fewer than 30 reported cases in just two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
“Zero
polio transmission and health for all”, WHO Director-General gives new
year’s wish to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan
Polio this week as of 24 July 2019, with more paralysis from wild polio viruses than mutant strains of the polio vaccine.
So far, this year, we are tragically seeing more paralysis from wild polio than mutant strains of the polio vaccine!
What’s the last thing Bob Sears left out of his post?
Most of the “mutant strains” of polio vaccine are from the type 2 vaccine virus, which isn’t being used anymore. In 2016, all countries switched to bivalent OPV, which doesn’t include the type 2 polio virus strain.
And since most cases of wild polio are in just a few countries, namely Pakistan and Afghanistan, we will hopefully get back on track to eradication and also see a drop in paralysis from the mutant vaccine strains. That’s when we can stop using the oral polio vaccine all together.
At least we will if folks stop listening to anti-vaccine misinformation and propaganda that scares them away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
More On Paralysis from Mutant Strains of Polio Vaccine Vs Wild Polio
To scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids, anti-vaccine folks continue to push the idea the kids get too many vaccines at too early an age.
They don’t.
When did we have a vaccine schedule when we gave just two vaccines?
They try to reinforce the idea by comparing things to the “good ol’ days,” when they think kids only got one dose of one or two vaccines.
Did they?
Vaccine Schedules from the 1940s to 2019
Let’s take a look at how the vaccine schedule has evolved over time to see how many vaccines kids used to get. Looking at the old vaccine schedules can also help you understand how we got to our current schedule.
Although not a formal schedule, the first vaccine recommendations were published in the AAP’s Special Committee on Prophylactic Procedures Against Communicable Diseases 1938 pamphlet, Routine measures for the prophylaxis of communicable diseases.
It included vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis, rabies, tetanus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and smallpox.
A schedule of immunizations from a 1948 AAP Round Table Discussion on the Practical and Immunological Aspects of Pediatric Immunizations
That’s the schedule from 1948!
Surprised?
Many of you were led to believe that kids only got 2 vaccines back in the day. Instead, they got more vaccines and multiple doses of those vaccines.
Multiple doses with formaldehyde inactivated vaccines which contained aluminum. And thimerosal. And far more antigens than kids are exposed to today, even though they now get many more vaccines.
My uncle got polio around the time this vaccine schedule was released in 1951, but before the first polio vaccines were being routinely used.
By the early 1950s, the DPT vaccine became routine. Other vaccines were also available for special situations, including rabies, typhoid, parathyphoid, and the BCG vaccine.
Kids got multiple doses of DPT, DT, polio, and smallpox vaccines in 1960.
Although few people remember, the original polio vaccines were monovalent and only included one polio strain in each shot. So you had to get multiple shots to get protected from all three strains!
The polio shot, was used until 1962, when we switched to the oral polio vaccine. Trivalent OPV wasn’t licensed until 1963 though. Before that, kids got multiple doses of monovalent OPV, types 1, 2, and 3.
The ACIP committee came up with four different dosage schedules for measles vaccines in 1964.
And for a few years, we had both inactivated and live measles vaccines…
The recommended immunization schedule by the AAP in the 1966 Red Book. The first measles vaccine was approved in 1963.
Next came the individual mumps (1967) and rubella (1969) vaccines and the combination MMR vaccine (1971).
Eleven doses of four vaccines protected kids against seven vaccine-preventable diseases in 1983.
The Hib vaccine was added in 1985.
Twelve doses of five vaccines protected kids against eight vaccine-preventable diseases in 1989.
Next came the hepatitis B vaccine and expanded age ranges for the Hib vaccine.
Nineteen doses of six vaccines protected kids against nine vaccine-preventable diseases in 1995.
What’s still missing?
Vaccines and protection against rotavirus, hepatitis A, chicken pox, flu, pneumococcal bacteria, meningococcal bacteria, and HPV. And no, they weren’t all added right after the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, another anti-vaccine myth!
Those vaccines were added to the schedule much later:
Is the vaccine schedule starting to look familiar?
RotaTeq and Gardasil were added to the vaccine schedule the next year, in 2007.
Since then, Prevnar was updated to include protection against 13 strains of pneumococcal bacteria. And we got a new vaccine that covers the B strain of meningococcal disease, but otherwise there haven’t been any major changes to the vaccine schedule in a while.
That’s an inflated number that’s used to scare parents. That it is a propaganda technique should be obvious, as the folks who use it don’t use the same anti-vaccine math to inflate the number of doses from the historical schedules.
