

In 2013, measles killed more kids than car accidents or AIDS - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/25/in-2013-measles-killed-more-kids-than-car-accidents-or-aids/

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bdcravens
I think the anti-vaccine crowd is stupid, but this kind of journalism bugs me.
The conclusion: measles kills too many children, some Americans don't
vaccinate their kids, therefore those parents are the cause of the high
number. The problem is that it uses global measles numbers, not US. How many
of those numbers are in countries where vaccinations are unavailable, and
factors like hygiene and clean water supplies come into play?

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mzs
The very first sentence has a link to the paper. That paper is really
interesting, for example how the authors had to cull the data to get to usable
factual data that had the true cause of death. For what you are interested in
there is a in particular an excellent graph on page 143. I rather like science
blog posts like this compared to what is more typical and this post mentions
what your concern is in paragraph three of four. No where in those four
paragraphs does it leap to the conclusion "therefore those parents are the
cause of the high number."

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IgorPartola
Was watching an older episode of the Nightly Show the other day and they were
talking about anti vaxxers. Had a woman there from the Thinking Moms
Revolution [1]. Larry asked her if someone came out with a vaccine against
autism would she give that to her kids. She said she would not because she
wouldn't trust it. So the problem is not autism but trust.

Another great insight from that show: this is about guilt and control.
Something bad happens to your child => you feel guilty. You have the urge to
do something about it, and while you cannot control lots of things, you can
decide whether to vaccinate. This is similar to how people get eating
disorders: food is often times the only thing they can control in their lives.

This was interesting to me because I cannot fathom how you can stare facts in
the face and stubbornly disagree, putting your own child at a huge risk. This
in no way excuses it, but it does highlight how someone goes from "I want my
child to be well" to "I will not vaccinate".

[1] [http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/](http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/)

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wcbeard10
The 'guilt and control' phenomenon also looks like it shows up in deciding
whether to leave your children at home during a quick trip out. While a road
accident may be much more likely than an accident alone at home, good luck
explaining that to either the parents or the law. The desire to feel in
control frequently seems to be very hard to reason against.

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IgorPartola
Are you saying you leave your kids home alone while going out because you are
afraid of car accidents?

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tokenadult
This is good worldwide perspective on mortality risk for young children. The
journal article in _The Lancet_ [1] mentioned in this news article provides
more details.

[1] "Global, regional, and national age–sex specific all-cause and cause-
specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis
for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013"

[http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(...](http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736\(14\)61682-2.pdf)

[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/) S0140-6736(14)61682-2

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dnautics
This is global. In the us, the measles death rate is less than a tenth of a
percent, and the measles rate itself is quite low.

In the US, in 2013, there were more school bus fatalities than measles
fatalities.

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sebnukem2
Let us hope, that we are getting closer to discovering the vaccine for human
idiocy. While one can argue and appreciate natural selection at work, the
helpless children pay the steep price, not the stupid parents.

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CmonDev
_"...stupid parents."_ \- you mean poor = stupid or you just care about USA
part?

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omaranto
There are stupid people everywhere, not just the USA. There are also anti-
vaccination movements in lots of places, not just the USA. There is a big one
in Spain, for example.

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Symmetry
It isn't in the US and Spain where tens of thousands of children are dying of
measles.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles#mediaviewer/File:Measle...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles#mediaviewer/File:Measles_vaccination_coverage_world.svg)

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natecornell
Anyone else notice the irony that this study was published in the Lancet,
which largely responsible for starting the anti-vax movement?

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transfire
> "In some particularly impoverished and malnourished areas, the disease has a
> fatality rate of 10 percent."

You may want to feed them before worrying about giving them a shot.

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knowaveragejoe
You would think they'd have died from starvation long before succumbing to
measles if that were the case.

The flippant attitude of this comment is... irritating, to say the least. It's
as if you're unaware of the massive global effort to eradicate hunger. Perhaps
you're one of those people who thinks it's "not enough", in which case please
show us the multi-million and billion dollar checks you're writing every year
for the cause.

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amalag
They don't have to drop dead from starvation to be weak and more vulnerable to
disease complications.

