WebMD made its article’s premise clear: Measles is spreading and dastardly anti-vaxxers are behind it all! Its reporter breathlessly wrote:
The Ohio measles outbreak continues to expand, with cases now totaling 81 – a 37% increase in the course of just 2 weeks.
The lead health official where the outbreak is occurring said the driving force behind the spread is vaccine hesitancy. Most of the children infected were unvaccinated but were old enough to get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shot, which is 97% effective at preventing measles.
“I think these are individuals who are making a decision not to protect their children against vaccine-preventable diseases, and some of them are making a specific decision not to use the MMR vaccine,” [said] Columbus Public Health Commissioner Mysheika W. Roberts, MD[.]
If a parent wants to let their kid get measles, to develop natural immunity, how is it the state’s business?
I tracked the story to its source. Round and round it goes. The WebMD article, along with all the other similar ones in other venues like CNN Health, they all came from a single story planted, I mean published, in JAMA on December 15th, which soberly reported the current apocalyptic threat to public health:
A measles outbreak is underway this winter in central Ohio, where 73 known cases and 26 hospitalizations have occurred since late October, according to health department data updated on December 12. The Columbus-area outbreak comes on the heels of an unrelated cluster [of 22 cases in Minnesota this year.
You guys still with me? WebMD said there are 73 cases in Ohio and 22 cases in Minnesota. Remember those numbers.
Next, the world’s premier medical journal reported the first bit of actual good news, even though JAMA thinks it’s grotesque, anti-scientific backsliding into medieval medical thinking, like bleeding people for their inconstant humours or something:
According to the November 25 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), an estimated 24.7 million children worldwide missed their first measles vaccine dose through routine immunization services in 2021, and another 14.7 million missed their second dose.
Haha, they “missed” their doses. How about that. Progress! I wonder WHY those parents don’t trust the safe and effective measles vaccine.
I’m not baffled, though.
The JAMA article then disclosed its story was based on a single WHO report — things became even clearer — and the WHO writer warned its institutional readers in very stark terms, about … measles.
“With record lows of nearly 25 million children who did not receive even one dose of measles vaccine, suboptimal early detection of measles outbreaks through surveillance, and large ongoing outbreaks,” she said, “measles is an imminent threat in every region of the world.”
It’s an imminent threat! To the entire world! Quick, apply mandates!
JAMA then drew a line directly between the Ohio “outbreak” and vaccine hesitancy, citing exactly the same health administrator in Ohio that WebMD did. That’s science, apparently. One health administrator’s goofy opinion, and corporate media is off to the races. Anyway, here’re the overwrought unscientific paragraphs that JAMA squeezed out of the Ohio lady’s hatred for anti-vaxxers:
In the US, most children today have access to vaccines, Ratner said in an interview. Vaccine hesitancy, however, is a major barrier to childhood vaccination that is growing in importance, he said.
… During the pandemic, vaccination turned “into this insanely polarized political thing,” he said, further eroding vaccine acceptance. “Once there was that kind of hesitancy out there and that kind of divisiveness, it’s not surprising that it has bled over into people thinking about vaccine mandates and childhood vaccines in general.”
Vaccine hesitancy—or outright refusal—is driving the measles outbreak among children in central Ohio, according to Mysheika W. Roberts, MD, MPH, health commissioner for Columbus Public Health, the jurisdiction where about 95% of the total cases have occurred. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic threw fuel on antivaccination sentiment, pockets of her community refused the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, she said in an interview.
She attributed this refusal to a persistent misconception that the vaccine causes autism... “I think these are individuals who are making a decision not to protect their children against vaccine-preventable diseases, and some of them are making a specific decision not to use the MMR vaccine,” Roberts said.
Doctor Roberts thinks it’s the anti-vaxxers. She “thinks” so. How can she be sure, she’s working at the speed of science. In other words, she’s NOT SURE:
When asked if her community is undervaccinated, Roberts replied, “That’s a great question.” Her jurisdiction’s measles vaccination rate is estimated at 80% to 90%, but accurate data aren’t available because reporting to Ohio’s vaccine registry isn’t mandatory, she explained.
This entire multi-media anti-science house of measles cards is built out of the frustrations of Mysheika (if that’s her real name) Roberts, some random health commissioner in Columbus, Ohio, and we are meant to believe she’s some kind of global measles expert, and start signing up for mandates or something.
No, thanks.
But it gets better. It’s ALL fake. It literally took me under 30 seconds of searching on DuckDuckGo to find this old 2014 story:
2014! Did you remember your 2022 numbers? The alarming WebMD article reported a shocking number of 73 measles cases in Ohio this year so far. Let’s see what the numbers looked like way back in 2014, long before the current pandemic of rabid anti-vaccine sentiment:
At least 155 people have caught the highly contagious respiratory disease, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That’s up from 68 infected as of May 13.
Oh. A hundred and fifty-five. Only halfway through 2014, in June. What month are we in again now? That’s right, DECEMBER. So we’ve half the cases in December 2022 than we had during the first half of the 2014 measles “outbreak” of 155 kids in June 2014. Okay. But… we’re supposed to … what? Panic or something?
Please.
Searching Twitter, I found HUNDREDS of nearly identical breathless, fear-mongering tweets about the terrifying new “outbreak” when I searched for “Ohio measles”. I then spent fifteen minutes posting corrective replies, until my fingers were bleeding and I had to stop. But the fearful tweets kept scrolling downward into infinity.
There’s an outbreak, all right. It’s just not an outbreak of anti-vaxx driven measles infections. It’s an outbreak of stupidity.
We are NOT doing this again. Nope. Sorry, WHO, Sorry, JAMA. Sorry, germaphobes. Get a grip.
I squash the latest fear-mongering headlines over measles; a big jab study; N.J. schools re-mask for Christmas; Taliban outlaws college for gals; the newest Twitter files; J6 censorship, more.
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