thewayne | Entries tagged with disease outbreaks

You can still get medical exemptions for extreme cases, but legally, religious exemptions are no more. The law that was shot down would have allowed private and parochial schools to set their own standards for what qualified as an exemption.

With this law being shot down, there are now five states that do not allow religious exemptions for vaccinations.

https://westvirginiawatch.com/2025/03/24/west-virginia-house-rejects-vaccine-exemption-bill-a-priority-for-morrisey/

Meanwhile, in Kansas, they now have ten confirmed cases with others under observation. In all cases, the children - ranging from birth to 17 years old - were un-vaccinated or under-vaccinated, having had one of the two doses required. The cases span three counties and are the first measles cases in the last seven years. The three counties are all in the southwest corner of the state, closest to where the outbreak in Texas is taking place.

Currently, the Kansas cases have not required hospitalization and the only fatalities have been the one child in Texas, aged 4, and the adult in New Mexico.

https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/healthcare/2025/03/24/kansas-measles-cases-are-unvaccinated-and-under-vaxxed-children/82636954007/

I don't have a link handy, but the parents of the child who died of measle: they remain anti-vax because 'their four other children haven't caught measles'. Play lethal games, win lethal prizes. So they're happy their 4 y/o child has 'gone to the lord'? *SMH* Okay, whatevs. I wonder what the 4 y/o thought about it while she was dying.

No information has been revealed about the OK cases: age, vaccination status, location, etc., hopefully it will be revealed with time. Currently OK officials are saying that this "does not pose a public health risk", I officially am saying bull. We have two DOCUMENTED cases in Oklahoma - we don't know where, we don't know how many infected people are not yet showing symptoms. We don't know where they were exposed, or even if they were exposed in Texas - or New Mexico. It's less than a three hour drive from Lubbock to Oklahoma, which is not very far. We don't know how long they were symptomatic and spreading germs before they were diagnosed and presumably isolated.

The death in New Mexico was not uncovered until it was was tested post-mortem. Without more information revealed, it is a public health risk.

I wouldn't call this a spillover unless the cases are definitely adjacent to Texas. The fact that Oklahoma is adjacent to Texas is ridiculous, what if the cases are in the NE corner of OK?

In the realm of updated numbers, Oklahoma kindergartners are only 88% vaccinated with MMR, whereas the ideal herd immunity level is 95% or above. TX case count is up to 223, that's +25 since Friday.

NM is up to 33, 27 were unvaccinated and the remainder are vax status unknown.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/03/texas-measles-outbreak-spills-into-third-state-as-cases-reach-258/

Authorities announced that the Texas death was an unvaccinated six y/o. The second death was this week in New Mexico and was an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical assistance before he passed. He only tested positive for measles after his death, cause of death is being investigated.

Almost 200 cases are reported thus far, 3/4ths of them are age 0-17.

New Mexico has ten cases in Lea County, across the border from Gaines County, Texas, which is the epicenter of the plague. Authorities are having to discourage people from having measles parties to purposely infect their kids to "build immunity". They're also having a rush on cod liver~~castor~~ oil, which is high in vitamin A which is believed to be protective against measles. Hint: it isn't. Only the vaccine is protective against it.

Unfortunately I don't have a cite for this, but the religious group that's dominant in the area that's resisting vaccination based on their faith? THEY ARE GOING AGAINST THEIR LEADERS. Their leaders published a doctrinal whateverwhosit stating that it is proper and good to take the Covid-19 vaccinations, and all vaccinations to be good citizens in the community and to keep themselves safe. So they're going against their religious leaders in refusing to get vaccinated!

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/measles-outbreak-hits-208-cases-as-federal-outbreak-response-goes-off-the-rails/

Oh, and Robert Fucking Kennedy Junior Mint? He's off rock climbing in California. And recommending that vitamins and supplements are very effective. And cancelling vaccine advisory meetings and scrubbing information off the CDC web site.

EDIT: It was cod liver oil, thanks to

moonhare. I mis-remembered.

In Texas, an unvaccinated school-aged child has died of a vaccine-preventable disease in the middle of a growing outbreak.

Thank you, Mister Illustrious Anti-Vaxxer Robert Fucking Kennedy Junior Mint. Add one to your tally.

At least 124 people are sick in Texas, 18 or more hospitalized, and this county shares the border with New Mexico, where at least nine are sick. And while the affected county is not contiguous with my area, we have at least one case in my county.

Fucking anti-vaxxers.

From the article: "It is the first death in the mushrooming outbreak in Texas, and it marks the first measles death in the country since 2015, when a woman with underlying health conditions in Washington state died amid an outbreak. The death highlighted the importance of maintaining high community vaccination rates to prevent the spread of the extremely infectious disease to vulnerable people. Prior to that, the US hadn't recorded a measles death since 2003.

In 2000, the US declared measles to be eliminated, meaning it no longer continuously spreads in the US. Outbreaks that occur have been limited and are generally sparked by cases linked to international travel. In the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, it's estimated that 3 million to 4 million people were infected each year, leading to 48,000 hospitalizations, 1,000 cases of encephalitis (swelling of the brain), and 400 to 500 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

A disease that had largely been eliminated. One death in over twenty years until now. It's not going to be the last, and it's going to continue to grow, especially in the People's Republic of Texas. And it'll grow in New Mexico, because the rural areas have lot of people just as obstinately stupid and anti-vax as Texans.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/02/unvaccinated-school-aged-child-dies-of-measles-in-texas-amid-growing-outbreak/

And they don't really know what it is. Doesn't test positive for flu or covid, symptoms similar to both and can turn into pneumonia. Seems to have a low mortality rate at the moment, which is not uncommon with pneumonia. It's shutting down schools and school districts in ten states from losing teachers, students, and bus drivers. Currently it's in Texas and east/north of there, but that means it has probably established itself well in the west, but the numbers haven't blown up yet.

I have no idea if it's spreading in Europe yet. If it's not yet identified, it's not easy to track. But with international air travel, with numbers like these, it's probably already around the world and possibly the next pandemic.

Time to start masking up again, which I'm starting today. Of course the big problem is that the Center for Disease Control is no longer trustworthy, and we're withdrawing from the World Health Organization - at least that process takes a year.

This write-up has a good summary of some of the symptoms and what it's doing in schools. She's a good follower of outbreaks and has a medical background.

https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1867959.html

Here's the thing. Since someone was sworn into office on Monday, the public health offices have been ordered to silence their public information offices. So news blackout. This may be temporary, as part of an effort to let the new peeps get their feet under them. Or maybe not.

Regardless, we do have this article, which shows a map of wastewater monitoring Covid concentration levels, which is a decent way to figure out what's going on in your state. Of course, Covid is not the only pathogen in circulation right now, there's a new strain of pertussis, or whooping cough, that's been going around, norovirus is always a problem, and I'm not sure about the flu season.

From what I've heard/read, loss of your sense of taste is not a symptom in the latest strain of Covid!

So get your jabs and keep yourself as healthy as possible!

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-19-wastewater-map-united-states-very-high-levels-2018270

First off, the good news!

Egypt, after a one-hundred year effort(!), has been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization! They experienced a huge uptick during/after the building of the Aswan Dam but have now eradicated the disease. That is really great news.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2yl8pjgn2o

In weird news, scurvy is making a comeback! That's right, the sailor's disease is returning. It's so easily prevented by eating fresh citrus or even taking a vitamin C supplement, yet here we are. Apparently people undergoing bariatric procedures are susceptible to it as it can screw up your metabolism and absorption.

The good thing about vitamin C is that it's not particularly dangerous to take too much of it: if you have too much, you'll just pee it away. Some other vitamins, that's not the case and it can be dangerous to take too much, such as zinc.

https://gizmodo.com/scurvy-is-making-a-surprising-comeback-2000509979

In bad news, McDonald's is having a problem with an e.coli outbreak related to Quarter Pounders. It has sickened a lot of people, hospitalized ten, and there has been one fatality, and the problem has not been localized to one region, so best to avoid QP's for the immediate future. It is suspected that it's either the beef or the onions, but not yet known which, though the investigation by both the company and the CDC is on-going.

49 cases have been identified, mostly in Colorado and Nebraska, dating from September 27 to October 11. However, that's self-reporting/doctor-reporting and testing. A lot more people may have been sick and not told their doctor, just toughed it out at home and recovered, which is very likely.

https://gizmodo.com/cdc-says-mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-kills-1-and-hospitalizes-10-2000515312

And now the fun stuff: MAGA!

The MAGA Faithful are freaking out about the e.coli announcement, saying that it's a smear campaign solely designed to make the weird felon from Florida look bad after his weekend "work shift" at McDonald's. First off, he was there for all of half an hour, in a store that was closed to the public. He was not wearing a hair net or hat, nor gloves, and all he did was scoop fries into cardboard containers (he apparently couldn't handle the complexity of working the fry station) and handing out packaged food that other workers had assembled to fans who had been previously screened.

In other words, pure photo opp.

And yet, clearly, the CDC in conjunction with the CIA and probably other TLAs orchestrated this pathogen outbreak just to make him look bad.

As if saying he needs generals to be as loyal to him as Hitler's generals is good? Seems that Mister History Student Cadet Bonespurs didn't get to the chapter that said generals made four murder attempts against Der Fuhrer.

https://gizmodo.com/maga-faithful-say-mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-is-a-conspiracy-to-hurt-trump-2000515385

The man caught it from his cat who was very sick with terrible sores. Fortunately it was caught early before it became blood-born and he was successfully treated, they also traced people that he and the cat were in close contact with.

No word on whether the cat made it.

From the article, "According to the CDC, there were 496 plague cases in the US between 1970 and 2020. And between 2000 and 2020, the CDC counted 14 deaths."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/rare-bubonic-plague-case-in-oregon-spread-from-very-sick-pet-cat/

ETA: the thing about bubonic is that it's easily treated, but only IF it's correctly diagnosed early!

He also proposes banning them from day care to protect kids too young or unable to be vaccinated.

I can get behind that. Germany is also having problems with a measles outbreak, and they're fining anti-vaxxer parents in New York, but only up to $1,000, not the almost $2,800 being proposed in Germany. The law proposed requires a certificate showing the child has been vaccinated or has had measles. In addition, daycare centers can be fined for admitting children who have not provided proof of vaccination! However, the government is not throwing legislation out without funding: they're putting €5mil annually out there for vaccinations, which can be provided by most doctors and specialists.

Germany had 500 cases of measles in 2018 and has 300 thus far this year.

This was a concern for my wife and I when we did our river cruise from Prague to Berlin because we knew there were live measles in Europe, but it wasn't nearly the problem then in 2015 that it is now.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/germanys-health-minister-proposes-a-2790-anti-vaxxer-charge/

ETA: One of the comments to the post was: Gee, I guess this means Jenny McCarthy is going to take Germany off her travel recommendation list!

ROFL!

Crossposts: https://thewayne.livejournal.com/1142208.html

Just wow.

She "had just returned from a trip to Vietnam, where there has been widespread measles activity, according to “Inside Edition.”

The woman was unaware she was sick when entered the theater at 11 p.m. Thursday. She didn’t leave until 4 a.m. Friday, and she went to the emergency room later Friday.

The woman is now under “voluntary isolation” at home."

So the people who worked at the theater were exposed. Everyone in the presumably packed theater were exposed. Everyone at the ER were exposed. A third address is listed in the article.

I don't get why she wasn't vaccinated before she left for Asia. She's described as a 20something: even if her childhood vaccinations were still strong, she should have been re-vaccinated before going to SE Asia.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-measles-avengers-endgame-audience_n_5cca0838e4b0d123954dd3a1