HHS Secretary: It Would Be Better If 'Everybody Got Measles'

27 points by purple_ferret 3 months ago | 18 comments
  • Terr_ 3 months ago
    > "It used to be, when I were a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection"

    I suppose the kids who were hospitalized and died did, technically, gain "lifetime protection from measles"!

    If "natural" inoculation was that effective and that safe, you know hwat? The disease would already be extinct generations ago, and we wouldn't be having these discussions. If anything, crazy folks like this are helping a disease we almost had practically eradicated.

    ___

    Additionally:

    This is even worse from a personal-liberty perspective, because even if it were as safe as vaccines (it isn't) to be effective you would need to force/compel/entice even more people into partiicpating, since it's actually increasing the number of infectious sources and routes in the short-term.

    Even for kids not hospitalized/dead, measles damages and kinda-resets the immune system, meaning they become vulnerable to injury/death from other diseases even after you thought they were safe.

    • Terr_ 3 months ago
      P.S.: For the more numerically-inclined, suppose RFK's plan is that all children are given "natural" measles at a certain age. There are ~4 million six-year-olds in the USA.

      With a death rate of 0.3%, that means 12,000 dead children every single year to satisfy this guy's conspiracy-theories about vaccines.

      That doesn't include the ones who die later from other diseases because measles has damaged their immune-system, or the ones who survive with brain damage.

      • tim333 3 months ago
        so

        > It Would Be Better if ‘Everybody Got Measles’

        was basically a lie. He did not say that.

        I'm pro vax and think RFK is an idiot but also believe in not lying. It's kind of annoying. And counter productive.

        I mean you trying to save lives by countering misinformation and then your own side starts putting out misinformation hence somewhat legitimising the whole mess.

      • yorwba 3 months ago
        To make sure that everybody gets measles, they could bottle it in vials and give children a carefully dosed injection. Maybe an attenuated measles strain instead of the most dangerous form.

        Surely the natural immunization acquired in this way cannot be worse than unnatural vaccines!

        • RGamma 3 months ago
          Now if you tell me it's 100% organic, carefully handpicked American-sourced measles and free from microplastic, I'm sold!
          • catlover76 3 months ago
            [dead]
          • Terr_ 3 months ago
            From author Roald Dahl:

            > Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

            > “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

            > “I feel all sleepy,” she said.

            > In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

            > [...]

            > I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was ‘James and the Giant Peach‘. That was when she was still alive. The second was ‘The BFG‘, dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.

            https://fs.blog/roald-dahl-letter-daughter/

            • sillywalk 3 months ago
              Kakistocracy:

              a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.

              • red-iron-pine 3 months ago
                i'm shocked that Americans aren't building guillotines or utilizing that wonderful 2nd Amendment -- goes to show it's only good for getting elementary school kids murdered.
                • krapp 3 months ago
                  That's unfair. The Second Amendment is also good for getting gay nightclub goers, Jews, Muslims, women who won't date you, and unarmed black people. As the Founding Fathers clearly intended.

                  Also anyone you can hit from a Vegas hotel window.

                  But apparently not a President with a rifle from a high vantage point at close range with perfect visibility, anymore. Maybe if he'd been a Democrat...

              • gizajob 3 months ago
                America, you’re embarrassing us, regards, Civilisation.
                • Jtsummers 3 months ago
                  https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html

                  We'll get new numbers on that page this Friday, but the number of cases in Texas alone (per other reporting) now exceeds the national total from last week. Spring break is coming up which means a lot more travel for families so we're probably going to see it spread even wider.

                  • taylodl 3 months ago
                    Congress needs to impeach this idiot NOW!!!
                    • java-man 3 months ago
                      Congress enabled this idiot (among many other).
                      • taylodl 3 months ago
                        They did, however they can issue a mea culpa and say they were supporting the president's fresh approach to governance but not intending to support gross incompetence. They can get him out and still save face.
                        • croes 3 months ago
                          To still have a face they would need more than one mea culpa.
                    • croes 3 months ago
                      Measles can also give you a lifetime disability or even death.

                      There is a reason these vaccines were developed in the first place.

                      • bediger4000 3 months ago
                        This is flat insane, and would be bad policy from any aspect.

                        The headline doesn't name RFK Jr as the HHS Secretary.

                        • hughdbrown 3 months ago
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                              • reify 3 months ago
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