It’s hard to fathom that here we are, sliding towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and we are facing a resurgence of that old enemy: measles.
Science-deniers who rant about the evils of vaccines are dragging us all back to the dark ages, where childhood diseases have the potential to claim far too many lives. They tell us that we have immune systems, that we don’t need vaccines; that we survived for centuries without these life-saving medications.
They ask: what did they do back in the old days? People just got measles, or whooping cough or small pox, or typhoid, or whatever. But here’s the thing: they also died. Take a wander through an old cemetery some time, one with headstones from before the days of safe and effective vaccines, and you’ll notice that there are a lot of headstones for children. Young children. Often more than one from a family. Yes, they didn’t need vaccines because, well … they didn’t have a bloody choice.
According to the Herald, the current outbreak in Samoa that has claimed 63 lives is just a small part of the global cited by the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control. They reckon more than 140,000 people have died of this absolutely preventable disease this year. Many of them children. In fact, one family in Samoa lost three children to this deadly disease.
The saddest part of it all, is that it doesn’t need to happen.
In 2018, fatalities here highest among children under the age of 5. To get to the herd immunity stage where the disease stops spreading, we need 90% of our kids to be vaccinated, but that global rate is currently sitting at just 70%.
As the government in Samoa battles this outbreak, the keyboard warrior anti-vaxxers have crawled out from under their collective rocks to share all their abhorrent and idiotic anti-vax rhetoric and to leave ridiculous comments and an array of one-star reviews on the official government website.
Seriously, these idiots need to grow up.
Vaccines work.
Climate change is real.
Peer-reviewed, scientific research out-ranks some twat Googling conspiracy websites while they are on the loo.