Measles are back. While this might not be news to people who regularly spend time on the internet, the once eradicated disease is making a forceful comeback due to parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated against the disease (as well as a host of other diseases) thanks to debunked misinformation about vaccines causing autism. While measles might not be an issue for those who are vaccinated (obviously) or unvaccinated but older and healthy, it can actually cause death and other complications in young children who haven’t been vaccinated due to age or health reasons as well as in people with compromised immune systems. The main reason to get vaccinated for diseases like the measles is to prevent any occurrences from happening, regardless of how deadly the diseases might be.
Measles is an incredibly infectious disease and can be spread even before symptoms show up. Did you know that 22 states allow students to go to colleges without any sort of vaccine? This is becoming a huge issue now that people are actively catching and spreading measles, especially in California. The news of measles first broke in Disneyland and now it seems to have continued to spread. Students at three California campuses — Moorepark College, California State University at Channel Islands, and California State University at Long Beach — have caught measles and are now included in the 90 people who have caught it in California so far. This is a worrisome development in the fight against a disease that was once eradicated in the United States and proof that anti-vaxers, those who are against vaccines, are actively threatening the health of our society.
Now California is fighting back by requiring that anyone who wants to go to college in the state must be up to date on their vaccines and fully vaccinated against all of the standard diseases. The program would begin in 2017 and even that is already drawing criticism from scientists and health professionals who believe that it should’ve already been implemented. Hopefully this anti-vaccine movement is just a phase and that it will die out after parents realize that they’re being selfish by refusing to vaccinate their children; that it puts the rest of society in harms way.
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