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A comment on Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status.

Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by Covzire on Friday August 30, 2019 @09:15AM (#20838227)
"All regions of the world showed an increase in measles bar the Americas, which saw a minor decline - although the US registered its highest number of cases in 25 years."

This surprised me, I thought the US was the epicenter of the anti-vax movement? Or is it just how things appear because of the constant news topics?

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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by stevesimmons on Friday August 30, 2019 @09:17AM (#20838240)
"'The Americas' is lower, USA is higher" is perfectly consistent with the US being the epicenter of the anti-vax movement, no?
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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by Covzire on Friday August 30, 2019 @09:28AM (#20838351)
Ah that makes sense.
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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by lxwang on Friday August 30, 2019 @09:20AM (#20838276)
It surprised me too, and it's unclear what their basis is for saying this.

This WHO page [1] on measles statistics claims a 60% increase for the Americas. Maybe the BBC interpreted a <100% increase as a decrease, or maybe I'm misinterpreting it, since I don't see the raw numbers.

1: https://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/measles-data-2019/...

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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by jfengel on Friday August 30, 2019 @11:12AM (#20839377)
Conceivably "the Americas" could mean "the western hemisphere minus the US". It's an awkward way to put it, but it's an awkward concept.
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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by dx87 on Friday August 30, 2019 @10:20AM (#20838841)
It's just a perception because of what is shown on the news. The "vaccines cause autism" idea was first started by a UK doctor.
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Re:Measles: Four European nations lose eradication status by Freak_NL on Friday August 30, 2019 @10:01AM (#20838667)
The US is the epicentre of the disinformation movement surrounding vaccinations, but like any effective virus (hah, there's some irony), it spread. You will find that most anti-vaxxer rhetoric in other countries closely mimics the US material.

Medical professionals are effectively pitched in a fierce battle against a very successful meme.

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