Pro tip for my fellow graybeards: get a measles booster if you were born before 1976! Even then, it might not hurt if you are in an area where the risk is high.
Disclaimer: I am an internet rando -- talk to your doctor.
Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
21–30 of 132 posts
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
It erases immune memory, taking away antibodies to recently exposed diseases. It's best not to get it.
What is the evolutionary advantage of this? I mean, if the host dies subsequently that's pretty bad for both parties, or?
Sometimes, even usually, evolution finds a “local maximum” of effectiveness. Where the solution an organism finds is not optimal but it’s good enough for the organism to survive, even win.
So yeah I’m sure evolution didn’t create something perfect in the disease here but it survives long enough, and kills few-enough people slowly enough in the wild to survive
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#23[flagged]
Everything is a tradeoff. If big pharma had their way, we would get shot every second week (bi yearly shots for flu and covid, some tropical malaria, ebola, mad cow disease...) Preventable disseases can be prevented by enforcing basic hygiene, but most people do not like that.
Big pharma would rather sell you medicine as an ongoing thing vs a one-off vaccine.
> Preventable disseases can be prevented by enforcing basic hygiene, but most people do not like that.
We're talking about measles here: you're completely wrong in your assumption in regards to measles.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#24Why do problems caused by anti scientific behavior occur in a country like the United States, which has so many outstanding scientists? From a third party perspective, I wonder if it's because, as stratification has progressed in the US, distrust of the social class that scientists belong to has led people to deny even their achievements. Why does distrust arise toward the institutions and hierarchies that speak for…
> But when you think about it, governments, state agencies, and even universities themselves are not actively trying to improve this
They are, all the time, doing outreach. It's just as Isaac Asimov said:
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'
The origin story the government brainwashes everyone through public schools is partly to blame. There are people challenging it, but mostly they end up pushing for a different form of anti-intellectualism :(.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#25Quite interesting to see that measles is coming back. I suppose there is a notion of generational memory. Two generations out, people forget what the world was like. Forgetting like this on a civilizational level is probably adaptive unless it’s catastrophic and a measles epidemic is eminently survivable as a civilization if incredibly tragic for the families affected. I had measles as a child, too. Fortunately, my p…
It seems like there’s a pretty strong parallel with the failure of the screw worm eradication programme. It just became a thing we did, rather than the absolute miracle it was - like vaccination - and then from complacency grows suspicion, for again, as you say, few people alive remember how it was.
Well the screw worm thing happened because Elon Musk hired a bunch of twitter nazis to put the government through a wood chipper.
This is the end result of decades snake oil moguls empowered by orin hatch and then turbo charged by people being furious that they weren't allowed to go to TGI Fridays for six months.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It erases immune memory, taking away antibodies to recently exposed diseases. It's best not to get it.
What is the evolutionary advantage of this? I mean, if the host dies subsequently that's pretty bad for both parties, or?
Viruses don't care if the host dies. Evolution doesn't explain all things in nature.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#27“marking the latest and longest-lasting series of measles outbreaks in the US since last year as health officials panic.“
Having trouble parsing this one.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#28Why do problems caused by anti scientific behavior occur in a country like the United States, which has so many outstanding scientists? From a third party perspective, I wonder if it's because, as stratification has progressed in the US, distrust of the social class that scientists belong to has led people to deny even their achievements. Why does distrust arise toward the institutions and hierarchies that speak for…
I would put some blame on medical billing, and the opiods pandemic also made some fertile ground for trolls (a work injury turning family member to an addict, followed by minimal fines and zero jail time for the conspirators that grew the pandemic). Basically a perfect setup to grow mistrust.
Just a couple of decades ago both sides of the US political aisles laughed at antivax style rhetoric, and didn't see forcing the issue further than it was as worth it (us religious grounds and similar).
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The World Cup already started. But there are no games played in Utah
> The World Cup already started. But there are no games played in Utah For now, Utahns can travel freely to US states where World Cup games are played.
Relatively nobody in the US cares about soccer, much less travels for it.
Re: Measles surge in Utah sparks fears US could undo decades of progress
#30According this administration forever chemicals are good but vaccines for deadly diseases are bad.