It’s time to talk about measles again. I write that sentence with near disbelief. Yet, we are in the middle of another large and growing measles outbreak in the United States. How can this be possible since the United States was declared free of endemic measles in 2000 and the Americas in 2016?
Measles is caused by Morbillivirus hominis, one of the most contagious viruses known. Scientists measure how contagious a virus is with a number called R0 or the basic reproductive number. R0 is an estimate of the number of people one infected person will pass the disease to in a population with no immunity to the disease. Scientists estimate the R0 for measles to be 12-18—one infected person will infect 12-18 additional people if the population is not immune.
Measles spreads via virus-laden droplets that are released when an infected person breathes or coughs. These droplets can remain airborne and infectious for two hours! In 1991, at an International Special Olympics event, an Argentinian athlete with measles participated in the opening ceremonies which took place in a domed stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The athlete infected 16 additional people including two unvaccinated, unrelated spectators whose only exposure was at the opening ceremonies and were seated more than 30 meters from the athlete!
A measles infection starts with flu-like symptoms (cough, fever, sore throat). The characteristic spots appear later. People are contagious before they experience any symptoms, adding to the effectiveness of measles’ spread.
There is no targeted treatment for measles once an infection occurs. Patients are given fever reducers, fluids, and rest is recommended. Antibiotics are not effective against measles (antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections) but doctors may prescribe them to avoid secondary bacterial infections. Doctors may also recommend vitamin A to help prevent eye damage associated with some measles infections but this should be done under the care of a physician since vitamin A is a lipid-soluble vitamin and too much can lead to toxicity, including severe liver and kidney damage.
While I’ve read numerous social media posts suggesting measles should continue to simply be a “rite of passage of childhood,” measles can be deadly as we’ve seen in two recent cases. A measles infection can lead to complications, including pneumonia or encephalitis, a potentially lethal inflammation of the brain. Years after a measles infection, patients can suffer from measles-caused blindness, hearing loss, or subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) a very rare, but fatal central nervous system disease.
Measles virus also causes immune amnesia. Immune memory is the amazing ability of your immune system to remember infections by creating memory cells so that if you are infected with the same pathogen again, your response is so fast and robust that you clear the infection without getting sick or at least without experiencing severe disease. Measles sabotages immune memory. Measles virus replaces the old memory cells with new, measles virus-specific cells. The patient emerges from the infection with strong immunity against measles but increased vulnerability to all other pathogens. So that “rite of passage of childhood” leaves children extra vulnerable to Rubella, chicken pox, mumps, and other diseases.
The best way to avoid the serious consequences of measles is vaccination. The first version of a vaccine against measles was licensed for public use in 1963. An improved version became widely available in 1968 and the combination mumps, measles, Rubella (MMR) vaccine in 1971.
The MMR vaccine has been a target of the anti-vax movement since Wakefield’s fraudulent and debunked study which claimed a link between MMR vaccines and autism. The anti-vax movement has expanded dramatically since Wakefield’s paper was published in 2010, stubbornly refusing to accept the plethora of scientific evidence refuting Wakefield’s claim. The anti-vax movement is directly related to the recent outbreaks we are seeing.
That many in the anti-vax camp are Christians blows my mind and breaks my heart. I suspect the reasons are complex and layered: Christian Nationalism, general suspicion of experts (especially scientists), certain cable news networks, the wedding of vaccination to political ideologies, and more. None of these reasons are biblical or theological. Yet, Jesus’ command to “love our neighbors as ourselves” (Matt 12:31) applies directly to vaccination.
Sure, being vaccinated benefits us. It greatly reduces the chances that we experience severe illnesses. But, being vaccinated also benefits our neighbors.
When I am vaccinated, I become part of herd immunity. Herd immunity refers to a situation in which a critical number of people in a population are immune to a disease such that the disease has difficultly spreading. Herd immunity is most important for those who are too young to be vaccinated, whose immunity has waned because they are older, and those whose immune systems are weakened by disease, chemotherapy or because they are on immunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejecting an organ transplant. In other words, herd immunity most benefits our vulnerable neighbors.
When Jesus was pressed by the expert in the law to define his neighbor, Jesus responded with the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan saw the wounded man, responded to the wounded man’s needs, showed mercy to the man, and sacrificed for the good of the man. After telling this parable, Jesus instructed the expert in the law to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37)—be similarly merciful.
Getting vaccinated is a way to see and respond with mercy to the vulnerable among us. Go and do likewise.
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10 Responses
Thank you very much.
Very persuasive, logical, and understandable. Thank you Sara!
Now, how do we inspire the church to rise up and resist a false gospel that ignores the most basic, dare I say “fundamental,” teachings of Jesus and the prophets! Will THIS be the place where the church draws a line? The German churches never drew a definitive line in the 1930’s. And then it was too late!
Excellent article, Sara! Unfortunately the refusal of vaccines is more political than any other reasons.
Thanks so much, Sara. There is a virus at the core of the anti-vax movement of arrogance and rebellion that works against loving God with our minds and seeking to love our neighbor.
Thanks for this. Vaccinating in order to help our neighbors is a compelling argument. But for ourselves? Perhaps you are too young, but us older folks remember that when we were elementary school age, getting measles was a normal part of growing up. I contracted measles at the age of 8, and my sister and brother of course followed soon after. We thought nothing about the “dangers” of measles. There was no danger. We knew of no one who had died from measles even though everyone got it. We got to stay home from school for a few days and enjoyed that, then got better, then life returned to normal. Except that, as your article indicates, we then contracted chicken pox, also not dangerous if you got your rest. Those childhood experiences undoubtedly feed into the skepticism regarding the importance of measles vaccination. Add to that, our broken trust in Big Pharma, so we wonder if the vaccine has long-range negative consequences. That’s hard to measure and undoubtedly very expensive to measure. If the vaccine does have long-range negative consequences, Big Pharma would certainly not tell us, a consequence of our financial idolatry. So…get vaccinated and be willing to bear the consequences for the sake of helping our neighbors.
David–
I’m not too young to remember the “rites of childhood.” While I did not get measles, I did get Rubella. My mother tells me the story…I came down with symptoms Monday after attending church on Sunday. At church I was near a pregnant friend of my mom. Given that Rubella can cause serious birth defects, that was a scary several months until her baby was born healthy! Measles is fatal in about 1/1000 cases. You are lucky that no one you knew died of measles. 1/1000 isn’t all that rare! Chickenpox…I got it in middle school. Now I am susceptible to shingles. I’m glad my kids, who were vaccinated are not. I hear Big Pharma a lot but I also follow the scientific studies done by scientists unentangled with Big Pharma–scientists from around the globe. I find the evidence for vaccine safety quite convincing!
I would be curious to know who your”scientists unentangled with Big Pharma” are…
And, autism is now affecting 1 in 34 children. Are you sure vaccines have nothing to do with this?
Marty,
Although the rise in Autism Rates coincides with the rise in vaccination rates, correlation does not imply causation. There is a good article in Scientific American and many articles in peer-reviewed medical journals that indicate the rise in Autism rates is not connected to vaccinations. The evidence indicates that the rise in Autism Rates is related to higher awareness and better diagnosis of Autism.
My son was diagnosed with Autism. Implied in the anti-vaccination movement is the idea that Autism is undesirable, that people with Autism are somehow “broken.” My son is brilliant and musically talented, wonderfully and beautifully made by the Lord. We were able to screen him early, and he received supportive help that allowed him to flourish in school and society. Had he not been screened, he would have struggled in school and would not have been diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum, but just as being a little unusual. I believe that many people on the spectrum were seen this way before they were able to receive better diagnoses. He, like many people on the spectrum, sees and experiences the world in unusual ways that lead to discoveries in science and the arts.
I don’t necessarily disagree with anything you wrote. I suspect we do diagnose autism more than in the past. I also suspect mercury, whether in childhood vaccines or in the local environment, plays a very possible role.
The first half of your first sentence, however, is a very good reason for young parents to very carefully consider if they want to abide by the government recommended childhood vaccine schedule.
Most vaccines are not stored in mercury. Some multi-dose vaccines and one type of tetanus-diphtheria vax is stored in thimerisol, which is a kind of mercury. But it is ethylmercury, which does not cause mercury poisoning. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/basics/index.html#:~:text=Most%20vaccines%20do%20not%20have,safe%20for%20use%20in%20vaccines