Friday 20 August 2010

Another Vaccine-Preventable Outbreak

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/20/2988259.htm
People are being reminded to check their vaccination history before travelling overseas after an outbreak of measles on the New South Wales north coast.

The state's Health Department says five people have contracted the highly infectious illness after contact with a traveller who brought the disease into the area.

Two other travellers have also contracted the disease in recent weeks.

The NSW Health director of communicable disease, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, says people can easily spread the disease if they do not check their vaccination history.

"Measles is a nasty disease and it's highly preventable by vaccination," he said.

"So the message is, make sure you're vaccinated against measles, make sure your children are vaccinated.

"But it's particularly important if you're about to travel overseas, just double check that you're fully vaccinated against measles.

"Sometimes we see outbreaks and we're concerned this one will spread further.

"A lot of travellers haven't been vaccinated fully against measles and then when they come back, if they mix with particularly people who also haven't been vaccinated, then that's what we're starting to see on the North Coast."
Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that those who have already made their mind up about the evils of vaccines are only served to strengthen that belief.

It can't be that they are against something that prevents harm to many, they are good people and wouldn't support something that would lead to harming others. Measles isn't that bad anyway, it's good to get measles right? Protects against it in the future, only serves to make us stronger. And that doesn't address the issue of the ingredients in vaccines. They put mercury in there! And vaccines cause autism, Andrew Wakefield was silenced for speaking the truth while other doctors fabricated studies to support Big Pharma. And they must not forget that this is all part of a government plot to control the actions of the populations...

Pick your rationalisation, because that's what the brain is good at doing in the face of conflicting evidence. Meanwhile vaccine-preventable diseases are creeping back into the community, putting lives at risk. But that's okay, measles or whooping cough is a minor irritant in the fight against... ummmm... actually I have no idea what prompts someone to be anti-vaxx. It just doesn't make any sense.

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