karacox12
- Apr 10, 2019
- 4 min read

Measles

Updated: Jun 18, 2019

Measles is quite the hot topic right now. It’s spurring a lot of states to try to remove all but medical exemptions, and even had New York trying to quarantine the unvaccinated. That got overturned, and now they are going door to door, forcing vaccination or a $1,000 fine. But is that really necessary? With somewhere in the neighborhood of 700-800 cases in 2019 and zero deaths, I highly doubt it’s as dangerous as they would like to make us think. But let’s look into it and dig a little more. As always, the links are at the bottom of the blog to back up every claim. (I’m not going to touch the MMR/autism debate in this blog. This will be purely on measles.)

The truth about measles

First, let’s discuss exactly what measles is. Measles is a virus that typically shows symptoms 10-14 days after exposure. Symptoms start with a fever sometimes going over 104, cold-like symptoms, and red, watery eyes that are often mistaken for pink eye. Three to five days later, a rash begins at the top of the head and spreads down the body. Koplik spots (white spots inside the mouth) diarrhea, and possible light sensitivity are other possible symptoms. The rash typically lasts around 5 days.

While a full body rash and high fever can be frightening, it’s really not something to be scared of in this case. Measles is nothing more than a sign that your body is vitamin A deficient. With a little supplementation, symptoms improve. But even without supplementation of vitamin A, serious side effects are uncommon, and death rare.

Now, the question arises, just how rare is death from measles? To answer that question: The first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. Prior to that, 481,500 cases of measles were reported in 1962 and 408 deaths, meaning you had a .08% chance of death from measles. By 1972, 32,000 cases were reported in 1972, and 24 deaths, meaning you had .07% chance of death. Even after a decade of the vaccine, the chance of death was the nearly same.

While the cases of measles went down, the supposed immunity over the next several decades proved to wane. As more of the older population with natural immunity died, susceptibility steadily increased. It is expected to continue to rise as naturally immune adults die, proving nothing more than the immunity of the measles vaccine was fleeting.

Risks from the vaccine

Furthermore, the risks from the vaccine were much greater, and more widespread. NVIC estimates that only 1% of vaccine reactions are reported, and yet, the following are SOME of the known risks associate with being vaccinated against measles: seizures, pneumonia, aseptic meningitis, and death, among others. There have been 457 deaths from measles vaccine to date.

“As of November 30, 2018, there have been more than 92,844 reports of measles vaccine reactions, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following measles vaccinations made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including 457related deaths, 6,902 hospitalizations, and 1,736 related disabilities. Over 50% of those adverse events occurred in children three years old and under”

Plus, the vaccine is only 94% effective, meaning that even if 100% of people were vaccinated, we still wouldn’t be completely protected.

Possibly one of the scariest things to me is the human DNA found in vaccines. There are significant risks with altering dna, and especially risks for females, since whole strain dna was found in the MMR.

Now that you know the risks of the virus versus the risks of the vaccine, you are probably wondering if there are any benefits to actually getting wild measles. I know none of us actually like being sick, and it’s miserable when you can’t make your children feel better. But most childhood viruses and illnesses actually do have benefit, if we let our immune system work. In the case of measles, it helps your body in the fight against cancer, if you ever get it, and helps reduce the size of tumors.

So now that you know the risks from measles are low, wild measles has great benefit, and the measles vaccine carries far more risk than the virus, you may wonder why the mass hysteria surrounding measles lately. For this, I don’t have a link, just a picture. But, you can see the source. Feel free to look it up for yourself. The current measles vaccine is about to expire, and they don’t want to lose all that money. Additionally, I imagine they are trying to unload them all since their licensing has been called into question. (Link included) Decide for yourself, but I know what bet I’ll take.