"New infections rising in every state; Fauci says we'd still have polio if vaccine had drawn COVID-like misinformation: Live COVID updates"
Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S.. Thousands died every year from them. As vaccines were developed and became widely used, rates of these diseases declined until today most of them are nearly gone from our country.
* Nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles before there was a vaccine, and hundreds died from it each year. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles.
* More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only two cases of diphtheria have been reported to CDC between 2004 and 2014.
* An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. Since 2012, 15 cases of rubella were reported to CDC.
Given successes like these, it might seem reasonable to ask, “Why should we keep vaccinating against diseases that we will probably never see?” Here is why:
Vaccines don’t just protect yourself.
Most vaccine-preventable diseases are spread from person to person. If one person in a community gets an infectious disease, he can spread it to others who are not immune. But a person who is immune to a disease because she has been vaccinated can’t get that disease and can’t spread it to others. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer opportunities a disease has to spread.
If one or two cases of disease are introduced into a community where most people are not vaccinated, outbreaks will occur. In 2013, for example, several measles outbreaks occurred around the country, including large outbreaks in New York City and Texas – mainly among groups with low vaccination rates. If vaccination rates dropped to low levels nationally, diseases could become as common as they were before vaccines.
Diseases haven’t disappeared.
The United States has very low rates of vaccine-preventable diseases, but this isn’t true everywhere in the world. Only one disease — smallpox — has been totally erased from the planet. Polio is close to being eliminated, but still exists in several countries. More than 350,000 cases of measles were reported from around the world in 2011, with outbreaks in the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Europe. In that same year, 90% of measles cases in the U.S. were associated with cases imported from another country. Only the fact that most Americans are vaccinated against measles prevented these clusters of cases from becoming epidemics. airplane landing
Disease rates are low in the United States today. But if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating, a case that could touch off an outbreak of some disease that is currently under control is just a plane ride away.
A final example: what could happen.
We know that a disease that is apparently under control can suddenly return, because we have seen it happen, in countries like Japan, Australia, and Sweden. Here is an example from Japan. In 1974, about 80% of Japanese children were getting pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. That year there were only 393 cases of whooping cough in the entire country, and not a single pertussis-related death. Then immunization rates began to drop, until only about 10% of children were being vaccinated. In 1979, more than 13,000 people got whooping cough and 41 died. When routine vaccination was resumed, the disease numbers dropped again.
The chances of your child getting a case of measles or chickenpox or whooping cough might be quite low today. But vaccinations are not just for protecting ourselves, and are not just for today. They also protect the people around us (some of whom may be unable to get certain vaccines, or might have failed to respond to a vaccine, or might be susceptible for other reasons). And they also protect our children’s children and their children by keeping diseases that we have almost defeated from making a comeback. What would happen if we stopped vaccinations? We could soon find ourselves battling epidemics of diseases we thought we had conquered decades ago.
References
* CDC. Measles — United States, January 1-August 24, 2013. MMWR 2013; 62(36);741-43.
* Updates on CDC’s Polio Eradication Efforts
* Reported Cases and Deaths from Vaccine Preventable Diseases, United States, 1950-2013
* Gangarosa EJ, et al. Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the untold story pdf icon[6 pages] external icon. Lancet 1998;351:356-61.
Tokyo reports highest daily COVID-19 case number in six months on the eve of Olympic Games
"New infections rising in every state; Fauci says we'd still have polio if vaccine had drawn COVID-like misinformation: Live COVID updates "Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri" Jordan Culver John Bacon USA TODAYJuly 18, 2021 VIDEO - How Covid-19 pandemic is impacting the Tokyo Olympic games"
Posted 19h ago
Less than 24 hours remain on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games countdown clock. (
Reuters: Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Tokyo has hit a new six-month high in new COVID-19 cases, one day before the Olympics' opening ceremony, as worries grow of a worsening of infections during the Games.
Key points:
* The 1,979 new cases reported on Thursday are the highest since January
* The Olympics opening ceremony is on Friday
* Four more Olympic village residents, including two athletes, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is determined to hold the Olympics, placed Tokyo under a state of emergency on July 12, but daily cases have sharply increased since then.
The emergency measures, which largely involve a ban on alcohol sales and shorter hours for restaurants and bars, are to last until August 22, after the Olympics end on August 8.
The 1,979 new cases on Thursday are the highest since 2,044 were recorded on January 15.
Japan has reported about 853,000 cases and 15,100 deaths since the pandemic began, most of them this year.
Yoshihide Suga's government has been accused of putting the Olympics before the Japanese people's health. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)
The Olympics, delayed for a year by the pandemic, begin on Friday.
Spectators are banned from all venues in the Tokyo area, with limited audiences allowed at a few outlying sites.
Four more residents of the Olympic village, including two athletes, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
A total of 91 people accredited for the Tokyo Games have tested positive since the beginning of July.
Skateboarder Candy Jacobs of the Netherlands and table tennis player Pavel Sirucek of the Czech Republic tested positive and had to leave the village to enter a quarantine hotel.
Two additional "Games-concerned personnel" — a category that includes team coaches and officials — staying in the village overlooking Tokyo Bay tested positive.
The 91 cases do not include athletes who tested positive at home before heading to Tokyo like tennis stars Alex de Minaur and Coco Gauff.
Mr Suga's government has been criticised for what some say is prioritising the Olympics over the nation's health.
His public support ratings have fallen to around 30 per cent in recent media surveys, and there has been little festivity ahead of the Games.
On Thursday, the director of the opening ceremony, Kentaro Kobayashi, was dismissed over a past Holocaust joke.
Mr Suga is to meet with US First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday and have dinner at the state guest house.
Earlier in the day, he was visited by World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Japan's Emperor Naruhito wished the athletes good health after meeting IOC president Thomas Bach. (Reuters: Imperial Household Agency of Japan)
Also Thursday, Emperor Naruhito received a courtesy visit from International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach at the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Naruhito said he hoped all athletes will compete in good health and achieve their best performances.
Mr Bach said the Olympic community was doing its best not to pose any risk to the Japanese people.
Experts say virus infections among unvaccinated people younger than age 50 are rising sharply.
Japan's vaccinations began late and slowly, but the pace picked up in May as the government pushed to accelerate the drive before the Olympics, though the pace has since slowed due to a shortage of imported vaccines.
About 23 per cent of Japanese are fully vaccinated, well short of the level believed necessary to have any meaningful effect on reducing the risk in the general population.
Experts warned on Wednesday that infections in Tokyo are likely to continue to worsen in coming weeks.
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