Polio? Measles? Florida Is Flirting With an Anti-Vaccine Apocalypse Thanks, DeSantis.

[Demovictory9]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/11/desantis-polio-measles-florida-is-flirting-with-an-anti-vaccine-apocalypse/

Dr. Mobeen Rathore has spent the better part of his career trying to protect the children in his practice from contracting deadly diseases like measles, whooping cough, and polio.

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. Over the years, they saw their hard work pay off: In 2019, the vaccination rate for two-year-old children in Duval was an impressive 98 percent.

But now, the progress that Rathore and his team made appears to be eroding. This year’s survey showed that the Duval vaccination rate has dropped to 92 percent. The pattern in Duval County appears to be even more pronounced for Florida at large. Before the pandemic, the state had been doing pretty well on its decades-long campaign to increase routine childhood immunization rates. An annual state health department survey released in January 2020 found that 93 percent of two-year-olds were up to date on their shots—a major improvement since the first survey of this kind in 2002, when the rate was just 73 percent. This year, the statewide rate had fallen to 81 percent.



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“We noticed that there are more questions” about routine immunizations. “And I think a lot of that, unfortunately, has to do with all the misinformation around the Covid vaccines.”

Many of the false narratives about Covid vaccines’ supposed deleterious effects—infertility, heart problems, AIDS, to name just a few of the most persistent myths—come from social media influencers, some of whom promote the work of anti-vaccine groups. But in Florida, there’s another important source of confusion: state leaders who have soured on Covid vaccines.


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Other Florida pediatricians told me they have also noticed more parents questioning—and even outright rejecting—routine immunizations. One in Tampa, who requested to remain anonymous because her colleagues have been harassed for criticizing the anti-vaccine movement, told me that she has seen a sharp uptick in parents who reject routine vaccinations for their newborns. Many of them, she said, objected to immunizations because they saw them as an inappropriate intrusion by the government into parenting decisions. They told her they were against “anything that’s mandated by a governing body, whether that’s a medical one, like CDC, or the school board.”

[Ilsa]

1. If it weren't for the fact that these diseases are infectious,

I'd encourage them to follow their convictions and watch their genetic lines disappear.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Oh, my.

I'm old enough that I got all those childhood diseases (measles, mumps, chicken pox) long before vaccines were available. Never got whooping cough, probably because I got the DPT vaccine young.

The sad and scary thing about the parents rejecting vaccines for their babies, is that they are far too young themselves to understand what the vaccines are protecting against.

They will learn the hard way. Oh, and as an aside, back in the 1950's, when I was a kid, most moms did not work outside the home, and were available to be there with sick kids. These days? I'm guessing that the parents who are rejecting vaccines also have two employed parents. So, staying home for two weeks to take care of a sick kid? Really? Good luck.

[scarletlib]

7. Same here. Got them all I was the oldest so I got them first & then infected my siblings.

I was confined to a dark room for 2 weeks with measles. Very sick. The early antibiotic I was given stained my unerupted adult molars permanently. Very sick with mumps as well. For years afterward had a very sensitive runny right year. Still sensitive even today.

Those were mild effects considering how bad the diseases can be.

The scariest was fear of polio during the summer months.
To this day I can remember the palpable fear of adults when children got sick in the summer.

Only fools ignore science and medical advice.

There will be epidemics and children will die. I can’t imagine the suffering of a parent whose child dies from a disease the parent could have prevented.

[secondwind]

3. I have a niece in Miami, she has two daughters, 11 and 9,

and they have never been vaccinated…… for anything. We’ve tried to help her to understand why this is dangerous, but she is not listening.

[Demovictory9]

4. I assumed the kids are home schooled

[JCMach1]

6. Have a cuz who is Quiverfull... Literally and never vaccinated

One of her daughters almost completely lost hearing (and died)due to measles. Did become deaf in one ear.

Still does not vaccinate any of her kids .

There is NOTHING you can say, or do.

[Meowmee]

5. The anti vaxers

Will most likely one day kill nearly everyone with their stupidity

[hatrack]

8. Hey, Coffin Manufacturers! Child-Size Caskets Mean King-Size Opportunities In Florida!!