A Santa Clarita pediatrician is offering her opinion on the nationwide 2019 measles outbreak, and how she believes it relates to the anti-vaccine movement.
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On May 30, CNN reported that 971 cases of measles across 26 states had been recorded in the U.S. so far this year — the highest number in nearly 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If immunization rates drop below a certain percent, and in this case it’s about 95 percent, then it leaves a large number of unimmunized individuals,” said Dr. Rochelle Feldman of Prima Pediatrics. “All they need is a traveler or anybody from an outside community who themselves were not immunized to bring it back.”
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Feldman continued that if a person infected with measles enters an enclosed space, anyone who hasn’t been immunized against the disease will be exposed, “and then it spreads like wildfire.”
An airborne disease, measles lives on what Feldman called “the favorite fours,” including food, feces, fingers and fomites, which are objects or materials such as clothes, utensils and furniture.
“In other words on anything — it lives on anything and it lives for an extended period of time,” Feldman said. “It is one of the most infectious organisms known to man… It is a dangerous disease. It’s deadly.”
The measles was considered eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 due to the “widespread” measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination, coupled with what CDC officials called “a strong public health infrastructure to detect and contain measles,” according to the CNN report.
However, Feldman noted that the rising number of “anti-vaxers” choosing not to have their children vaccinated leaves room for major comebacks of diseases such as measles.
Feldman attributed this anti-vaccine movement in large part to “fear that overcomes reason,” adding that one major contributor to this fear was what she called a “false” study by Andrew Wakefield in the 1990s that linked vaccines with autism.
“I clearly remember when this article came out, because I was part of the research group to determine whether or not there was any accuracy to it,” Feldman said. “(We) couldn’t confirm his findings. There was a reason — because he fabricated it. He literally lied. He created a study that never existed.”
Feldman pointed out that Wakefield lost his medical license and was put in prison as a result, but the intense fear his study created in many still hasn’t been undone to this day.
When it comes down to whether or not to vaccinate a child, Feldman encouraged parents to talk to their pediatricians about any fears or concerns they have instead of relying on what they read on the internet or social media, and then letting a licensed medical doctor make the appropriate recommendation for their specific child.
“There isn’t a single vaccine or a single medication on earth or even a single natural herb on earth that can’t have a bad effect on some people,” Feldman said. “You have to look at the statistics, you have to know enough science and math to understand what that means.”
Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Community Spotlight based on a recent radio interview with Prima Pediatrics.
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