this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
440 points (98.0% liked)

News

23644 readers
3065 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A seventh case, the first in a child under age 5, follows the state’s controversial surgeon general’s decision to let parents decide whether to quarantine children or keep them in school.

The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. On Friday, health officials in Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus, a child under age 5.

The patient is the youngest so far to be infected in the outbreak, and the first to be identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale.

It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles case has to the school, but the spread beyond school-age kids was expected.

Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 119 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Reminder that Florida's Surgeon General, hand-picked by DeSantis, is an anti-vaxxer.

And he's telling parents of kids without measles vaccinations to send their kids to school during this outbreak.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/joseph-ladapo-florida-ron-desantis-measles

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Anyone whose kid catches measles because of this should sue the surgeon general for malpractice. Maybe also drop a complaint to the medical board, see if they can get his medical license revoked.

[–] PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As much as I'd love to see that, the likelihood of it happening is low. The boards move on public opinion and consensus. The public they care about may be only other doctors, but as we've seen since covid, there are plenty of doctors who listened to Ozzy and boarded the crazy train.

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Public consensus is that vaccines for diseases like measles, polio, etc., are a good thing. Even most of the people and doctors who were against taking the covid vaccines seem to be in agreement with this, or at least the ones I have heard speak on the subject. Its just an extremely small outlier that claims otherwise.

Still, I feel like you are sadly right about the likelihood of any sort of prosecution happening. I would also love to see logic prevail, every once in a while.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] watson387@sopuli.xyz 94 points 10 months ago (2 children)

All of the unvaccinated children's parents should be charged with child endangerment.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Should be charged with bio-terrorism

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That would be the governor

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

Por que no los dos

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Here is the problem as I see it and I don't know a way around it:

*There are some kids who cannot get vaccinated for legitimate reasons such as allergies or being immunocompromised.

*There are highly unethical anti-vax doctors willing to give anti-vax parents fake exemptions based on those legitimate reasons that their kids don't actually have.

So how do you get around that?

[–] hemmes@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago (3 children)

A brief search indicates that only 1-2% of children are unable to receive traditional vaccinations due to allergies or immunocompromised conditions.

I'm willing to bet that the unethical doctors writing exemptions likely have an unbalanced amount of child-vaccination exemptions to administered child-vaccinations ratio. Such discrepancies should be thoroughly investigated.

In other words, if more than 2 out of every 100 children, a particular doctor consults with, are given vaccination exemptions, then something is suspicious.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That might work. In a sane state. Unfortunately, Florida would likely just let doctors get away with it if some such law astoundingly got passed. Their surgeon general is an anti-vaxer.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's a lot off distance between "something is suspicious" and "this individual is criminally liable".

[–] hemmes@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Criminally dubious, indeed. But here we are, where laws in this and many other regressive states are breaking and bending in ways that befuddle the mind - the educated mind at least.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't work. Doctors specialize in specific things. There are probably doctors who legitimately have 100% vaccine exempt patients for medical reasons.

The real problem is that doctors can't be "fired". Stop asking the government to do something when it's really the AMA licensing board that is the problem.

It's a private organization that is run by doctors. Obviously doctors are not going to prioritize making it easier to take away someone's license. Demand the AMA do something about "killer doctors" or something. If their brand is associated with sickness, then they might take action.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hey, maybe the AMA licensing board should be a government body! Maybe industry self-regulation doesn't work!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 12 points 10 months ago

Investigate those exemptions and make sure they are legit. Fire any doctor who gives out fake ones.

[–] ebits21@lemmy.ca 72 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It’s not a controversial decision… it’s a dumb as fuck decision not based in medicine or science.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

Ita a criminal decision

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 10 months ago

But but.... Feelings

[–] mkhopper@lemmy.world 65 points 10 months ago

If only we had vaccines for this.
Oh, wait.

[–] KreekyBonez@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

and then when it gets too hot down there, all of the snowbirds migrate out and start an insane summer spread for the rest of the continent

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The vast majority of snowbirds would be vaccinated.

The antivax movement wasn't as big when they were kids, they would have gotten their shots back then.

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Mmr does wear off though. Some older Americans got titers drawn and showed they were no longer immune so they got a third shot.

Not sure what he acip recommendation on that is though.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

If this continues (and given this dumbass surgeon general and the antivax movement it will), we might start getting recommendations to get your MMR checked after X years or even for everyone to get it checked.

[–] athos77@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

Ugh, I hadn't even thought of that ...

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Even if they don't die now, there's complications that can kill them that happen 2 months later (for the more dangerous one), or 7-10 years later (for the sneaky one). Measles is a nasty virus and there's a long list of damn good reasons why everyone who possibly can should be vaccinated against it.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Is there any way to know if you've been vaccinated against it that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

[–] Misconduct@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

I don't see why you couldn't just get vaccinated. No harm even if you were previously.

My mom's record keeping of my vaccinations as a kid was a shit show so I ended up just getting the ones I wasn't sure about later in life when I found out she might have skipped some 🙄

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Getting a titer shouldn't be very expensive.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 4 points 10 months ago

I would start with checking out your local health department, or potentially even Planned Parenthood or similar community clinics that offer low-cost primary care services.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

Florida, Florida, Florida.

Mmm! Very stupid. Much wow.

Good luck!

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wouldnt be shocked if we're at 50+ cases in 2 weeks.

[–] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yep! Measles is sooooo contagious and takes a week or two to show symptoms.

50+ kids already have it now.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Anyone who didn't go home and isolate immediately is probably already infected if they weren't vaccinated

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

yep. exactly my point.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm so sorry for the kids who are the victims of this insanity, and to some extent the victims of disinformation that created the situation even though they are dumb fucks. What a disaster. Children who aren't vaccinated because of disinformation should be taken by CPS for medical neglect IMO.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So people don't vaccinate their kids, and then they don't quarantine them when they are sick? What the fuck is broken in the US?

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Society, maybe just empathy. A large percentage of the populace simply doesn’t care about anyone other than themselves.

[–] psivchaz@reddthat.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's certainly some of that, but I don't think it's as widespread as you think. I think the base problem is actually a breakdown in social trust.

Not everyone can be a doctor, or economist, or scientist. So we rely on experts to tell us what's up. The trust in the very idea of expertise has been eroded, in part due to legitimate fuckups by top officials, in part due to a rise in "Facebook experts" and conspiracy theories, and in part due to a concerted effort by conservatives to destroy that trust for their own gain.

Basically, these aren't people thinking "I don't care if these kids die." These are people thinking, "The medical establishment is full of liars and thieves, so these so called vaccines don't even work."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Misconduct@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'm a victim of "chickenpox parties" from the 80s. Some parents are just stupid assholes that refuse to accept you don't have to make the immune system a punching bag to make it stronger

Now I'm at a higher risk for severe shingles. Yay!! Thanks mom!

[–] TurtleJoe@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I mean, that was the recommendation at the time. Chickenpox can be deadly to adults, and it was considered best to expose children to it when it wasn't life-threatening. This was well before there was a vaccine available, and letting your kid get the virus was basically like giving them an inoculation.

What's bullshit is that you can't get the shingles vaccine if you're under 55 (in the US.)

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The chicken pox vaccine was developed in Japan in 1974, but not available in the US until 1995.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Hey on a side note I have no idea if I ever got my second shot as a kid. There is only a record of one shot and my mom can't remember. I have always figured that with herd immunity one would be good enough. Seeing that herd immunity is now in question I am wondering if I might need to re-up. Any have any experience with this? One or two shots? I will ask the doc next time, but in the meantime let's get some random inter-mation

[–] PandaPikachu@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Just let your GP know. I recently got a blood test done to figure out what I've been immunised against. Highly recommend.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 5 points 10 months ago

^This. You can get titers checked for all of your childhood vaccinations. Hep B is a good one to check because it doesn't always "stick" even when you get 2 doses as a kid. Almost every childhood vaccination can be given to adults with roughly equivalent effectiveness.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 13 points 10 months ago

Thank god this could never happen in a first world country.

[–] markon@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Eh well this is how it goes. People aren't really all that intelligent and we operate mostly of emotion, or rationalization.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I am sure Jesus will protect them, don't worry.

[–] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

If you don’t vaccinate your kids against dangerous diseases, you’re a dummy. Vaccines are safe and needed to keep EVERYONE safe from outbreaks.

Frankly, vaccination shouldn’t even be up for debate. The science speaks for itself. It’s infuriating that there are people who endanger their own child and others based on a poor grasp of science and medicine.

load more comments
view more: next ›