What Caused the Measles Outbreak?

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) claims to have the answers, but the analysis is deceptive.

From The Washington Post: People who don’t get vaccinated are the most likely reason for the steady increase in the rate of measles and major outbreaks in the United States, according to an analysis released Tuesday. The findings, published in JAMA, add to the body of evidence linking failure to vaccinate with the spread of the highly infectious and potentially fatal disease. Once common in the United States, measles was eliminated nationally in 2000 but has made a return in recent years largely because of people who reject vaccinating their children, experts say.

Comment: This is the same propaganda we heard as the outbreak was happening. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. The study looked at 1,789 measles cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2001 and 2015, reporting that 70% were unvaccinated—but the authors admit that there was “lack of verifiable immunization on nearly half of the adult cases.” Even if we accept the study’s numbers at face value, it means that 30% of measles cases occurred in those who were vaccinated. An earlier JAMA study estimated that the vaccination rate among individuals that were exposed to measles during the 2015 outbreak at Disneyland was as high as 86%. There have even been cases where measles was transmitted in a school with a documented immunization level of 100%. What this tells us is that vaccination is not as effective at preventing disease as the public is often led to believe. The study, and the media eagerly reporting on it, also fail to point out the fact that multiple studies have shown that vaccinated kids, especially those recently vaccinated, can spread disease, because the vaccine contains live virus.]]>