Measles confirmed - exposure to thousands in NoVA and DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t this area have really good vaccination rates?

ABC News recently published a map where you can search the measles risk (based on vaccination rates) for your zip code: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/new-map-shows-spot-measles-risk-level-zip/story?id=129179712.

In my DC zip code, only 70-79% of children ages 0-5 are vaccinated. East of the river, rates drop to less than 60% vaccinated in Ward 7 and 60-69% vaccinated in Ward 8. Children ride transit, attend daycares, and go to school all over, so these low rates are sufficient that we could get breakthrough infections in the vaccinated if we have a local outbreak of measles. The vaccination rates are lower than they should be, even in educated, affluent suburbs. Potomac, MD has an 80-84% vax rate. Not far away in zip code 20877, rates drop to 70-79%. In Fairfax, zip code 22041 has a rate of 60-69 percent for MMR in young children. Within 35-80 miles of DC in parts of Fauquier rates drop below 79 percent, and Rappahannock County, rates drop below 69 percent in a number of zip codes. On county-wide and state-wide measures, this region is doing better than some other parts of the country, but we have plenty of pockets with very low vaccination rates.

I think you have to take into account that 20% of kids 0-5 are 0, and thus unable to get the measles vaccine, so 79% is about as low as you can get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are vaccinated you are fine.
You can only control you.

No, you muppet. Your risk is lower with vaccination, but there is a failure rate for vaccines. Also, like measles itself, infection with COVID may be inducing immune amnesia. And people sometimes have to go on high dose steroids (for asthma flare, for rheumatologic disorders, etc), or on immunosuppressants, so there are plenty of ways that you are advocating for endangering others that cannot necessarily protect themselves from you.

Gross. Just disgusting.

[Anonymous]

^^Moreover, this does NOT mean there is no point to getting vaccinated. The risk is DEFINITELY lower, just not down to 0.

Everything in life has a failure rate -- bridges that have been vetted by engineers, life-saving medical procedures, modern airplanes, all of it. "Not 0" doesn't mean "anything goes," but it also is not just "0."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are vaccinated you are fine.
You can only control you.

No, you muppet. Your risk is lower with vaccination, but there is a failure rate for vaccines. Also, like measles itself, infection with COVID may be inducing immune amnesia. And people sometimes have to go on high dose steroids (for asthma flare, for rheumatologic disorders, etc), or on immunosuppressants, so there are plenty of ways that you are advocating for endangering others that cannot necessarily protect themselves from you.

Gross. Just disgusting.

Thank you. Everyone in my family is vaccinated, but I have an autoimmune disorder for which I take immunosuppressants that make me much more susceptible to measles. I am already on the tail end of a bad flare that started in October after catching RSV, which went around my kid's school. I'm exhausted, and the idea of potentially being exposed to measles is bad news for me.

We have enough problems in 2026 without bringing measles back. I'm so frustrated with all the idiots who literally manufactured this problem out of nowhere because they are too stupid to follow basic medical guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are vaccinated you are fine.
You can only control you.

No, you muppet. Your risk is lower with vaccination, but there is a failure rate for vaccines. Also, like measles itself, infection with COVID may be inducing immune amnesia. And people sometimes have to go on high dose steroids (for asthma flare, for rheumatologic disorders, etc), or on immunosuppressants, so there are plenty of ways that you are advocating for endangering others that cannot necessarily protect themselves from you.

Gross. Just disgusting.

Thank you. Everyone in my family is vaccinated, but I have an autoimmune disorder for which I take immunosuppressants that make me much more susceptible to measles. I am already on the tail end of a bad flare that started in October after catching RSV, which went around my kid's school. I'm exhausted, and the idea of potentially being exposed to measles is bad news for me.

We have enough problems in 2026 without bringing measles back. I'm so frustrated with all the idiots who literally manufactured this problem out of nowhere because they are too stupid to follow basic medical guidance.

+1 And it's not like the DC area is an island. Florida no longer requires vaccines for school kids. These problems are only going to get worse, as idiot parents decline to vax their kids and these long vanished deadly diseases come back.

[Anonymous]

Was there an outbreak from this or is it still too soon to tell?

[Anonymous]

I am wondering at what point it will not be a headline with locations because there are so many cases. It is just a new risk of life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was there an outbreak from this or is it still too soon to tell?

No cases of Measles in Maryland or DC yet this year. Virginia has had six, including one in a child between the ages of zero and four who caught it in the most recent spate of exposures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[
I think you have to take into account that 20% of kids 0-5 are 0, and thus unable to get the measles vaccine, so 79% is about as low as you can get.

According to the article that was linked in that post, 85% vaccine coverage in children ages 0-5 is required for the risk of an outbreak to be deemed lowest. At 60 percent or less vaccine coverage in young children, a zip code is classified as highest risk.