Reply to measles- beware if you've been these places

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Dumb question here: if we and our kids have been vaccinated there's no risk to us, right?  Is the risk to kids who haven't yet been vaccinated or has the measles mutated in some way?[/quote]

Thanks, this was my question, too.[/quote]

I'm under the impression that the herd (as it's called in the medical profession) * is * at risk because since the outlier non-vaxers keep the disease alive, it mutates and this can make the original vaccination less effective--thus exposing the herd (the vaccinated folks) to greater risk.

For example, there always has to be a new flu vaccine because the flu evolves as it goes.

I'm pretty sure this is correct because I got it from my friend who is an ER doctor, but we kept being interrupted by our kids, so may not have got it all right.  She was FURIOUS at the non-vaxers, btw, which in and of itself bothers me because you know these doctors are pretty unflappable; they've seen it all.  I'm curious if anyone else has heard this line of thought?[/quote]

This is kind of twisted logic with a grain of truth at the center. Yes, if ALL non-vaxers came down with measles, it's plausible they would help keep the pool of virus available and it's also possible the virus could mutate (but you'd have to consult an expert on these viruses for exact information on this -- and an ER doctor is not an infectious disease specialist).

However, the point of herd immunity is that the non-vaxers benefit from all the other people who are vaccinated, so even though they are not vaccinated, they are still protected from the disease because no one else has it due to the vaccine. In theory, if the vaccines work properly, no one should get the disease, even the small percentage of people who choose not to vaccinate.

I think it's easy to blame people who are not vaccinated, but in fact, most of the cases of measles are in people who have been vaccinated.

It's never clear from news stories where the virus originated in cases of measles outbreaks. I would like to know if the virus "hides" somewhere in the environment, and then emerges from time to time. There are so few cases of measles nowadays -- it ought to be easy to figure out where each case comes originates.[/quote]

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