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Dr. Errington Thompson is a critical care trauma surgeon, author, and talk show host. Listen to the Errington Thompson Show, available through Podcast and download at: www.whereistheoutrage.net
by Errington C. Thompson, MD

I really wanted to spend some time talking about wimpy Democrats.

You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones that never seem to be for anything. These curious spineless mammalians should be quarantined in a zoo. These are the Democrats that ran away from ObamaCare and have the losing campaign slogan, “Vote for me, I’m not a Republican.” Why is it so hard for Democrats to stand up and say, “I support policies that help the average American worker.”? It really is that simple.

Unfortunately, I feel compelled to spend the space discussing measles and vaccines.

The measles is an acute viral respiratory infection. The hallmark symptomatology includes weakness (malaise), cough, upper respiratory tract symptoms, and conjunctivitis. Following this, a small red rash begins at the head and spreads from head to toe. Patients can have relatively high fevers of 104-105°F. Over the next several days, most patients will recover.

The measles is a miserable disease. There is no part of the disease during which patients are enjoying themselves. In the year 2015, we still do not have a specific therapy or treatment for measles. I cannot give you an injection of anti-measles and make your infection go away. Instead, treatment is still supportive.

Let us remember that over half-a-million Americans use to get measles every year. In spite of the best medical care, over 500 Americans died every year because of measles. One of the dreaded complications of measles was acute encephalitis. Acute encephalitis can lead to permanent brain damage. So, in summary, we have a disease that affects or affected a large group of Americans which has no cure, thus the perfect disease to develop a vaccine.

Well, we did that. We developed a vaccine. The measles vaccine is somewhere around 95% effective. By injecting patients with an attenuated (weakened) measles virus, their own immune system develops antibodies in order to fight the measles virus. The reason you get a second injection is to improve the effectiveness to 98%.

In the measles debate, everyone has “heard” that there is an association between the measles vaccine and autism. No parent wants to give their kids autism. What are the facts?

The medical community has thoroughly investigated whether there is a link between autism and the measles vaccine. Scholarly articles, published in Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine as well as several other journals, have looked at this problem in multiple different ways and found there is no association between autism and the measles vaccine (remember the measles vaccine comes with two other vaccines – mumps and rubella. The vaccine is commonly known as the MMR vaccine.)

And, in fact, the 1998 article claiming a link was retracted by the Lancet, the journal that had published it (the editor described it as “utterly false”); the author was stripped of his medical license for acting “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in his research; and the reporter who revealed the scam wrote that Wakefield had planned to launch a venture on the back of an MMR vaccination scare that would profit from new medical tests and “litigation driven testing” over vaccines.

This brings me to the outbreak at Disneyland. Recently more than 100 Americans were infected at Disneyland with the measles virus. Currently the CDC is looking for but has not tracked down the person who started this outbreak. Sadly 2014 saw the largest number of measles cases in the United States since the year 2000—more than 600.

Irresponsible politicians have taken to the airwaves to suggest that parents should have the right to “opt out” of vaccines. This is garbage. One of the reasons that we have enjoyed good health and United States for the last 20-50 years has to do with our public health system. It has to do with sanitation. It has to do with our robust vaccine programs. In no iteration of our Constitution do you have the right to infect me or my family with your germs. Get vaccinated and don’t listen to the nonsense.