If he depresses vaccination rates further with his pathological ignorance, then we're in big trouble:
Measles was eliminated in the U.S. decades ago, but millions of new measles cases could pop up across the country over the next 25 years if vaccination rates continue to fall, new modeling suggests.
In a study published Thursday (April 24) in JAMA, scientists forecasted the number of measles cases that might be seen in coming decades if state-level vaccination rates stay steady, decline or increase. If vaccination rates drop by 10%, they found, there could be 11.1 million cases of measles across the U.S. in the next 25 years.
If vaccination rates stay the same as they are today, 851,300 cases of measles could occur in the same timeframe. In that scenario, the disease could feasibly "reestablish endemicity" within about two decades, meaning it could start to spread consistently in the U.S. once more.
If vaccination rates dropped as low as 50% of current levels, 51.2 million cases of measles could occur in the coming 25 years.
Assuming the rates of all routine vaccinations fell across the board, that would come with upticks in cases of other diseases, like rubella and polio. All told, this could lead to 10.3 million hospitalizations and 159,200 deaths, the model predicted, along with thousands of cases of post-measles neurological complications, rubella-related birth defects and polio-triggered paralysis. (Like measles, both rubella and wild polio have been eliminated in the U.S.)
"We're already on the precipice of disaster," study lead author Mathew Kiang, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Stanford University, said in a statement. "There really shouldn't be any cases at this point, because these diseases are preventable. Anything above zero is tragic. When you're talking about potentially thousands or millions, that's unfathomable."
UPDATE: Reader Henry Cohen writes:
I appreciate your post, “RFK Jr's plan to kill us all: measles edition, but I would have made it, “Congressional Republicans plan to kill us all: measles edition.” RFK Jr. is insane, after all, whereas Congressional Republicans allow him to act out his insanity because they’re afraid that Trump would have them primaried if they didn’t. They are cold-blooded killers.
They bear primary responsibility for every crime and every unconstitutional action of the Trump administration. I know that I’m not telling you anything new; I just think that we should emphasize their responsibility more. For them to not impeach Trump is to violate their oath to uphold the Constitution.
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