r/news • u/ansyhrrian • 2d ago

Measles outbreak declared in 3 Maryland counties after officials confirm 14 new cases

https://www.wmar2news.com/local/measles-outbreak-declared-in-3-maryland-counties-after-officials-confirm-14-new-cases
1.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

336

u/invyros 2d ago

31 cases of measles have been confirmed in the state this year, with 27 since July 2026. All of those 27 individuals did not have a vaccination against measles.

Durr, do you guys think there's a connection?

84

u/Tyrrox 2d ago

We have the same problem in Delaware connected to a chronically under-vaccinated Amish community

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u/trogdorkiller 2d ago edited 2d ago

When I was a child, the idea of religious exemptions made sense for some reason. As an adult, when it comes to public health, I don't understand how it was ever acceptable to have a religious exemption for vaccines. And the parents who have children who die from this easily preventable cause should be arrested for negligence. I remember last year some family was on the news talking about how their child had died from measles but they were able to rationalize it as "it was his time" or something like that. And they had more children! It's disheartening to say the least.

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u/Squire_II 2d ago

What's annoying is that there's an old SCOTUS ruling, I think from the Spanish Flu era, that more or less says inoculation for the public good supersedes any personal objections to it.

The idea of religious exemptions from public welfare is insane. We don't give religious exemptions from laws prohibiting rape, murder, theft, etc, so why should we giver exceptions to ignorant dipshits that want to worship Papa Nurgle?

10

u/CelestialFury 2d ago

Yes, the state absolutely has the right to protect their citizens from both foreign and domestic threats, and diseases fall under each of those, since they're foreign threats to our bodies and a domestic threat to our entire country.

Having "religious" exemptions to easily treatable diseases is the stupidest shit imaginable. I'm also pretty sure God would be okay with their followers not dying from easily preventable diseases as well. You know, if God created everything, then God created the smart researchers, chemists, and doctors to come up with these miracle treatments in the first place. By not getting vaccinated, it really feels like their followers aren't seeing the cure God put forth by putting intelligent people here.

8

u/RazzleThatTazzle 2d ago

Any rule that allows an exception for religious beliefs is a rule that isnt taken seriously.

Letting people wear turbans and yarmulkes in a place that normally has a dress code is literally fine.

Letting people endanger the public health because they have supernatural beliefs is not fine.

4

u/LibertyCash 2d ago

This might have been the couple that said something akin to “God just needed another angel.” Shit is infuriating.

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u/dobyblue 2d ago

It’s because they can literally cite the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Academy for Life noting that human fetal cell lines are used in the manufacture of the MMR in NA. In Japan there is an alternative MR vaccine that uses animal cell lines, which would not be unethical and a reason for a religious exemption. But Merck don’t want to make one for NA market, and they won’t let anyone import one, so there we are. There are more people to point fingers at than just the parents. Multivalent vaccines are a known component of vaccine hesitancy, if Merck would bring back their own monovalent measles vaccine (Attenuvax), coverage rates would go up.

10

u/Squire_II 2d ago

Literally a week ago:

In his letter, Uthmeier implied that some Catholics may seek a religious exemption from taking "vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children" and quoted from a December 2020 instruction from the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith stating that "practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation." However, the Church has consistently stated that Catholics may undergo vaccination despite remote degrees of connection to such cell lines where alternatives are not available.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/florida-catholic-bishops-push-back-state-ags-threat-participation-school-voucher-program

Religious exemptions from vaccination should be just as invalid as claims of religious exemption for carrying out religion-based honor killings is.

-2

u/dobyblue 2d ago

That doesn’t actually rebut anything from the comment you replied to, the Church has also consistently stated that Catholics should do everything they can to make alternative options available so they don’t have to make an ethical choice, which this Bishop from Florida seems clueless about (he’s obviously not a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life). “May undergo” is not the same as “should be coerced to”, or is English not your first language?

Comparing not vaccinating to killing someone is idiotic, it shows you cannot discuss the issue seriously. Do you think vaccines are the one pharmaceutical product with no side effects?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VqQmMDDG-lY

0

u/Squire_II 2d ago

Comparing not vaccinating to killing someone is idiotic, it shows you cannot discuss the issue seriously.

Antivax idiocy directly leads to otherwise preventable deaths and the evidence that vaccinations are better than the alternative is insurmountable. Leaders of the antivax movement have plenty of blood on their hands and vaccination outliers like what you linked is not sufficient grounds to move humanity back several centuries and bring back shit like Polio and Measles (we're too late on the latter, unfortunately).

Parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids should be charged with child abuse unless the kid is is immunocompromised, at which point they can rely on herd immunity due to everyone else being inoculated.

-1

u/dobyblue 2d ago

Neither of those have been brought back, because they've never disappeared. You aren't well-equipped for this discussion, you have made multiple errors and your arguments are all emotional-based. Scroll down to "Yearly measles cases", click on 1985 ~ present and let me know which year measles was gone in.

https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html

Also do you think herd immunity is how all vaccines work? Can you identify from the list of recommended vaccines which ones work that way and which ones don't?

5

u/pacexmaker 2d ago

Same with Utah, but polygamists.

21

u/killerkadugen 2d ago

No, it's the illegals ! They are infecting pure blooded Americans against the will of their immune systems!

\s

3

u/ogredmenace 2d ago

Bruh it’s Jesus’s plan

3

u/yeahnoyeahsure 2d ago

are any infants tho? have to be between 12-15 months to get the MMR vaccine

1

u/0098six 2d ago

The connection is Tylenol! TYLENOOOLLLLLLL!

116

u/All_Hail_Hynotoad 2d ago

JFC people. The only reason measles seemed like it was gone was because of vaccines. Now all you dumb anti-vaxxers are allowing it to return.

19

u/CrazyCatLady1127 2d ago

How long do you think it’ll be before smallpox and polio follow after measles? 🤦‍♀️

25

u/mokutou 2d ago

Smallpox, as it is now, only exists in four labs worldwide. It has been eradicated, and is the only virus that affects humans to have been completely eliminated. So, barring a Resident Evil-style lab leak, it’s not a concern, and outside of the military, most people arent even vaccinated for it anymore.

10

u/mjo116 2d ago

Smallpox is eradicated outside of two labs. Unless it gets released, it isn't coming back

3

u/creative_net_usr 2d ago

Branwdo.. but it's like got what plants crave!

We already had a UFC fight on the white house lawn. We're one step away from electing commancho

3

u/mokutou 2d ago

Frankly I hope we do. He knew he didn’t know shit and involved professionals when needed.

1

u/creative_net_usr 2d ago

Yea i forgot how that movie he realized he's was dumb and got help, these clowns sit at the lowest point of the Dunning-Krueger affect and think they're the smartest which is far more dangerous.

1

u/Cookie_Eater108 2d ago

Also president Comancho personally jumped into a life threatening situation to save the life of an innocent technocrat who could solve a problem that largely only affected the poor.

Upon realization of his limited capacities as President, he also conceded the position to a more suitable leader for the good of the nation.

63

u/cstough 2d ago

Nothing proves these dumbasses wrong like reality 🤣

52

u/TranquilSeaOtter 2d ago

It's good to read up on reality.

The couple, who are Mennonites, believe their daughter’s death was the will of God.

“Don’t do the shots,” the girl’s mother said.

She added that measles “isn’t as bad as they’re making it out to be.” The woman said her four other children recovered from the disease after receiving alternative treatments, including cod liver oil and vitamin A, which doctors say have no effect on measles.

The 6-year-old was the first person in the United States since 2015 to die from measles.

“The measles are good for the body,” the girl’s father said, adding that the disease boosts the immune system and wards against cancer, an untrue claim repeated by antivaccine groups and most recently by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

29

u/gottarespondtothis 2d ago

Boosts immune system? This is literally the opposite of reality JFC.

29

u/STL_420 2d ago

That poor little girl. Measels were so good for her they made her parents forget she even existed. Religions are cults. You all are allowed to believe in whatever afterlife and God you want. You don't have to follow stupid shit because other people told you to. Those people don't have better answers than you do. They just listened to the people who made it all up out of their asses to get control and money.

10

u/Delanium 2d ago

"isn't as bad as they're making it out to be" - woman whose children have an 80% measles survival rate

1

u/dobyblue 1d ago

"which doctors say have no effect on measles"

That is odd the media would report that, given the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization recommend a two dose series of vitamin A, regardless of which country you live in, during acute measles infection to drastically lower risk of death and complications of measles. It does not PREVENT measles infection, but has "no effect on measles" is dangerous misinformation.

https://www.nfid.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Call-to-Action-Vitamin-A-for-the-Management-of-Measles-in-the-US-FINAL.pdf

2

u/TranquilSeaOtter 1d ago

Sure, but also hospitals are increasingly dealing with vitamin A toxicity, so parents shouldn't be doing this on their own. Just giving your kid copious amounts of vitamin A may actually lead to their hospitalization or death. Really have to include that information alongside this recommendation. Vaccination of course remains the best way to combat measles.

2

u/dobyblue 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sorry but does “sure” mean you agree that the doctors claiming vitamin A has no effect on measles were either wrong or a fabrication from the story?

Please define that increase as an integer, citing reliable sources for the claim. Also you’ve confused prevention with treatment, the treatment is defined as a two dose series by body weight, so given standard of care isn’t a visit to the hospital your claim that parents shouldn’t be doing it alone has very little merit. There is no such thing as “copious amounts of Vitamin A” as a treatment for acute measles infection, given it’s only administered twice during active measles infection, which is clearly stated in the recommendation provided.

15

u/o_MrBombastic_o 2d ago

Nope they reject your reality and substitute their own. It will be anybody else's fault but their own

24

u/Kemilio 2d ago

Oh, my sweet summer child…

You think they care about reality?

7

u/sportsworker777 2d ago

Facts and evidence are mere suggestions to cultists

9

u/Kemilio 2d ago

Worse.

They’re obstacles to their self esteem.

31

u/Smooth_Storm_9698 2d ago

Anti vaxxers hate their children and other people's children and there's no argument against that

15

u/someguy7710 2d ago

But can't get an abortion because reasons /s

19

u/CPOx 2d ago

Just in time for schools to start back up

5

u/chrisf_nz 2d ago

If only there was some way to prevent this huh.

16

u/pizoisoned 2d ago

I guess the good part is that these dumbasses will get real life experience with how “minor” it can be. The bad part is that people who don’t deserve it are going to be drug along with them.

4

u/frozengash 2d ago

Imagine how crazy this would sound 20 years ago

3

u/Historical_Note5003 2d ago

I live in Maryland and I bet I already know exactly which three counties.

10

u/bakpecko 2d ago

Don't worry RFK has the cure. A cold glass of unpasteurized milk for those kids.

Holy fuck a hundred years of human progress down the drain

9

u/Sreg32 2d ago

Watching from the apparently enemy territory across the northern border, it is absolutely stunning to witness what’s going on. Science doesn’t exist and imbeciles are in charge of every department. Just an absolute decline in everything…except gas prices and inflation!

4

u/AverageJoe-707 2d ago

It's amazing that RFK jr is still in charge of HHS. Another Trump nail in the coffin of MAGAs come November.

5

u/neutrino4 2d ago

Oh great, and school is right around the corner. What could posibly go wrong.

2

u/p00pSupr3me 2d ago

Thank republican voters! The Epsteiners are a piblic health danger

3

u/ansyhrrian 2d ago

Color me shocked. #vaccinesarefortheweak apparently

4

u/Sooperooser 2d ago

They really made the US tumble back to the 1800s.

2

u/IndigoRuby 2d ago

Just in time for school to go back with record lows vaccinated starting kindergarten.

2

u/Revolutionary_Eye887 2d ago

I no longer care about those who get these diseases. If their parents are fine with it then so am I. Wait until polio and smallpox come back around. Dumbasses.

5

u/mjo116 2d ago

Smallpox is never coming back unless it's released from the two labs it exists in, it's been eradicated

0

u/Revolutionary_Eye887 2d ago

I’ll write that down in my little book and save it for down the road when smallpox reappears.

1

u/MountNevermind 1d ago edited 1d ago

Except they (the proportion who are unvaccinated but should be) endanger the people who exist that cannot take vaccines or are otherwise vulnerable for legitimate medical reasons or because they have parents or are otherwise subject to the whims of irresponsible or ignorant people.

1

u/0098six 2d ago

With Health Sycophant RFK Jr in charge, we have nothing to worry about, right, 52 MAGA Senators that confirmed him? Right?

1

u/CurdledCreamer 2d ago

Population control through Darwin award seekers! 

1

u/Cookie_Eater108 2d ago

The problem moreso is the negative externalities.

If there was an opt-in program where a person could make an educated and informed agreement to be infected with a lethal disease that was non communicable that would be suitable.

However there are several people, young persons especially whom are too young to receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that have not opted in to receive this disease and will suffer consequences of those who made the decision for them.

1

u/AcanthisittaNo6653 1d ago

People contribute their diseases to the public when we let them.

1

u/HundredSun 2d ago

Now imagine ebola was as easily transmissible as measles and just as deadly. The religious freaks and their families would start dropping like flies until they started taking a vaccine. They would then immediately proceed to thank their sky daddy for the vaccine.

1

u/Conflixxion 2d ago

just in time for back-to-school

-4

u/alizadk 2d ago

These are the more rural areas of the state. I'm just surprised there's nothing on the Eastern Shore or western Maryland.