Generally, when people think of Disneyland Park, they picture a fantastic time with friends and family. Sure, they may get sick riding around on the Alice In Wonderland teacups, but few expect to get literally sick, especially with the measles. However, that’s exactly what happened to at least 26 people who recently visited the California theme park.
Measles is a disease which, until recently, was almost entirely eradicated from the U.S. Just three years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported fewer than 100 cases of measles. Estimates for 2014 have seen that number rise to more than 600, and it’s obvious that 2015 is off to a rough start. Yes, the measles rival Prince for the biggest comeback of 2014.
Why are measles making a comeback? Junk science scared far too many parents into deciding against vaccinating their children. Despite more than a half-century of hard work by physicians and scientists to eradicate a highly contagious airborne virus, parents decided that anti-vaccination crusaders like Jenny McCarthy were better sources of information than medical doctors.
The mind reels at the sheer insanity of that statement because it simply should not be true. Yet here we are, with more than two dozen people sick with a previously eradicated disease at a theme park.
Believing junk science or simply using Google for information about your health is not how Americans should respond to more than a century of incredible progress in health care. Yes, millions of Americans are still without health insurance, and we still have a long way to go to end heart disease and cancer — the two top causes of death in the U.S. — but we’re far better off today than we were a century ago.
Yet every day Americans eschew medical expertise for the latest trend they find on wacky blogs and from TV personalities like Dr. Oz more seriously than their family physicians. Regardless of your beliefs, that is both very wrong and very stupid.
The flu is back with a vengeance this year and, naturally, some want to blame the vaccine. Yes, the flu drifted from the expected strain and rendered the vaccine less effective, but the shot remains the best protection against the virus. Disagree? Talk to medical experts, who believe the areas hit hardest by the flu so far this season were the same ones that had too few people receiving the shot.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 21st century America.
Joel Mendelson is a second-year UF political campaigning graduate student. His column appears on Fridays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 1/16/2015 under the headline “Measles comeback anti-vaccinators’ fault"]
