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Measles Is Dangerous
Why my kid has all of her vaccine doses.
In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about measles. Mostly, this is due to the long-disproven myth that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. While the belief used to be popular mostly in the bizarre corners of the internet, it has become mainstream due to RFK Jr. and the current U.S. government endorsing it.
But the other reason that measles is discussed so much is because it’s a really shit disease to get. Mumps and rubella can be nasty — we vaccinate against rubella primarily because it causes birth defects in the babies of women who get it while pregnant — but they are nowhere near as problematic as measles.
A lot of parents who were duped by anti-vaccine lies are, sadly, now learning this first-hand. The news has just broken that a second child has died in the Texas measles outbreak after being hospitalized due to “measles complications”. That makes the current epidemic the most deadly in the United States this century. With more cases being announced every week, it’s quite likely that there will be more deaths to come.
So how deadly is measles? These numbers can give us a reasonable estimate of the death rate if a child is infected with the disease.
