The Anti-Vax Apocalypse Will Be Televised: Measles Spike in Europe

How many times do we have to say it? At least once more, apparently: The anti-vaxer movement is wrong, it's dangerous, and it's having major effects on public health. Like this one: More than 12,000 cases of measles, around four-fifths of which were in unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children, surfaced in Europe in the two-year period from 2006 through 2007, with an additional 6,000 infections reported in the first three quarters of 2008. These results come from a study published in the upcoming issue of The Lancet, and were written up by Mark Muscat of Copenhagen's Statens Serum Institut. The study includes data from 32 countries, though 85 percent of the cases were in Romania, Germany, the U.K., Switzerland, and Italy—all of which have vaccination rates below 90 percent, well below the World Health Organization’s 95 percent recommendation. So here it is, a highly-contagious and also highly-preventable disease making its ...