A popular sitcom from the 1970s is being used again to spread vaccine misinformation. On Instagram, the momfluencer known for promoting “.medical freedomshared a clip from an episode of “The Brady Bunch” called “Is there a doctor at home?The film depicts an entire family contracting measles. First, Peter was sent home from school with his 101.1 fever and a viral illness. Carol Brady describes his symptoms as “a slight fever, lots of spots, and severe pain.” Because that means missing a few days of school. Then Jean comes down with measles. Then all the siblings develop measles.
The momfluencer says she grew up in the “Brady Bunch era,” or “before propaganda really took hold.” she asks: Why did measles reach the level of panic that people are experiencing today?
Some followers responded with nostalgic tones of the “good old days,” while others said, “Natural immunity is best.” This type of post is not the first to use this episode as an opportunity to rally opponents of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.
And this social media metaphor comes as measles cases are on the rise in parts of the US and UK. The clip was also shared in 2019, when there were 1,274 measles cases in the United States, and it continues to be used as a cultural reference to discredit the severity of measles infections and the benefits of vaccines. When the Brady Bunch episode was released, more than 25,000 people contracted measles and 41 died. NPR previously reported at that time.according to CDC data, Since 2019, the number of measles cases has changed.
There were 13 incidents in 2020. 121 cases were reported in 2022 and 56 cases in 2023. This month is, Virginia Department of Public Health issued a warning to people who were at Dulles International Airport on January 3 and Ronald Reagan National Airport on January 4 that they may have been exposed to measles. Nine cases have been reported in Philadelphia. The number of infected people is also increasing in the UK.Quoted by experts Vaccine hesitancy and decline in herd immunity As for the cause. Measles was eliminated in the United States in 2000. Why are some people so quick to dismiss declining vaccination rates and vaccination rates as no big deal, as depicted in The Brady Bunch?
“In other contexts, people don’t accept these risks.”
Natasha Crowcroft, co-chair of the Measles and Rubella Partnership and senior technical advisor for measles and rubella at the World Health Organization (WHO), said in a video interview that it can be difficult for people to grasp the reality of the risks. he told Salon. She said it’s not surprising that stories using The Brady Bunch as a cultural touchstone are circulating in various circles when measles was not the reason for panic. Crowcroft said that if a child is healthy and well and has access to high-quality health care in a high-income country, the chance that the child will die from measles is about 1 in 1,000, she said. She also has a 1 in 5 chance of having her child admitted to the hospital.
“If one person or 1,000 people who ate this yogurt developed a severe allergy, the product would be taken off the market,” Crowcroft said. “In other contexts, people don’t accept these risks.”
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Mr Crowcroft said many people seem to have forgotten what the world was like during the measles epidemic, but measles and its vaccine in general, the first developed in 1963. He said there was something special about him. Fifty states had laws requiring measles vaccination for admission to school. Crowcroft said anti-vaccine rhetoric targeting the MMR vaccine in particular was due to the “Wakefield effect”, with a discredited British doctor documenting behavioral changes in children who received the MMR vaccine. He also mentioned that he suggested that the following symptoms may occur due to this. autism.
When measles was more common, severe cases could be fatal and cause complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis (when the brain swells).
“It’s a completely avoidable death.”
“There’s also a late-onset form that occurs two years after you get the measles,” she says. “Therefore, there is no question that measles can be very dangerous, especially in infants.”
Mr Crowcroft stressed that no child should die from measles by 2024.
“It’s a completely preventable death, and it’s preventable in two ways,” she said. “One is to get vaccinated, but the other is to get everyone vaccinated.”
Although children with leukemia cannot be vaccinated, they can be protected if everyone around them is vaccinated, she said. This indirect shielding is known as ‘.herd immunityThe WHO estimates that around 95% of the population will need to be vaccinated to be effective. In many ways, even those who do not voluntarily get vaccinated are benefiting from herd immunity, although they may not realize it.
“In high-income countries, it’s an incredible luxury to be able to say, ‘Oh, I don’t want my child to be vaccinated,'” she says. “Do you know what other parents are going through because they don’t want to lose their child to measles and they know how important that is?”
Crowcroft said mothers in low-income countries walk for eight hours with their children to get one of their children vaccinated, only to arrive at the clinic and find the vaccine is gone or they have a 10-dose vial. I told him that I had learned that. I don’t want to open it for one child.
Medical historian Elena Konis says measles has always had two different reputations, with some people saying it’s mild and others saying it’s severe. Reputation usually depended on resources and access to medical care. In the 1960s, measles was a more serious disease in areas facing poverty and malnutrition.
“It’s very important to know that in the early 20th century, when living standards started to improve and measles became more prevalent, measles gained a reputation as a ‘mild’ disease in this country,” Conis says. In these cases, infected children were able to receive pediatric treatment and other regular medical care. They can receive treatments like measles immune globulin and may actually recover and be spared severe effects. ”
Mr Crocroft said he was concerned about a resurgence of measles and said there would be more outbreaks in the future. This is partly due to misinformation about child vaccination rates being spread on social media. especially in the US.
“This is concerning because we have people who have very good access to all kinds of platforms, and yet it can cause problems in other communities on the other side of the world where children are at even greater risk.” It should be done,” she said. “We should not take these vaccines for granted.”
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