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Hundreds Of People At Two LA Universities Quarantined Due To Measles Exposure (npr.org) 261

Hundreds of students and faculty at two universities in Los Angeles have been asked to stay home unless they can prove that they've been vaccinated against measles. From a report: The LA campuses of the University of California and California State University imposed the quarantine after they became aware of people infected with measles who had potentially exposed hundreds. At UCLA, a student exposed at least 500 people earlier this month; at Cal State, someone with measles went to a library and encountered hundreds. UCLA was notified by the LA County Department of Public Health that one of its students had contracted measles. After identifying people the infected student might have come in contact with while contagious, the school asked them to provide proof of immunization. On Wednesday, 119 people who couldn't provide proof were quarantined. Of those, dozens were able to prove immunity and were released from quarantine by Thursday afternoon. But 82 were still quarantined, and "a few may need to remain in quarantine for up to seven days," the school said in a statement.
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Hundreds Of People At Two LA Universities Quarantined Due To Measles Exposure

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  • by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @10:12AM (#58495816)

    At UCLA, a student exposed at least 500 people earlier this month; at Cal State, someone with measles went to a library and encountered hundreds.

    If [unwanted] touching however soft *is* assault, these "anti-vaxers" who expose innocent folk to deadly disease should go to jail.

    The USA will soon have features we only associated with the "3rd world". In some cases the 3rd world is even doing a better job when it comes to vaccination.

    Send them to jail and fast before we begin to see death around here.

    • ..these "anti-vaxers" who expose innocent folk to deadly disease should go to jail.

      But if you've had the vaccine, you're immune, right? So what's the problem, unless the vaccine doesn't work?

      • A vaccines effectiveness follows a gaussian distribution.

        If you've received the vaccine your resistance to the disease is increased. In some people that resistance makes them symptom free, in other people the symptoms are mitigated and a small number of people can only a limited amount or even no resistance. The amount of resistance an inoculation provides is governed by the receivers own immune system.

        Furthermore the more transmission a disease has the more opportunity it has to mutate into a form that c

    • If [unwanted] touching however soft *is* assault, these "anti-vaxers" who expose innocent folk to deadly disease should go to jail.

      Measles does not require touch to be transmitted.

      As for sending people to jail, that is absurd. No need to go all Queen of Hearts ("off with their head") here. Assault requires intent and that isn't in play here. Every single one of us transmits pathogens all the time to "innocent" people including you and me, sometimes with fatal results. If you want a consequence to not vaccinating that is fine but let's keep some semblance of proportion here. Sending a child to a state funded public school should pr

    • I know this wasn't the point that you were trying to make, but I felt this was a good place to post the horrifying fact that measles is an airborne disease and, unlike most other airborne diseases, remains active in the air for 2 FRIGGIN HOURS! A single cough on a subway could expose hundreds, maybe thousands of people.

  • by Zorro ( 15797 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @10:13AM (#58495820)

    Back now due to retards reading Facebook and believing Celebrities on Medical advice.

    • Back now due to retards reading Facebook and believing Celebrities on Medical advice.

      Eradicated is like bricked, in that if it comes back, then it wasn't.

      • Back now due to retards reading Facebook and believing Celebrities on Medical advice.

        Eradicated is like bricked, in that if it comes back, then it wasn't.

        bricked, in that if you throw away the old one and buy a new one, then one's device is no longer bricked

        Measles was eradicated in the United States, not the entire world and it could be brought back by someone. Drinking the last of the milk in the carton eradicates it from one's house, but not the rest of the world and one can go buy more milk at the store, bring it back to one's house and it is no longer eradicated from one's house..

    • I've been immunized against Facebook but it hasn't been eradicated from my house yet.

  • by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @10:16AM (#58495844) Journal

    Providing proof of immunization could be extremely difficult if not impossible for many people. I'm in my 40s, and there are most certainly students older than me currently attending that school. I have no idea how I would go about getting my immunization record from when I was that young. The long-term family doctor I went to in my youth is dead, his practice is gone. This is not the sort of thing people keep records of once they are no longer attending public school. Sounds quite discriminatory against people who are not straight out of high school or aren't US citizens that may not have relatively easy access to this kind of record.

    • by frank_adrian314159 ( 469671 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @10:26AM (#58495896) Homepage

      You can take a measles antibody test to show that you've had the disease or been vaccinated for it.The bottom line is that we have to stop providing outs for people who are not contraindicated for the vaccine or else you're going to get outbreaks.

      • The bottom line is that we have to stop providing outs for people who are not contraindicated for the vaccine or else you're going to get outbreaks.

        Add up the cost of fighting the measles outbreak for this year. Add up the number of people who asked for vaccine exemptions this year. Divide the cost by the number of people who got an exemption, and set that as how much it costs to get an exemption next year. Repeat every year.

        The beauty of this is that it's self-stabilizing. The more outbreaks there

      • People have a right not to be vaccinated.

    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      You can always just go and get the vaccine now. It isn't expensive, in most locations they even have programs to cover the cost if you can't afford it.

      • You can always just go and get the vaccine now.

        1. Only if I'm OK with also taking additional doses of other unnecessary vaccines. The monovalent measles vaccine was discontinued in 2009 [cdc.gov] -- it's now only available in combination with others (e.g., MMR).

        2. There will be supply issues if large swaths of the population who wouldn't otherwise need it are also suddenly trying to get it at the same time due to policies like this.

        • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          "1. Only if I'm OK"

          It is a public health and safety issue. With all due respect, feels and willingness aren't a factor. Others don't have to risk their lives because of how you feel about the situation. Maybe you have been vaccinated but the risk if you are lying is great and the harm if you aren't is essentially nil.

          "2. There will be supply issues if large swaths of the population"

          Your hypothetical fails to establish that there are large swaths of the population this circumstance applies to. There are prof

          • Others don't have to risk their lives because of how you feel about the situation.

            This sort of incendiary rhetoric gets bandied about quite a bit. Risk of death from measles for someone in the United States, particularly someone who has been vaccinated, is close to statistically zero, and certainly orders of magnitude lower than deaths from other causes that are just as preventable if we took just as heavy a hand toward them as people want to do here. If you believe you have hard evidence to the contrary, I'm happy to look at it.

            Your hypothetical fails to establish that there are large swaths of the population this circumstance applies to.

            This circumstance applies to just as much of the populati

        • by necro81 ( 917438 )

          1. Only if I'm OK with also taking additional doses of other unnecessary vaccines. The monovalent measles vaccine was discontinued in 2009 -- it's now only available in combination with others (e.g., MMR).

          Is there a reason why you wouldn't be OK with getting a multivalent vaccine? I fail to see the downside?

    • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @10:29AM (#58495932) Journal

      I'm in my 40s, and there are most certainly students older than me currently attending that school. I have no idea how I would go about getting my immunization record from when I was that young. The long-term family doctor I went to in my youth is dead, his practice is gone. This is not the sort of thing people keep records of once they are no longer attending public school.

      Just go get vaccinated again. They are covered by insurance so it won't cost you anything. In fact, some older adults should be getting some of their vaccines again anyway. Ask the doctor, he'll hook you up.

      Sounds quite discriminatory against people who are not straight out of high school or aren't US citizens that may not have relatively easy access to this kind of record.

      It's not discriminatory. For people who can't afford it, there are clinics that will vaccinate for free.

    • There are antibodies in your blood if you had the measles or a relevant vaccination. These can be detected.

      Yes, it actually is that easy.

    • Go to the doctor and get a new shot. Problem solved. Are you seriously a college student and couldn't see this simple solution to your objection?
    • You could do an antibody titer test but it'd probably be cheaper to just get another round of shots. It'll help boost the immunity you had if you ended up 'doubling up'.
    • by kbahey ( 102895 )

      Here in Canada, we have no such problem. Everyone gets a card where the physician signs with each vaccine shot the person gets.

      Moreover, these vaccinations are reported to the regional heath office, and they keep track of other vaccines that are given (e.g. when the regional health office conducts vaccinations at schools, e.g. Human Papilloma Virus at a certain age).

      The health office also sends you a note if your kid missed any booster shots, which is a nice reminder if you and your physician forgets.

      But, t

    • Providing proof of immunization could be extremely difficult if not impossible for many people. I'm in my 40s, and there are most certainly students older than me currently attending that school. I have no idea how I would go about getting my immunization record from when I was that young.

      You really need to be getting booster shots for your immunizations now. Especially DPT, which has an effective span of less than 40 years. I had all my shots when I was little and I still caught pertussis in my late 30s. Fortunately the lingering effects of my immunization meant it didn't get as bad as it could have, but I coughed for the full 100 days. After that I started searching and discovered that yes, immunizations wear off and need to be refreshed.

    • This is a valid point, but it's more importantly it should serve as a reminder for the rest of us to keep those records handy - or locate a copy of them and have them on hand.

      I have them for my children, but mine (I'm also in my 40s) may be a little more difficult to find.

      If there was a sudden, major outbreak of measles/mumps (or heaven forbid polio - which unlike smallpox, is a realistic possibility) there could come a panic/crisis when having proof of inocculation may be necessary just to go out in public

    • Most states maintain databases of vaccine records. So you may be in those, depending on when and where you were vaccinated. Also, your past schools may have the records you supplied at the time.

      Also, "poor record keeper" is not a protected class, so it's not legally considered discriminatory.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday April 26, 2019 @11:55AM (#58496530)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Can we finally charge anti-vaxxers for reckless behavior, homicide, etc? How fucking long can we let these fucktards put everyone's health into risk because of some Alex Jones bullshit they read online, completely oblivious to the fact that this shit has been debunked time and again?

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