Latest news with #BoosterShots
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Life Before the Measles Vaccine
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic's archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. Many people who contract measles don't know right away that they have it. Days after infection, the symptoms can feel like the flu, until the tell-tale blotchy red rash emerges—usually near the hairline at first, later traveling down the biceps, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands. So far this year, 712 people in America are known to have been infected with the highly contagious disease. This number is already higher than last year's, which totalled 285. The virus has been particularly widespread in West Texas, where two young girls have died—the first measles deaths America has seen in a decade. And the official cause of death of a New Mexico resident who contracted measles remains under investigation. Each of the three people who died were unvaccinated, renewing the controversy over vaccine hesitancy. It is a stance that has been around for as long as vaccines have. But a time before the measles vaccine—before 1963, when the virus was so widespread that virtually every child was expected to fall ill from it—is beyond the memory of most generations today. 'My will I made last week, while I was in bed with the measles,' the 18-year-old Frances Anne Kemble, who later published her letters in The Atlantic, wrote in 1828. 'I lay parched and full of pain and fever in my illness!' Then Kemble's account took an optimistic turn: 'I have been very ill for the last fortnight, but am well again now. I am pressed for time to-day, but will soon write to you in earnest.' Even though measles infected millions of people each year in the 19th century, killing more than 12,000 people in 1900, it was seen as less worrisome than other diseases. Scarlet fever and smallpox had higher mortality rates, and the ubiquity of measles meant that contracting it was almost a rite of passage. (The word measly is derived from the virus, Adam Ratner noted in Booster Shots.) Consider the way in which the disease was written about in this magazine: A book review from 1859 mentions 'a complaint as common to a certain period of life as measles.' And in 1871, a passion for collecting items was described as something that 'befalls most boys, like measles or whooping-cough.' Measles' reputation as a common childhood illness also meant that health officials didn't usually take mitigation efforts as seriously as they did for other diseases. In How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis described the virus's devastating effects in New York City's tenement housing in the 1880s, where impoverished and starving people gathered in close quarters with little access to hygiene: 'Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail—what do they mean? … The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none.' He reported on records showing that respiratory diseases, including the flu and measles, were the most common cause of death in these housing conditions. But diphtheria and scarlet fever were 'considered more dangerous to the public health,' so health officials moved those cases to hospitals, resulting in 'a low death-rate.' Recovery from measles is not always linear; contracting the virus can make people more vulnerable to other diseases. In 1925, one mother recalled pulling from the family's savings to settle the bills for her children's treatment. Those who were unable or unwilling to pay relied on homemade remedies that largely lacked scientific backing. Tansy and pennyroyal leaves could be steeped to make tea, and sometimes catnip would be used as well, according to a 1933 Atlantic article. Anybody bold (or desperate) enough could try 'sheep tea,' which got its name from the main ingredient of dried sheep manure. Though drinking rehydrated animal waste might seem outlandish today, the prospect of using unconventional methods to treat measles hasn't faded from popularity. Take Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Throughout the current outbreak, he has promoted unproven treatments such as cod-liver oil and steroids. Experts widely agree that these are no substitutes for the measles vaccination. No antivirals will cure a patient once they're infected—doctors can only manage the symptoms. Depending on certain factors (age, vaccination status, underlying conditions), in many cases these symptoms will abate; in others, possible complications (pneumonia, brain swelling) can lead to long-term issues or death. 'Measles is not a forgiving virus,' my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote last month. And it's currently spreading in an environment very different from that of the prevaccine era, when primarily kids were infected and people lived in a world less connected by air, rail, and car. The most recent example of a measles epidemic took place in the late 1980s and early '90s. It 'infected 55,000 people, put 11,260 in the hospital, and killed more than 150,' the policy researcher Mary Graham wrote in The Atlantic in 1993. Doctors scrambled to treat a disease they hadn't come across for years; crowded hospitals set aside beds for feverish patients. 'Epidemics are no longer local events,' Graham explained. 'The rapid spread of measles to forty-nine states was a destructive reminder that from the perspective of a virus we have become one community.' When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
17-04-2025
- Health
- Atlantic
When Measles Was Endemic
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic 's archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. Many people who contract measles don't know right away that they have it. Days after infection, the symptoms can feel like the flu, until the tell-tale blotchy red rash emerges—usually near the hairline at first, later traveling down the biceps, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands. So far this year, 712 people in America are known to have been infected with the highly contagious disease. This number is already higher than last year's, which totalled 285. The virus has been particularly widespread in West Texas, where two young girls have died —the first measles deaths America has seen in a decade. And the official cause of death of a New Mexico resident who contracted measles remains under investigation. Each of the three people who died were unvaccinated, renewing the controversy over vaccine hesitancy. It is a stance that has been around for as long as vaccines have. But a time before the measles vaccine—before 1963, when the virus was so widespread that virtually every child was expected to fall ill from it—is beyond the memory of most generations today. 'My will I made last week, while I was in bed with the measles,' the 18-year-old Frances Anne Kemble, who later published her letters in The Atlantic, wrote in 1828. 'I lay parched and full of pain and fever in my illness!' Then Kemble's account took an optimistic turn: 'I have been very ill for the last fortnight, but am well again now. I am pressed for time to-day, but will soon write to you in earnest.' Even though measles infected millions of people each year in the 19th century, killing more than 12,000 people in 1900, it was seen as less worrisome than other diseases. Scarlet fever and smallpox had higher mortality rates, and the ubiquity of measles meant that contracting it was almost a rite of passage. (The word measly is derived from the virus, Adam Ratner noted in Booster Shots.) Consider the way in which the disease was written about in this magazine: A book review from 1859 mentions 'a complaint as common to a certain period of life as measles.' And in 1871, a passion for collecting items was described as something that 'befalls most boys, like measles or whooping-cough.' Measles' reputation as a common childhood illness also meant that health officials didn't usually take mitigation efforts as seriously as they did for other diseases. In How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis described the virus's devastating effects in New York City's tenement housing in the 1880s, where impoverished and starving people gathered in close quarters with little access to hygiene: 'Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail—what do they mean? … The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none.' He reported on records showing that respiratory diseases, including the flu and measles, were the most common cause of death in these housing conditions. But diphtheria and scarlet fever were 'considered more dangerous to the public health,' so health officials moved those cases to hospitals, resulting in 'a low death-rate.' Recovery from measles is not always linear; contracting the virus can make people more vulnerable to other diseases. In 1925, one mother recalled pulling from the family's savings to settle the bills for her children's treatment. Those who were unable or unwilling to pay relied on homemade remedies that largely lacked scientific backing. Tansy and pennyroyal leaves could be steeped to make tea, and sometimes catnip would be used as well, according to a 1933 Atlantic article. Anybody bold (or desperate) enough could try ' sheep tea,' which got its name from the main ingredient of dried sheep manure. Though drinking rehydrated animal waste might seem outlandish today, the prospect of using unconventional methods to treat measles hasn't faded from popularity. Take Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Throughout the current outbreak, he has promoted unproven treatments such as cod-liver oil and steroids. Experts widely agree that these are no substitutes for the measles vaccination. No antivirals will cure a patient once they're infected—doctors can only manage the symptoms. Depending on certain factors (age, vaccination status, underlying conditions), in many cases these symptoms will abate; in others, possible complications (pneumonia, brain swelling) can lead to long-term issues or death. 'Measles is not a forgiving virus,' my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote last month. And it's currently spreading in an environment very different from that of the prevaccine era, when primarily kids were infected and people lived in a world less connected by air, rail, and car. The most recent example of a measles epidemic took place in the late 1980s and early '90s. It 'infected 55,000 people, put 11,260 in the hospital, and killed more than 150,' the policy researcher Mary Graham wrote in The Atlantic in 1993. Doctors scrambled to treat a disease they hadn't come across for years; crowded hospitals set aside beds for feverish patients. 'Epidemics are no longer local events,' Graham explained. 'The rapid spread of measles to forty-nine states was a destructive reminder that from the perspective of a virus we have become one community.'
New York Times
06-03-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Order Aims to Dismantle Education Department, Official Says
Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump's health secretary. Mr. Cassidy wondered aloud for days how Mr. Kennedy, the nation's most vocal and powerful critic of vaccinations, might handle an infectious disease crisis. Now, as a measles outbreak rages in West Texas, Mr. Cassidy has found out. It all comes down, he said, to 'the gestalt.' On Monday, days after the Texas outbreak killed an unvaccinated child, Mr. Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, was clipping down a Capitol corridor when he was asked about Mr. Kennedy. He pointed to a Fox News Digital opinion piece in which Mr. Kennedy advised parents to consult their doctors about vaccination, while calling it a 'personal' decision. 'That Fox editorial was very much encouraging people to get vaccinated,' he said. Reminded that Mr. Kennedy had described it as a personal choice, Mr. Cassidy thought for a moment. 'If you want to like, parse it down to the line, you can say, 'Discuss with your doctor,'' Mr. Cassidy said. 'He also said, 'We're making vaccinations available. We're doing this for vaccination. We're doing that for vaccination.' So if you take the gestalt of it, the gestalt was, 'Let's get vaccinated!'' Mr. Cassidy's assessment — that the whole of Mr. Kennedy's message was more than the sum of its parts — reflects how the measles outbreak has put a spotlight on how Mr. Trump's unorthodox choice to run the country's top health agency has brought a once-fringe perspective into the political mainstream, creating discomfort for some Republicans. As the founder and chairman of his nonprofit, Children's Health Defense, and later as a presidential candidate, Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed the benefits of vaccination. He has also repeatedly suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism, despite extensive research that has found no link. Since winning Trump's nod to head the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Kennedy has walked a careful line on the issue. Some of his recent statements, in which he stops short of denouncing vaccines, have angered some of his supporters. But his less than full-throated endorsement of vaccination, and his promotion of alternative remedies to treat measles, have angered mainstream scientists who say the one proven way to prevent measles is the vaccine. 'This, I would say, is the barest of the bare minimum that one can do in the middle of a measles outbreak,' said Dr. Adam Ratner, a New York City pediatrician who just published a book, 'Booster Shots,' that warns of a measles resurgence. But Del Bigtree, Mr. Kennedy's former communications director and one of his closest allies, said Mr. Kennedy was doing exactly what he said he would do: putting all options on the table and letting parents decide for themselves. He used the word 'balance' to describe Mr. Kennedy's approach, and said the media was being 'incredibly disingenuous and in some ways alarmist and dangerous by creating a panic over a death from measles.' Asked about Mr. Cassidy's 'gestalt' remark, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the department, referred back to the Fox opinion piece. He said the health secretary's comment could speak for itself: 'Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.' Mr. Cassidy, a liver specialist, made his career in medicine treating uninsured patients as a doctor in Louisiana's charity hospital system. He is a fierce proponent of vaccines. But he is also facing a Republican primary challenger in 2026, and voting against Mr. Kennedy risked prompting Mr. Trump to endorse his opponent — and sparking a potential backlash among an increasingly vaccine-skeptical G.O.P. electorate. Mr. Kennedy's 'medical freedom' movement, which he calls 'Make America Healthy Again,' is now deeply entrenched in the Republican Party. The coronavirus pandemic turned many conservatives against vaccine mandates, even for children attending school. Around the country, nearly 1,000 candidates, nearly all Republican, ran for elective office in November with the backing of Stand for Health Freedom, a Florida nonprofit that has pushed to make it easier for parents to opt out of school vaccine requirements. For Mr. Cassidy and other Republicans who were uneasy about Mr. Kennedy, the situation in West Texas is forcing a reckoning, said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist who is also a member of Rotary International, an organization that has set a goal of ending polio by promoting vaccination around the world. 'His position on vaccines was exceedingly well known when he was nominated, and when he was confirmed by the United States Senate,' Mr. Ayers said. 'Everybody, with their eyes open, knew that his positions could lead to a resurgence of measles.' As vaccination rates have dropped around the country, public health experts have warned that measles would be the first infectious disease to come back. But the Texas measles outbreak cannot be blamed on Mr. Kennedy. The disease began spreading within the Mennonite community, an insular Christian group that settled in West Texas in the 1970s; many Mennonites are unvaccinated and vulnerable to the virus. Mr. Kennedy minimized the situation in Texas during a Cabinet meeting with Mr. Trump last week, saying measles outbreaks in the United States are 'not unusual.' His Fox opinion piece promoted the use of vitamin A, which studies have shown is useful in treating measles in malnourished children. He followed up with a prerecorded Fox News interview that aired on Tuesday, in which he said parents and doctors should consider alternative approaches, including cod liver oil, for the treatment of measles. He also acknowledged that vaccines 'do prevent infection.' But once again, Mr. Kennedy did not urge Americans to get vaccinated. The Texas Department of Health issued a health alert on Jan. 23 reporting two cases of measles. Since then, nearly 160 people have contracted the illness and 22 have been hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that it had sent some of its 'disease detectives' to Texas to support local officials in the response. By Wednesday, while Mr. Cassidy appeared satisfied with Mr. Kennedy's handling of the matter, the senator was pushing another key health nominee on questions of measles, vaccines and autism. Image Mr. Cassidy questioning Dr. Jay Bhattacharya during his confirmation hearing to lead the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times He wanted to know whether Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, appearing before the Senate health committee for his confirmation hearing as Trump's pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, intended to spend tax dollars on research into the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Mr. Cassidy had repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, tried to get Mr. Kennedy to reject that theory in his own confirmation hearing. Dr. Bhattacharya told the senator he was 'convinced' that there is no link between the measles vaccine and autism. But like Mr. Kennedy, he said he supported additional research, if only to assuage the fears of nervous parents. Mr. Cassidy was incensed, saying the matter had already been settled by years of extensive research. New studies, he said, would waste taxpayer dollars and take away money from studies that might uncover the true causes of autism. He pounded his fist on the table. 'If we're pissing away money over here,' he said with a wave of his hand, 'that's less money that we have to actually go after the true reason.' And in any event, Mr. Cassidy said, further research would not change minds. 'There's people who disagree that the world is round,' he said, adding, 'People still think Elvis is alive.' Image A nurse practitioner administering the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine to a 3-year-old patient in Seminole, Texas, last month. The child's parents were concerned about the measles outbreak in their area. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times To secure Mr. Cassidy's vote last month, Mr. Kennedy made a series of concessions, which Mr. Cassidy outlined in a Senate floor speech. They included a pledge not to disband the committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, and to leave intact statements on the C.D.C.'s website saying that vaccines do not cause autism. Mr. Kennedy also promised to have an 'unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship' with Mr. Cassidy, and to meet or speak with him 'multiple times a month,' and to give Congress advance notice of any vaccine policy changes. 'I will carefully watch for any effort to wrongfully sow public fear about vaccines between confusing references of coincidence and anecdote,' Mr. Cassidy said then. On his way into the Senate chamber on Monday, he said he thought Mr. Kennedy was doing a good job with the Texas response. 'He's handling it well,' the senator said. He was asked if he had spoken to Mr. Kennedy about the measles outbreak. 'We speak on a regular basis,' Mr. Cassidy said, adding: 'Let's leave it at that.'
