Why the heck wouldn’t a flight attendant be required to get that vaccine?
It can wear off or not work
Like many others of her generation around the world, the flight attendant, who has not been identified, received only one dose of the measles vaccine when she was a child.
It wasn’t discovered until later that one dose is only about 93% effective. More recently – in the United States, starting in 1989 – children have been given two doses, which is about 97% effective, according to the CDC.
Which isn’t an issue very often with herd immunity.
Think of how many people she likely encountered while she was contagious, before symptoms presented. Hundreds? Thousands? In the confined space if an airplane.
Yep. It’s basically a scene from an apocalyptic plague movie.
Ugh. I mean good but how would you know…
Man I think when I started working in healthcare I actually had to have blood drawn and antibodies tested, and I am not even front facing with patients. There was always a risk though I would come across someone. I mean they’re hospitals.
I do remember getting two shots myself, in elementary school, and I wound up with a third at college because no one could find the chart or something.
We’re facing a a pretty nasty spread of this. I wonder if anyone has considered just asking every adult to get the shot again, just to be sure. Aside from costs, I am not sure there is much of a risk of getting an additional shot, just in case.
Is this how 12 Monkeys starts?
I think this is a good idea, I’d have no problem getting another shot. But of course the people that really need a shot are those who’ve never had any.
Yep. And some of those people might not know they didn’t get it like that guy in New York. If we could just encourage and provide free shots, no one really has to worry about it, just get another one. Just go get your shots at a clinic. Heck several of our retail stores and drug stores are already set-up to provide shots… so it seems like it might be mostly a matter of supply and say what additional considerations you need for the measles vaccine vs say the flu they already provide.
Well, measles has now hit LA’s organic whole foods people.
5 so far, “most of them” unvaccinated. One case in airport, one of the infected was at a google campus.
It really is a shame it not only affects the un-immunized.
Yep, awesome to see it hit here. At least my girls are both fully vaccinated but I’m sure some poor kids with medical issues that prevent vaccination will pay the price of anti-vax idiocy.
Neat. This hipster anti-vaxx movement is pretty awesome.
Can we get checked if we need to get vaccinated again?
Yes, there’s a blood test for some vaccine antibodies. Or you can just get the shot without wasting the time and money… I just did that for MMR because it had been a long time since my boosters and with all these idiots running around it seemed like a good idea.
Yay, I’m travelling to NYC for 2 weeks in summer with an 18 months old. He’s vaccinated up the wazzoo (and we will be giving him a couple optional meningitis shots just in case) but I’m not 100% cool with the situation over there.
Now I’m wondering if we the parents should get a shot too.
Most of the measles cases in NY have been centered around the Orthodox/Hasidic Jewish communities. Take reasonable precautions, obviously, but if you aren’t visiting those communities, the risk should be fairly minimal.
That’s being said, while we’re all pretty vaccinated up, I’ve considered asking my doctor about a measles booster, but rationally know it’s probably unnecessary.
Our company just sent out a mass Health Alert to all employees, not just physicians, telling everyone about the symptoms of Measles:
High Fever 101
Cough
Runny Nose
Red Watery Eyes
a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body.
An internal number to call if a suspected case shows up as well as a link to the CDC.
At least I know they’re taking it seriously. It is true… some physicians, as cases in the news have shown, will not know the symptoms right away because this was not widespread in this country.
What I think when I see stories like this:
