RFK - Make America Healthy? again?

While I'm not going to lead you around by the nose for something as blatantly obvious as low vaccination rates are associated with outbreaks of disease, and explaining the relationship between R(0) and herd immunity threshold to you would be like explaining calculus to a ^&*%$ penguin (ffs you don't even appear to understand that viruses don't travel, the hosts travel and take the virus with them), you can start here with this paper you have precisely zero chance of understanding, for one of many studies done on this relationship:

Madhura S. Rane, Jonathan Wakefield, Pejman Rohani, M. Elizabeth Halloran,
Association between pertussis vaccination coverage and other sociodemographic factors and pertussis incidence using surveillance data, Epidemics, Volume 44, 2023,100689,
ISSN 1755-4365, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2023.10....
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...)

Meanwhile a child is dead because of the stupid misinformation brigade. Congratulations on that.

https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbr...

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A child who wasn’t vaccinated died in a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, state officials said Wednesday, the first U.S. death from the highly contagious — but preventable — respiratory disease since 2015.

The school-aged child had been hospitalized and died Tuesday night amid the widespread outbreak, Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Since it began last month, a rash of 124 cases has erupted across nine counties.

The Texas Department of State Health Services and Lubbock health officials confirmed the death to The Associated Press. The child wasn’t identified but was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility noted the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.

“This is a big deal,” Dr. Amy Thompson, a pediatrician and chief executive officer of Covenant Health, said Wednesday at a news conference. “We have known that we have measles in our community, and we are now seeing a very serious consequence.”

In federal response, RFK Jr. appears to misstate several facts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official and a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of the Health and Human Services is watching cases and dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual.”

He appeared to misstate a number of facts, including a claim that most who had been hospitalized were there only for “quarantine.” Dr. Lara Johnson at Covenant contested that characterization.

“We don’t hospitalize patients for quarantine purposes,” said Johnson, the chief medical officer.

Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles. A spokesman — Andrew Nixon, for the Department of Health and Human Services — later clarified that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified only one death.

The federal government is providing vaccines as well as technical and laboratory support in West Texas, but the state health department is leading the response, Nixon said.

The CDC has said it will provide only weekly updates on the measles outbreak, and had not yet updated its public webpage to reflect the child’s death. Texas health department data shows that a majority of the reported measles cases are in children.

95% isn't a low vaccination rate Einstein.

1) It's not 95% everywhere. That's the STATE AVERAGE. There are pockets of lower rates (and higher, that's what makes it an average). That's where the outbreaks happen.

2) You don't have any idea what low enough even is, so don't pretend to, because exactly like I said,

And you calling someone else "Einstein" is rich.

Oh and LOL ONE MINUTE IS THAT A NEW RECORD

df

You still haven't explained how a 95% vaccination rate caused an outbreak and a 97% rate didn't, Einstein.

Oh honey, just because you have no idea what just happened doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Lol That's cute Einstein but you still haven't offered any proof.

So, I'll take that as you admitting defeat then.

Called that one.

The vaccination rates for kindergartners in these rural counties is as low as 46%. You can prove to yourself with some basic coding that even 90% vaccination rates will result in outbreaks with an R0 of 10 like measles and pretty basic interaction detail assumptions. Well not you, but a normal person could.

I'd bet on the penguin first.

So, I'll assume they were still relatively low in those areas when the state average was 97%. Why were there no outbreaks then?

By the way here's an interesting bit of data regarding measles and vaccines that a lot of people might not be aware of.

Why would you assume that?

Logic.

Well, logic would not lead to that assumption. Want to try again? Or, you could simply list the steps that led you there logically.

lol

Lack of exposure to the virus. Measles was close to gone in the US in 2000. In a couple decades with falling vaccination rates these outbreaks were predicted well in advance. Strange that you need so much mathematical proof that low vaccination rates result in disease outbreaks but are willing to accept a link between autism and vaccines based on no math at all. But to be fair I'm guessing you blindly follow what others say.

Well, that would be like trying to explain calculus to a penguin grasshopper.

(Reply to Gorgo)

uh huh

97% to 95% is not a huge fall in vaccination rates. That's my point.

Yes yes, BJ. You've made a very special point there. I'm sure many people are proud of you for this very important point you have made. Very very special and important.

I know logic isn't your strong point so it would be pointless trying to explain it to you.

uh huh

Here you go Einstein.

The discussion was about how you arrived at this assumption:

I have no idea what you think that meme has to do with that, but it's pretty indicative of your ability to use your brain.

As for the other part of that post, this had already been answered, and you didn't understand the answer then, so I have no idea why anyone would expect you to now, but you realize that the virus doesn't just spawn in low vaccination areas, right? It has to be introduced and then spread. The key is this (spread) is only possible in areas where the vaccination rate is below the herd immunity threshold.

We'll get to the rest of your attempted gish-galloping in due time, don't you worry.

Just trying to educate you grasshopper.