24-old song, new verse

On this Tuesday I am struck by the US measles rate. In the last three months, there have been 64 suspected cases in the US. According to the CDC, this is in 17 states and surpasses the total number of cases in 2023, which was 58. FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR! And there have been 64 in 85 days. How high can the number go in the next 280 days?

Like Covid, the answer is the same. Vaccination. The MMR, measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine that has been given to millions of people. If not billions. The same titer that I have had to have drawn at every level of schooling: ADN, BSN, MSN, and PhD. To make sure that I was not a danger to my classmates and that I was not in danger from the very random person who has those diseases. I also got the booster in the 1990s.

If another booster was deemed appropriate today I would roll up my sleeves. Right now.

Like Covid, the reason is the same. People who are against vaccines. For a variety of reasons. I don’t really care what your reasons are. I have heard them all.

You know what I read that was jaw-droppingly stupid? That the Florida surgeon general, whose state is enduring part of the measles wave, said it was okay to send your children to school even if they have measles. Oh, and the vaccinations? Not necessary.

Wall, meet head.

As the magazine Scientific American put it, this is a direct effect of the peddling of covid-era pattern of medical misinformation.

I will say it again, if you are against vaccination and part of the tide of cases that is threatening our herd immunity, your great-grandparents are spinning in their grave. They watched their children die and fought for vaccines. The same vaccines that have allowed us to build up the herd immunity that everyone enjoys. Even those assholes who think that they are not part of the herd but are enjoying the effects of our rolling up our sleeves and taking it for the good of humanity. Or allowing our children to be vaccinated so they are not in danger.

You might have been lucky and continue to be lucky, but what happens when your luck runs out?

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/13/24-color me surprised, the articles about mifepristone were retracted by publisher

Shocked, I am shocked. This is heavy sarcasm.

Does anyone remember the debunked articles by Andrew Wakefield that began the most recent wave of anti-vaxers nonsense with a widely exposed fraudulent article in the Lancet conflating autism with childhood vaccines? And how every parent clutched their child to their breast and decided then and there that of course the man was telling the truth. With nothing underneath him but air? Yeah, him.

Healthcare workers, such as myself, have been educating parents about how safe vaccines are ever since. But the idea was like an earworm and refused to die. As a society, we are still dealing with the fallout and the consequences of this. Current measles outbreak numbers do not lie.

Herd immunity works very well. But the public has to be 1) vaccinated for it to work and 2) be protective of those who cannot get vaccinated, like the very young, the people who are anaphylactically allergic to the vaccines, or those who cannot otherwise take the vaccines.

Think of what the planet just went through with covid and you have a good idea of how damaging and heartless this was. People who didn’t get the widely available and FREE covid vaccines extended the pandemic.

To be blunt, autism is NOT caused by vaccines. To mislead the public into believing that was a gross malpractice on the former Dr. Wakefield’s part.

Well.

The 2021 paper that the Texas judge used in a ruling against the use of mifepristone has been yanked. By the publisher. Retracted by the publisher. What the judge did was bend the facts to make his ruling that mifepristone was dangerous and should be stopped. And his ruling was appealed and stayed and overturned. Which is what was the intention.

The case that is in front of the U.S. Supreme Court right this very second.

I’ve said it before, over and over again. This lunacy is a war against women and is about trying to control more than half of the population. Control is at the root of this.

Will they care that the original ruling was based on a retracted by the publisher paper?

It remains to be seen. I have an idea about what will happen. Don’t you?

I hope I am wrong.

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/5/23-Gap in the data

My brain is right now about finding data gaps in the nursing research. This is to aid me in my doctoral classes and I think I’ve found one. Both in the doctoral classes.

And in the current covid pandemic numbers.

What covid pandemic numbers?

You say you haven’t seen any covid pandemic numbers in months. You even didn’t know it was still a thing. Mostly because you don’t care. It has killed as many as it is going to kill and other things are more important to you.

I get it, I do. But that’s just it; we don’t know about current numbers. All we get are dribs and drabs of numbers, sometimes, if the wind is right. Otherwise, no one is reporting numbers right now.

At a glance at the current numbers here in my town, the data is lagging a bit. The last numbers are from November 3-November 16 and apparently, the covid risk is low. 11% of those who presented to the hospital with covid like symptoms got admitted, but the covid risk is low.

79% of the covid samples are from 2 dominant strains-Omicron XBB and Omicron XE. The most current variant that is in the news is BA.2.6, according to the CDC. Even that update is from 11/27/23.

That is the point.

The data are weak. When we get it at all.

There certainly is a lot more to capture our attention. Is covid a victim of the news cycle because there is something sexier to talk about that gets attention?

Yep.

Inflation, the holidays, and wars.

Lions, tigers, and bears indeed.

Oh my.