About That Texas Dept of State Health Services Whistleblower...
it's just more anti-vax propaganda!
Have you heard the latest development in the Texas measles outbreak?
Anti-vaccine influencers want you to believe that a whistleblower from the Texas Dept of State Health Services has said that the child who died with measles “was admitted with multiple life threatening conditions.”
About That Texas Dept of State Health Services Whistleblower...
What’s the problem with this story?
The only source is Dr Henry Ealy, who holds a doctorate in Naturopathic medicine!
Do you believe him?
Did you believe the story that the child had RSV and got measles in the hospital that someone supposedly posted on a mom’s group?
To be fair, it is certainly possible that the child tested positive for RSV when they were admitted to the hospital. After all, it is still RSV season!
The thing is though, that doesn’t mean that they were still sick with the RSV virus, as you can test positive for up to ten weeks after recovering from RSV. And even if they did still have RSV, understand that school age children don’t typically die with RSV. RSV deaths are usually in young children.
And could they have had pneumonia when they died?
They probably did!
Pneumonia is one of the complications that makes measles a killer!
It’s Just More Measles Misinformation
Do you see a pattern?
Cognitive dissonance is hitting some folks real hard right now!
What do I mean?
To justify your decision to skip or delay vaccinating your children, you have to believe that measles is mild and won’t kill them. Once you start to realize that measles can be deadly, you will start to question your decision to not vaccinate and protect your kids. You can’t believe both things…
Or you might question your choice to be an anti-vaccine influencer.
Of course, you could go the other way and double down on pushing even more propaganda about measles, which is what many of these folks are doing!
And know that if the child did have “multiple life threatening conditions” before they got measles, then that is even more reason to prevent these types of outbreaks! While healthy children and adults can die with measles, those with chronic conditions are more even more at risk.
Are we ready to sacrifice all of them because some people don’t want to vaccinate their kids?
References
Abels SNadal D, Stroehle A, Bossart W2001.Reliable Detection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Children for Adequate Hospital Infection Control Management. J Clin Microbiol39:.https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.39.9.3135-3139.2001
Increased Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Activity in Parts of the Southeastern United States: New Prevention Tools Available to Protect Patients. https://www.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00498.html