Roman Bystrianyk is Trying to Rewrite the History of Measles
As we are seeing more and more cases of measles this year, anti-vaccine influencers are working extra hard to make people think that measles used to be a mild disease. Like they have done for polio and even smallpox, they are trying to rewrite the history of pre-vaccine era measles, leaving out the parts where everyone got sick and lots of people died.
“The 1962 data suggest that by the early 1960s—prior to the vaccine's introduction—mortality from measles had already declined significantly in many parts of the U.S., especially in higher-income regions like New England.”
Roman Bystrianyk on The Measles Narrative Unmasked
Let’s take a look at how they do it, which will also help you get better at spotting anti-vaccine propaganda.
Roman Bystrianyk is Trying to Rewrite the History of Measles
As he starts his article with a bunch of quotes, we can see the first technique Roman Bystrianyk uses to mislead people.
As he has done when talking about polio and smallpox, Roman Bystrianyk makes heavy use of out-of-context quotes.
Alexander Langmuir, for example, was a big advocate for use of measles vaccination to eradicate measles!
“This self-limiting infection of short duration, moderate severity, and low fatality has maintained a remarkably stable biological balance over the centuries. Those epidemiologists, and there are many, who tend to revere the biological balance have long argued that the ecological equilibrium of measles is solidly based, that it can not readily be disrupted and that therefore we must learn to live with this parasite rather than hope to eradicate it. This speaker, not so long ago, was counted among this group and waxed eloquent on this subject in print.
Happily, this era is ending. New and potent tools that promise effective control of measles are at hand. If properly developed and wisely used, it should be possible to disrupt the biological balance of measles. Its eradication from large continental landmasses such as North America and many other parts of the world can be anticipated soon.”
Alexander Langmuir et al on The Importance of Measles as a Health Problem
He knew that even if it wasn’t always fatal, children typically suffered when they had measles.
“…any parent who has seen his small child suffer even for a few days with persistent fever of 105, with hacking cough and delirium wants to see this prevented…”
Alexander Langmuir et al on The Importance of Measles as a Health Problem
Why doesn’t Roman Bystrianyk use these other quotes by Alexander Langmuir?
More Measles Mortality Charts
Also, while Roman Bystrianyk tries to hide deaths in one of his mortality charts to make you think people were no longer dying with measles when the measles vaccine was introduced, he ignores Langmuir’s own charts.
Charts where you can clearly see high death rates just before the measles vaccine was introduced.
Death rates that had improved already since the beginning of the century, but death rates that had stalled in the 1950s.
“It was also the year before a much-publicized medical milestone—the 1963 licensing of the first widely used measles vaccine in the United States. At the time, measles was a common childhood illness, usually self-limiting, but sometimes resulting in complications or, rarely, death.”
Roman Bystrianyk on The Measles Narrative Unmasked
Deaths that were hardly rare!
“In 1935, I was in private practice in the coal-mining town of Bedlington, England when the triennial measles epidemic struck. Walking or cycling, I would visit the homes of sick children, and in one day would see 20-30 new measles cases. Those were the Depression years, and the children's diets were decidedly subnormal. It was also the days before antibiotics, so that treatment was mostly symptomatic and ineffectual. Yet out of more than 500 sick children under my care, not a single one died. There were plenty of complications, such as pneumonias and running ears, but no deaths.”
T Aiden Cockburn - 1971
And while T Aiden Cockburn, another person Roman Bystrianyk quotes, may not have remembered seeing any deaths in Bedlington, England, it is important to note that there were nearly 3,500 measles deaths in England and Wales that year!
In 1935, plenty of people were dying with measles in England.
Tragically, plenty of people, mostly unvaccinated, are still dying with measles.
Not that T Aiden Cockburn was against measles vaccines.
In fact, he helped research the first measles vaccines!
And his quote was simply a reply to a comment on one of his articles, in which he was making a case that infectious diseases were worse when they were introduced to a community for the first time. Since no one had any immunity in these communities, infectious diseases, like smallpox and measles, could be devastating.
“Although most Americans are infected sooner or later in life, usually by the end of the sixth or seventh year, yet the total number of deaths in the U.S. is only about 500 per year. In contrast, when the virus is introduced to communities that have not been previously exposed, the death rate is very high;”
T Aiden Cockburn on The Evolution and Eradication of Infectious Diseases
On the other hand, in communities hit with repeated cycles of infections, those who had survived had immunity, so fewer people would get sick the next time around.
Also, understand that when these guys talk about rare measles deaths, they were talking about 500 deaths a year!
Lastly, Roman Bystrianyk tries to minimize how much of a problem measles was by highlighting how many people were dying with other conditions, like syphilis and tuberculosis.
“While the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, the data from the preceding year show a far more complex picture—one where measles accounted for a tiny fraction of deaths, even before widespread vaccination.”
Roman Bystrianyk on The Measles Narrative Unmasked
Other conditions that health care experts also worked very hard to get under control!
All in all, his article about measles is pure propaganda, much like his contributions to the book Dissolving Illusions, and his ideas that smallpox was a mild disease, polio was caused by arsenic residue on contaminated produce, and vaccines don’t work, etc.
Bottom line - In 1962, just before we got our first measles vaccine, over 400 people died with measles in the United States. By 1972, just ten years later, there were 24 deaths. That’s what the data shows.
References
The Measles Narrative Unmasked https://romanbystrianyk.substack.com/p/the-measles-narrative-unmasked
LANGMUIR AD, HENDERSON DA, SERFLING RE, SHERMAN IL. The importance of measles as a health problem. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1962 Feb;52(2)Suppl(Suppl 2):1-4. doi: 10.2105/ajph.52.suppl_2.1. PMID: 14462171; PMCID: PMC1522578.
Cockburn TA. Infectious diseases in ancient populations. Curr Anthropol. 1971;12:45-62. doi: 10.1086/201168. PMID: 11630337.
Cockburn TA. The evolution and eradication of infectious diseases. 1963
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