Measles Witch Hunt: Anti-Vax Parents Burned at the Propaganda StakeLily Dane Naturally, those who choose to opt out of vaccinations tend to be blamed for outbreaks. Lets start with some facts about measles: How many people die from measles or related complications each year? Lets break that down more how many people in the United States die from measles each year? Statistics for 2012 and 2010 are not currently available on the CDC website. If there were any measles outbreaks or related deaths during those years, it is safe to assume the information would be posted on the website. Vaccine proponents will claim that the measles immunization is to thank for the lack of deaths from the disease in the United States. But is that accurate? Dawn Babcock Papple crunched the numbers and analyzed the results in an article for VaxTruth: The Oxford Journal of Infectious Disease also pointed out that measles-related deaths were on the decline before the vaccine was available: Now, for some facts about the measles vaccine, from the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC): Im not a scientist, but I dont think it takes an advanced degree to deduce that getting the measles vaccine just might be more dangerous than contracting the disease itself. In fact, what was once a benign childhood disease might be a bigger problem BECAUSE the availability of the vaccine has become widespread, as Lawrence Solomon of Financial Post suggests: The NVIC backs up Solomons points: If you ask people who had measles as a child what the disease was like, they will likely tell you that it wasnt exactly an enjoyable experience, but they survived and came out with lifelong, natural immunity. Kevin Brooker of the Calgary Herald wrote a piece about that very thing a few days ago, in which he recalled his experience with the disease: Despite all of these facts, the mainstream media continues to spin measles outbreaks into a fringe parenting issue, blaming the cases on irresponsible, uneducated people who opt out of vaccinations, but thats hardly the truth: A recent example of pro-vaccination media bias can be found in a recent Business Insider article, titled NYC Health Commissioner On Measles Outbreak: We Must Continue To Remain Vigilant. The article begins with this: Later in the same article, the TWO unvaccinated children were mentioned: What about the 14 adults who were infected? The article does not state the vaccination status of those individuals, who represented more than half of those infected. And how many does most mean? The author states most of the rest were too young to be fully vaccinated. According to one report, only four of the children were too young to have received both shots. That leaves us with 6 children who presumably were fully vaccinated, yet still contracted the disease. Then, this: 90%? Does that include those who were properly vaccinated? The article doesnt clarify. Perhaps the author is unaware of the source of an outbreak that occurred in New York in 2011. Sort of puts a dent in the claim If youre current on your vaccinations, youre in the clear, doesnt it? And what about cases of outbreaks in which almost everyone who contracted the disease was fully vaccinated? A study published in PubMed in 1987 covered a measles outbreak that occurred in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1985. The conclusion of that study: The current outbreak in California has led to news articles about the importance of vaccination. Most of those stories include at least a brief suggestion that unvaccinated people are the cause of the outbreaks. The article Who is Patient Zero?on OCWeekly.com discusses the current California outbreak, which, as of April 4, consisted of 49 confirmed cases. The author mentions that Orange County with 21 cases was hit the hardest. Of course, the fact that a few unvaccinated children were stricken ill had to be pointed out: Then the other cases were casually mentioned: Were those adults vaccinated? Why wasnt that information provided? The article then reveals something quite significant, but it is only given this brief line and is not mentioned again: Notice the wording there? Why didnt the author say State-wide, nearly half of this years measles cases come from VACCINATED children? Pay close attention to what is being said, what is being omitted, and what is being twisted to suit a particular agenda in the mainstream media. The current anti-vaccination witch-hunt is a perfect example of the misleading, biased reporting that is rampant. Lily Dane is a staff writer for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared.Her goal is to help people to Wake the Flock Up! 