4) the west Texas outbreak is concentrated around an undervaccinated Mennonite community. When vaccination rates fall below 90%, measles outbreaks can occur. Gaines County has a 14% vaccine exemption rate & this does not include homeschooled children

apnews.com/article/meas...

What I say to my wife whenever I have to do mandatory professional development modules

This headline is very misleading. RFK isn't new to the world of vaccines. He founded the largest antivaccine charity 17 yrs ago which has a budget of $15 million and paid him a 6 figure salary. Vaccination rates have been dropping for years in large part bc of the misinformation he promotes.

Provinces with fewer cases of hep B rely on adolescent immunization & identifying high risk infants. However, the fact that BC does vaccinate all newborns shows us the success of this strategy compared to Quebec. The authors advocate for infant immunization.

www.cmaj.ca/content/180/...

Sharing a toothbrush, a bite on the playground are possible routes of transmission. Just living in the same house with someone with hep B is a risk factor which is why you're asked that when you donate blood. Once the focus shifted to protecting all infants, we see a dramatic drop in hep B cases.

Kev loves watching Empire

To add: it is so disgusting that RFK wrote a letter to the Samoan PM in Nov 2019 claiming to be so devastated by the deaths from measles & then 3 months later he calls it a "mild outbreak." 83 people died, mostly kids. This is 1 of the deadliest measles outbreaks since the vaccine was developed.

Don't just take it from me. Take it from someone who was there. Ms Jackson, a Samoan nurse, described RFK's support of the local antivaccine advocates as making them louder & she has no doubts that he had an impact.

In Nov 2019, RFK wrote a letter to the Samoan prime minister. In the letter he blamed the MMR vaccine for causing the cases of measles, while the country was desperately trying to save lives. 20 kids had already died & RFK wanted to stop the campaign that would end the outbreak.

Let's pretend RFK went to Samoa & didn't talk about vaccines at all, despite the evidence to the contrary & that RFK shouts at strangers not to vaccinate their kid (see podcast quote). There was one other key fact missing from Vinay's piece. Perhaps the worst thing RFK did that we have proof of.

RFK also met with 2 local antivaxxers who later compared the govt to Nazi Germany & the vaccination campaign to a killing spree. RFK wrote here publicly praising the advocate. Note that RFK claimed here that the vaccine injured kids when most of those sickened by measles were unvaccinated.

RFK was invited to Samoa by a local antivaxxer through RFK's antivax nonprofit Children's Health Defense. RFK claimed he didn't talk about vaccines however we know from Samoan Dr Naseri (3rd pic) he was sowing doubt about the MMR. We also know he talked to the PM about vaccines "a limited amount."

If you're going to write "the true story of the Samoa measles outbreak" it's a good idea to include some facts. The author would rather speculate, then later admit he doesn't know what happened but still conclude that RFK had little to do with measles deaths in a weird bootlicking opinion piece.

The results were announced on April 12, 1955, the 10th anniversary of FDR's death. Salk refused to patent the vaccine, famously stating "can you patent the Sun?" The vaccine was licensed that year and 5 pharmaceutical companies immediately began production.

Half of this study observed 1.08 million children, the other half randomized 750k children to either placebo or Salk vaccine (~440k vaccine, ~210k placebo). These children were called the Polio Pioneers. Vaccine reduced paralytic cases by 72%, no fatalities reported.

RFK & the antivaccine movement claim there are no placebo controlled trial vaccines. So let's talk about the @marchofdimes.bsky.social Francis Field trials for polio. In 1954, 2 concurrent trials were initiated, enrolling 1.8 million children. This was the largest clinical trial ever done.