Measles. Nothing measly about this disease.
Contrary to what the anti vax movement, measles is a dangerous disease. The measles virus can live for two hours in the airspace where an infected person has coughed or sneezed. Yikes! I figure if scientists and researchers have developed a vaccine for a disease, I’m pretty certain the disease is bad enough that it warrants protecting myself and my family.
I have had my own brush with such ailments. One son had RSV when he was a baby. It’s a horribly frightening thing to watch your baby gasp for air. One son had rotavirus during the brief time that the vaccine was not available. Lucky for us, we have a children’s emergency room just a couple miles away so he got help quickly. It’s not the case for families around the world, where a child dies from a vaccine preventable disease every 20 seconds.
This is why I have dedicated my time talent and money to the UN Foundation Shot@Life program for the last eight years. I advocate for access to vaccines in the developing world and use my voice in Congress to ensure the global vaccine program continues to be funded. Now here we are fighting the same fight on our own domestic soil. As of June, 1044 cases of measles have been confirmed in the U.S. in 2019, the largest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992. The U.S. measles outbreak has reached 28 states, with concentrations of cases in New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, and California. North Carolina had its own scare recently, prompting folks to get their booster shots.
Oh, and by the way, measles was declared eliminated in the Americas in 2000.
I shudder at the thought of hedge fund managers funding the anti vax movement, yet there is no one funding the counter argument to support science and global, public health. I would love to be a part of a national collaborative to help educate people on the efficacy and value of vaccines. Dr. Peter Hotez and my friend Melody Butler of Nurses Who Vaccinate cannot fight this alone.
I was born in India in 1968 and am lucky to have been born to parents who had the resources and education to immunize me and my brother. I’ve traveled around the world to see how vaccines saves lives, and I’ve seen whooping cough, RSV, and rotavirus hurt my family as a result of not being old enough for a booster shot or not having the vaccine available.
Measles cases are on the rise globally. In 2017, the measles virus was responsible for 110,000 deaths around the world. In Madagascar alone, nearly 1000 people have died, with over 100,000 reported cases of measles. Can you imagine this scale of infection in the United States? It’s devastating no matter where on the planet this hits. Unlike most things afflicting our world right now, we can do something about measles and other deadly diseases.
#VaccinesWork
Join me in taking one small step with my partner Shot@Life and helping children have healthy lives. Visit www.shotatlife.org/petition today and ask your legislators to maintain funding for the foreign assistance that provides life-saving vaccines for children around the world.
In about the time it took you to read this, a child died from a vaccine preventable disease. Let that sink in.
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