BART rider with measles potentially exposed thousands in Bay area | Hacker News Reader

BART rider with measles potentially exposed thousands in Bay area

sfgate.com

38 pointsinovator27 comments

Damn I wish the media would run more scare stories about pandemics of extremely virulent diseases that are actually completely preventable! "Don't want to risk having your child die? Don't want potential life long health problems? Get vaccinated today!" >_<

The externalities of not getting vaccinated (see: this article) makes a strong case for requiring them or at least making a subset of them required upon exit for reentry (similar to passports) without religious exemptions.

That sounds good on the surface, but has problems in the details.

Do you want a country that prohibits people from leaving when they want? So you can't require it on exit.

And the most basic right of citizenship is the ability to enter the country, so you can't require it on entry either.

All you can do is convince other countries to prohibit entry without vaccination,

Yes, as a US citizen, your right to enter the United States is "absolute, unconditional, and irrevocable." That said, we do reserve the right to arrest or fine you immediately upon entry.

Also, the CDC has the right to quarantine you.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dgmq/feature-stories/welcoming-new...

Then it isn't "unconditional" to have a fine just for entry, then...

The fine isn't for entry, it's for some infraction upon entry (such as being drunk in public). You get in, then they fine you.

That said, American border guards have been known to turn back drunks coming in from Tijuana, but mostly as a favor to them (since they'd need to be arrested upon reentry due to public drunkenness). If you were in such a situation and insisted upon your admittance, however, I believe you would be let in.

I had to deal with this in Ecuador about a decade ago. I had to always carry around a health certificate showing I was vaccinated against yellow fever or they wouldn't let me enter the eastern Oriente (Amazon) region.

I think it was a good idea. Too bad there's no vaccine against bot flies :(

Got an email about this from cal, might been exposed, grr. Why don't people vaccinate.

If you are vaccinated as most people in the US should be then why should you care that you were exposed?

The effect of most vaccines wanes with time; however, because most people receive them, even those with waning or no resistance gain benefit (herd immunity). In this circumstance, though, once you're directly exposed, you're at risk.

Think about the children!

But seriously, children don't usually get vaccinated for measles until they are 1yo.

Seriously. I have a 3 week old right now and was taking BART in everyday. People who know they have contracted a highly contagious disease and decide to travel on mass transit the day after should really consider the consequences of their malicious (even if unintentional) actions.

More than that; they should be arrested.

Being vaccinated does not ALWAYS mean that you are individually immune, even if it is a lot better than not getting any vaccinations.

Many vaccines build "herd immunity" and will not work as well if people decide to opt out for some frivolous reason.

Also of course some people cannot receive a specific vaccine because they are pregnant or immunocompromised. Others should be vaccinated to prevent spread to those vulnerable populations, not just to protect themselves.

From the National Health Service (UK):

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/measles-outb...

"Can you still get measles after the MMR vaccination?

It’s extremely unlikely, but you need two doses of MMR to be fully protected. The first dose of the MMR jab protects 90% of those who receive it, and the second dose tops this up to 99% protection. Almost all of the children in the Welsh outbreak who caught measles were either completely unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated."

Assuming everyone was vaccinated then:

2000 people exposed, with 99% effectiveness of vaccine, yields about 20 people who will contract measles despite being vaccinated.

Because the vaccine doesn't work in everyone.

Because young children can not be vaccinated, so he should stay away from them for a time (don't know how long).

If you are wearing a bullet proof vest then why should you care that you were shot?

Not everyone is or can be vaccinated, and not everyone vaccinated has immunity. Depending on the virulity of a particular disease, some might be exposed by secondary transmission (e.g., virus particles shed onto an immune individual transferred to a susceptible one). Remember: one (conscious) method of reducing Native American populations was to distribute smallpox-infected blankets among them.

Infants, the very old, and immunocompromised individuals in particular. Given that there's a large population of HIV-infected individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area, that last might be a significant public concern.

Universities require all standard vaccinations. How was this student admitted to Berkeley?

I knew a women who felt it was her moral duty to fight vaccinations. She had no issue forging documentation saying her kids had gotten vaccinated when they hadn't.

I've heard this is common among the anti-vax crowd. Not saying it is what happened in this case, just giving a personal anecdote.

I doubt the vaccine is 100% effective.

The linked article says the student was not vaccinated.

Neither are airbags.

or condoms

You can get out of vaccinations in many situations with a) a doctor's express diagnosis that you should not be vaccinated or b) claiming to have a religious reason that prohibits vaccination.

These methods might not work for all universities, but I know they work for some.

...and this is why people shouldn't be able to stop their children from being vaccinated because they're too stupid to understand how it works.

The UK regularly seems small-scale measles outbreaks due to the same idiots.

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