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Anti-vaccine group once led by RFK Jr circulates false assertions amid measles outbreak (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

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Children’s Health Defense using familiar playbook to defend health secretary as it downplays dangers of disease and exaggerate risks of vaccines, public health experts say

The non-profit group that Robert F Kennedy Jr built into a giant of the anti-vaccine movement is defending its old boss even as the US health secretary presides over the worst year for measles in more than 30 years.

Three people have died and 1,958 people have been reported infected with measles in the US this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In South Carolina, 224 people are in quarantine amid an outbreak that has sickened 144 people. Most are unvaccinated children.

Children’s Health Defense, or CHD, which Kennedy led from 2015 to 2024, produces a daily stream of articles and videos stoking fear about vaccines and falsely suggesting that the risks associated with vaccine-preventable diseases are exaggerated.

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[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 11 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

So, TIL about Dawson disease, which affects like 1 in 5,000 people who contract measles. That sounds rare, and it is in most people who are vaccinated, but the numbers are far worse for unvaccinated populations. In unvaccinated populations, the rate goes up to 1 in 609.

Basically, you get measles and then seem fine, but up to 15 years later, you develop brain inflammation, seizures, spasms, and coma, and it’s basically 100% fatal. There’s no treatment or cure, and it hurts the whole time you’re dying. It’s similar to rabies, in that you lose all control and are guaranteed a protracted, painful death.

But yeah, vaccinations (that we all have been getting and that have like an 1 in a million chance of complications) are somehow what’s scary.

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Can't wait till we bring Polio back.