Until the mid-20th century, measles was a leading killer of children. It's estimated that between 1 and 2 million Native Americans died of measles when Europeans first came to North America.
Measles can still be a deadly disease. But with the advent of effective vaccines, the number of cases has declined, along with the 20% mortality rate seen in the early 20th century. It's just not a problem in first-world countries.
Unless a first-world country is hosting millions of unvaccinated newcomers from third-world countries
In Chicago, there are now 12 confirmed cases of measles. Ten of the 12 originate from the Pilsen migrant shelter. One of the cases involved a three-year-old toddler. His mother says she's mystified how the youngster got the disease since he doesn't go to school.
But last Wednesday, the youngster wasn't feeling well.
"He was lethargic, not drinking, not eating," his mother said. "We were in the hospital on Friday. They sent us home... told us it was COVID."
Two days later, the child was in the hospital after getting the correct diagnosis. "I feel like I've woken up in a different world," the mother said.
Don't blame the doctors. The telltale measles rash didn't appear until Friday morning, and what reason would doctors have to test for measles when the disease used to be rare? There were just 58 cases of measles in the U.S. throughout all of 2023.
There are already 58 cases in 17 states reported to the CDC in 2024. Public health authorities are scrambling to get hundreds of thousands of migrants vaccinated before there's a full-blown measles epidemic in the U.S.
Just like in any other third-world country.
The Illinois Department of Health "is working to coordinate state assistance to support our local public health partners as they contend with a measles outbreak that reflects an ongoing national rise in measles this year,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said. “While the vast majority of Chicago and Cook County residents are vaccinated for measles and not at risk, we strongly support the call from the Chicago Department of Public Health for all unvaccinated residents to get the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine now. Measles is highly contagious and can cause serious complications for those that are non-immunized.”
One in five unvaccinated people will need to be hospitalized.
Though the cases are currently in Chicago, Cook County Department of Public Health Chief Operating Officer Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck said health officials are currently tracking nearly 100 people who were potentially exposed to the virus.
In addition to assisting their Chicago counterparts with isolation and quarantine solutions, Illinois health officials are also providing infection control assessments at quarantine sites, medical assessments and assistance with testing.
The new cases come as a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived at the Pilsen shelter on Tuesday in an effort to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus.
In very young children, measles is a killer."Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications," according to the CDC.
This should not be happening. It's inexcusably negligent for the Biden administration to allow anyone into the country who hasn't been vaccinated against childhood diseases. And the reasons the migrants were allowed into the U.S. without being checked for their vaccination status were political.
Biden didn't want the bad press he'd get if a couple of million migrants were held up at the border while their health histories were checked. This is something that's routine with legal immigrants. But Biden's goal was to shuffle the migrants off to the interior of the United States with very little vetting and no medical exam. Out of sight, out of mind
The key to nipping any outbreak in the bud is quarantining anyone who came in contact with an infected person or even might have come in contact. The 100 people in quarantine does not sound nearly enough to me. People are going in and out of those shelters all the time. It's not likely Chicago is out of the woods by any means.
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