Amidst the discussion of measles reestablishment in the US, the risk of rubella provides an instructive example of long-term delayed consequences that could resonate for decades ... or be stopped by coming to our senses 1/
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Considering how much positive effort is being deployed to bury the long term consequences of COVID, I am not holding out much hope.
Politics outweighs deaths and disability, to the point that the accountants and actuaries are one of the major sources of information on public health impacts.
Stupid people don’t understand that just because the kid survives the short term rash and symptoms that all is not well. America is full of stupid people!
Rubella virus infection is generally mild in kids and adults. But infection during early pregnancy can cause serious developmental outcomes called congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in developing fetus -- loss of pregnancy, deafness, blindness, heart defects, intellectual impairment 2/
Thankfully, in the US, most people are vaccinated against rubella (the R in MMR) AND rubella virus is eliminated so those who are not unlikely to be exposed in the ~3m window of risk in early pregnancy 3/
Declining vaccination rates increase the number of pregnancies that could be at risk* and reestablishment of rubella increases the likelihood of exposure during the 1st trimester
*but the thing is this would take years manifest before unvaccinated kids mature to reproductive age, in the US >20y 4/
Unvaccinated pregnancies would be immediately at risk, but those are currently few. The real risk is out two decades as kids born in a more vaccine hesitant world mature, get pregnant, and are exposed 5/
CRS is notoriously hard to diagnose and monitor because it requires connecting outcomes in a baby to a mild infection in mom ~6 months prior to birth. Rubella continues to circulate in places where low resources limit diagnostic confirmation during pregnancy 6/
But in the US, we have the resources and capability to tell folks they've been infected with a virus that could lead to devastating consequences for their pregnancy. Thankfully, we don't have to do so because vaccines protect individuals end elimination protects the population 7/
Yep. I’m almost 70 years old. There was no MMR vaccine, so we ALL had all 3. Knee plenty of families who had a kid with deafness or blindness due to prenatal measles. We shouldn’t go back to that nonsense.
Right now the onus is on measles. Mumps can cause infertility in males. But the most hellacious is an under vaccinated woman getting Rubella early in pregnancy resulting in child either miscarried or born blind, deaf and mentally impaired. Lack of MMR can kill or maim your GRANDKIDS.
I know it sounds ghoulish but a PSA campaign with folks who lost family members and now regret their anti vax position might get attention. I don't know else can be done to change the minds of these numbskulls.
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Politics outweighs deaths and disability, to the point that the accountants and actuaries are one of the major sources of information on public health impacts.
*but the thing is this would take years manifest before unvaccinated kids mature to reproductive age, in the US >20y 4/
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