from Hacker News

DR Congo measles: More than 6k dead in world's worst outbreak

by mlforlife123 on 1/8/20, 7:45 AM with 107 comments

  • by Gatsky on 1/8/20, 9:35 AM

    This is just a heartbreaking, needless destruction of human life. Measles can be eradicated, there is no animal reservoir. Eradication of disease is an incredible gift to the future of humanity, and only gets harder with more population. The coming population increases in subsaharan Africa are probably going to take eradication of measles and polio off the map for a while, especially with anti-vaccine sentiment rising in Nigeria for example.

  • by rahuldottech on 1/8/20, 9:34 AM

    Last Week Tonight has a nice episode on Vaccines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG_s2PCH_c

    It explains why vaccines are important, why "taking it slow" with vaccines is a bad approach, and other important stuff.

    Please vaccinate yourself and your kids.

  • by fnordsensei on 1/8/20, 9:46 AM

    Every year, I take the vaccine against the seasonal flu, if possible. This is not primarily for myself, but for the people around me. The goal is herd immunity, that's how we win.

  • by jml7c5 on 1/8/20, 3:31 PM

    Unfortunately, many people in the DRC do not believe that the ebola vaccine is effective or safe (or that ebola is a real problem). [1]

    Fortunately, general acceptance of vaccines in the DRC is quite high: "Confidence in vaccines in general was high and most respondents believed that vaccines work (899 [90·7%, 95% CI 87·0–93·4) and are safe (852 [88·5%, 85·4–91·0])." [1]

    [1]: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3... (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30063-5 )

  • by lolc on 1/8/20, 9:15 AM

    And here I am with a sister who thinks that vaccination for a newborn should be "weighed against the risk". The reason we don't know measles as a deadly disease anymore is because vaccination works so well!

  • by adreamingsoul on 1/8/20, 12:11 PM

    Today, my child had their second dose of the MMR vaccine. I'm thankful for the access that we have to healthcare here in Norway. I can't imagine what it is like in the Congo, but I'm grateful that people and organizations are working hard to provide help to people in need.

  • by kresten on 1/8/20, 10:52 AM

    I have infinite sympathy for children infected with preventable diseases because adults chose not to vaccinate them, and for adults who cannot be vaccinated. Heartbreaking.

    I have pretty much zero sympathy for adult antivaxxers who get infected - let evolution do its thing here.

  • by aaron695 on 1/8/20, 1:42 PM

    For Fucks sake.

    The awful people in this world are the ones who know vaccines are important but just go on about anti-vaxxers while millions die who couldn't afford access to vaccines.

    Any chance we could skip bullying anti-vaxxers, it's not on topic to this article and talk about how you can get vaccines to the people in the DR Congo. And it's not drones..... probably something to do with refrigeration and money. Or hiring remote people.

  • by Cthulhu_ on 1/8/20, 11:12 AM

    I'll sound like a conspiracy theorist here but hear me out.

    The anti-vaxx movement is a successful underground propaganda attack by the Russians to weaken the population. They are also behind the election of unfit leaders and anti-European (read: anti-unity) sentiments, or more broadly speaking, making people argue about internal affairs so they're no longer a strong front against the outside world.

    Where's the state funded counter propaganda? There used to be propaganda posters that portrayed not vaccinating as un-American and / or working with the enemy.