reuters.com
www.reuters.com

Summary

Donald Trump plans to discuss potentially ending childhood vaccination programs with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee for Health and Human Services.

Trump expressed openness to revisiting vaccine policies, citing concerns about autism rates, despite scientific consensus debunking links between vaccines and autism.

Critics warn reducing vaccinations could lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles.

Kennedy, known for questioning vaccine safety, would oversee the CDC if confirmed.

Public health experts remain concerned about the implications.

  • gift_of_gab@lemmy.world
    7·
    6 days ago

    We’re already having a problem with it in Canada, so I’m pretty damn nervous. I have family members who really rely on herd immunity.

    • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      Ya, I’m in Canada also. And unfortunately I know more than a couple of people who legit believe vaccines are a scam. But you can find idiots everywhere. I’m honestly not too worried about it here.

      • gift_of_gab@lemmy.world
        3·
        5 days ago

        The issue is, especially for measles, herd immunity. There are some major problems with measles in particular, such as:

        Measles is so contagious that one infected person can spread the respiratory virus to 90% of people in the same room—and it can live in the air for two hours. Often, an infected person doesn’t even know they have measles for several weeks.

        and

        Early symptoms include a fever, cough, runny nose, and red eyes, all of which could be overlooked as part of a common cold. A skin rash doesn’t typically appear until three to five days after the first symptoms appear. Someone with measles is contagious four days before the rash begins and four days after. There is no cure for measles, but if you’ve received the measles vaccine or are immune from a previous infection, consider yourself protected.

        Another major problem is…:

        Depending on the disease, herd immunity may begin to show beneficial effects when just 40% of the population is vaccinated. But for particularly contagious diseases, that threshold is far higher, exceeding 80%. The vaccination rate should be about 96% to achieve herd immunity for measles.

        So we’re going to have immune compromised people getting and then spreading measels. It hits children the hardest, and we’re going to start seeing absolutely heart-breaking headlines about children dying to a completely preventable illness.

        • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
          2·
          5 days ago

          Oh, I don’t disagree. Measles is horrible. It’s even been found to reset a person’s immune system. Like erased to newborn status.

          But what I mean about not being too worried, is that I have a modicum amount of faith in fellow Canadians. And once those insane policies start happening in the US, the entire rest of the world is going to place travel restrictions to/from the US.

          • gift_of_gab@lemmy.world
            2·
            5 days ago

            But what I mean about not being too worried, is that I have a modicum amount of faith in fellow Canadians.

            I’m glad you do, and I don’t. If, as polls show he should rather easily, Poilievre wins the next election we’ll have a Prime Minister who marched with the Convoy. In addition, the Federal Conservative party voted in 2022 to not recognize climate change. The idea he’ll place restrictions down is, to my mind, flat out wrong. I think he’ll bow and kowtow to whatever Trump says, and from the amount of ‘Make Canada Great Again’ hats (And the full on MAGA ones as well, which is… bizarre) I see throughout the interior of BC/Alberta, I think there’s some serious indicators the voters will, too. John Rustad almost beat the BC NDP. Polls show 43% of voters in Ontario plan to vote for Doug Ford again.

            I am glad you have faith in Canadians, I just don’t understand where that faith comes from.

            • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
              1·
              5 days ago

              I am glad you have faith in Canadians, I just don’t understand where that faith comes from.

              Mostly from interacting quite a bit with Americans and seeing how much better Canada is by comparison. Don’t get me wrong, things are tending down, but we’ve got quite a ways to go before we get that bad.