Tag: measles

Woman contracts world’s deadliest virus after unknowingly being given the wrong vaccine

A woman who was given the wrong vaccine developed a severe case of one of the world’s deadliest diseases. 

The healthy 30-year-old went to a clinic to receive a measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. However, the medical professional who gave her the shot made a dire mistake. 

Instead, the woman was injected with a vaccine for tuberculosis, the deadliest infection in the world, with an estimated 1.2 million deaths each year, resulting in a severe tuberculosis (TB) infection that required six months of recovery.

The TB vaccine in typically given to babies soon after they are born, making any adverse events more common among that group. 

Severe complications of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine for TB, particularly in healthy people, are rare, with about one to 10 percent of recipients recorded in the medical literature having experienced them. 

These complications range from relatively mild – blisters at the injection site and swelling – to life-threatening lesions in the lungs, liver, or spleen, inflamed bones, and widespread infection. 

The patient, from Ireland, developed an abscess with oozing pus at the site on her arm where she was injected. After weeks of doctors’ struggling to identify the cause, believing at first it was caused by inflamed connective tissue in the skin, they tested the pus.

Testing revealed the woman had TB-causing bacteria in her body, possibly caused by the strain more common in cattle, which is used in a weakened form to make the vaccine.

The BCG vaccine was incorrectly injected into the muscle, though it should have been administered under the skin. Because the BCG contains bacteria, not viruses like the MMR shot, injecting it into the muscle allowed the bacteria to spread unchecked, leading to infection in the deltoid muscle. 

Keep reading

‘Medical Error’ Led to Death of 6-Year-Old Who Developed Pneumonia After Measles Diagnosis

A child who died in a Texas hospital after developing pneumonia following a measles infection died as a result of “medical error” — including failure to administer the correct antibiotic in time, according to a medical expert who reviewed the child’s medical records.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) obtained the medical records from the family of the 6-year-old girl. The parents said they wanted people to know what happened to their daughter so it wouldn’t happen to other children.

The parents obtained the records from Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock where their child died on Feb. 26.

The parents told Dr. Ben Edwards, who successfully treated their other children for measles, that they didn’t want to use the information uncovered in the medical records to inflame the situation. However, they did want to get the word out about the mistake if it could prevent it from happening to other children.

Dr. Pierre Kory, who has extensive experience in pulmonary and critical care medicine, analyzed the records. He said today in an interview on CHD.TV, “I’ve done medical case reviews from malpractice lawyers for a good part of my career, and this case was tragic.”

According to Kory’s analysis of the records, the girl died from a secondary bacterial pneumonia that had “little to do with measles.”

He added, “When I say it has little to do with measles, secondary bacterial pneumonias can happen after any viral infection.”

Kory said the girl “died of a medical error — and that error was a completely inappropriate antibiotic” for treating the kind of pneumonia she had.

Keep reading

‘Just Normal Doctoring’ — a Texas Doctor’s Eyewitness Report on Measles Outbreak

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday cheered the use of what The New York Times called “unconventional treatments” for measles, noting that Texas doctors had seen “very, very good” results using the remedies during the recent measles outbreak in Gaines County.

Treatments included cod liver oil — a food-based source of vitamin A and vitamin D — budesonide, a steroid used to relieve inflammation affecting the airways, and clarithromycin, an antibiotic.

In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Dr. Ben Edwards shared the backstory on the positive results that he and other Texas doctors have recently seen using those treatments in responding to the West Texas measles outbreak.

The “standard of care” treatment for measles is supportive care including fever reducers, cough suppressants and fluids, Edwards said. Texas Medical Board Rule 200 allows for Texas physicians to also offer “complementary and alternative” treatment options, in which he is well versed.

According to Edwards, the Feb. 26 death of a Texas child who tested positive for measles might have been prevented if hospital staff had given her breathing treatments, such as budesonide.

“Budesonide has historically been used in asthma exacerbations,” Edwards said, “but during COVID, many physicians learned of its very beneficial role in treating the inflammation triggered by respiratory viruses.”

Edwards is an integrative medicine family practitioner in Lubbock who runs a private practice serving roughly 2,000 patients. Lubbock is about an hour and a half north of Gaines County, where the current case number is highest, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

On Saturday, March 2, Edwards received a call from Gaines County resident Tina Siemens. “Tina said that little girl who died, her parents were real worried about the four other siblings that were all younger. Could I come see them?”

Keep reading

Since 2000, Measles Vaccines May Have Caused 16x More Deaths Than Measles

The recent headlines about the “measles outbreak” prompted me to examine the actual data. Notably, before the introduction of the first measles vaccine by Enders et al. in 1963, measles deaths had already declined by 97.2%, from 12,992 in 1919 to 364 in 1963—without vaccination.

After vaccination, deaths dropped to nearly zero. However, proving causality would require long-term placebo-controlled trials. Charting the pre-vaccination trend from 1949 to 1962 shows that both cases and deaths followed the expected trajectory, meaning the decline might have continued without vaccination. The sharper drop in cases may be influenced by bias, as doctors and parents—assuming vaccination prevents measles—could have attributed symptoms to other causes.

No randomized placebo-controlled trials for measles vaccination appear to exist. The renowned Cochrane Institute, while assessing measles vaccination as effective, rates the evidence as only low to moderate certainty, relying solely on observational studies rather than the gold-standard placebo-controlled trials.

Keep reading

Media Panic Over Measles Distracts From Real Threats to Kids’ Health and Safety

Measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, with one new case reported in Kentucky and two in New Jersey, are fueling media stories that the U.S. is poised for an epidemic.

On Wednesday, Texas health authorities announced the death of a child who tested positive for measles, setting off a spate of media reports blaming the measles outbreaks on declining vaccination rates.

However, some doctors warn the situation isn’t as dire as the headlines suggest.

Dr. Lawrence Palevsky, a pediatrician, said it is a tragedy anytime a child dies. But he also said there isn’t “enough information to know whether the child had an underlying medical condition, whether the child had measles and what diagnostic criteria were being used to make the diagnosis of measles.”

Palevsky said it remains unknown “what treatment the child received in the hospital that may or may not have had anything to do with the deterioration of this child’s health. More information is needed.”

Outlets like Vox, The Washington Post, and The New York Times warned that the outbreaks herald a coming “public health crisis” that will be made worse by the fact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has raised questions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule, is now secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Some accused Kennedy of downplaying the news after he said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is watching what is happening and that measles outbreaks happen every year.

Keep reading

Pharma-Sponsored Media Launches Measles Fear Campaign Based on Distorted Science

A google search for ‘measles’ reveals the coordinated fear campaign propagated by pharma-sponsored mass media…

Is there a reason to cower in fear as the news suggests and rush to get MMR booster shots? No, especially not for healthy children. However, we must remember that children with multiple comorbidities can face serious outcomes, as with any disease. It’s important to approach these discussions with a level-headed assessment of individual risk rather than reacting to sensationalized headlines.

Measles outbreaks occur every year across the United States despite 90.8% MMR vaccine uptake…

Shedding of measles vaccine RNA is a recognized phenomenon, with detectable levels in nasopharyngeal samples for up to 29 days post-vaccination (Washam et al). This shedding results from the replication of the attenuated vaccine virus, which can be transmitted to close contacts.

Keep reading

Texas Reports Death of Child Who Tested Positive for Measles, But Releases Few Details

Texas health authorities today announced the death of a child who tested positive for measles, setting off a spate of media reports blaming the measles outbreaks in Texas in New Mexico on declining vaccination rates.

Some doctors and scientists pushed back, saying too little information about the child’s health has been released so far to assume that a measles vaccine would have prevented the death.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (Texas DSHS) reported what it called “the first death from measles in the ongoing outbreak in the South Plains and Panhandle regions.”

The health department said the child was “school-aged,” unvaccinated, had been hospitalized in Lubbock last week and “tested positive for measles.”

Texas DSHS did not disclose the child’s sex, age, general health status or medical history. The agency also did not say what course of treatment the child received after being diagnosed with measles, or what strain of measles the child had.

The Associated Press (AP), under the headline, “An unvaccinated child has died in the Texas measles outbreak,” reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the child’s death is the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015.

Other media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, reposted the AP’s report, which noted that vaccination rates have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are now below “the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks.”

But Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) chief scientific officer, said it’s too early to assume that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which targets measles, would have prevented the child’s death.

Keep reading

Study Finds Measles Vaccine Far More Likely to Fail in C-Section Babies

According to a new study published in Nature Microbiology, babies born via Caesarean section (C-section) are likely to fail to respond to one dose of the live attenuated MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. In fact, researchers found it is 2.6 times more likely that the vaccine is ineffective for babies, who are born via C-section, than babies who are born vaginally.1 2 3

The study by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Fudan University in China concluded that the immune systems of C-section babies  do not produce a robust response to the initial dose of the MMR vaccine. It is hypothesized that the gut microbiome of C-section babies is not as developed as that of vaginally born babies and, therefore, the babies do not produce an adequate immune response to the vaccine.4 According to previous studies, babies born vaginally receive more genetically diverse gut-colonizing microbes from their mothers, which boosts their immune response.5

Henrik Salje, co-senior study author said:

We’ve discovered that the way we’re born—either by C-section or natural birth—has long-term consequences on our immunity to diseases as we grow up.6

Researchers examined data of 1,505 children in the first year of life from 2013 through 2018 finding that 12 percent of babies born via C-section failed to mount an immune response to the measles shot compared to only five percent of vaginally born children.7 8

The research, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, looked at a mother-neonate cohort and a population-based cohort of children one to nine years old. Researchers followed up on the infant cohort approximately every six months from 2013 to 2016. Researchers looked at blood samples of the infants over time to determine how measles antibody levels changed over time, including pre and post vaccination..9 10

The study showed that a second dose of the MMR vaccine produced a more robust immune response in babies born via C-section.11

The implications of the first dose of the MMR vaccine being less effective in babies born by c-section are vast as approximately one-third of all pregnant women in the United States and the United Kingdom end up having C-sections. In Brazil and Turkey, more than one half of all children are born by C-section.12 13

Keep reading

Measles Outbreak in Chicago Migrant Shelter Reveals at Least 28 Percent Were Vaccinated

Following identification of 15 cases of measles in a Chicago shelter that houses migrants from Venezuela, city public health officials announced on Mar. 20, 2024 that “measles is circulating in our city. And it’s why we are putting a call out for everyone who is at risk to protect themselves now” by getting a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot.1 On Apr. 23, the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health told doctors to consider giving children living in the city a second dose of MMR vaccine “earlier than usual,” warning that “too many Chicagoans are still not vaccinated against this highly contagious virus and other vaccine preventable diseases.”2

On May 16, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report that a total of 57 confirmed measles cases had been confirmed in residents of the city migrant shelter or close contacts, and that 16 of the cases (28 percent) had received one or two doses of measles vaccine “more than 21 days before first known exposure,” while 41 cases (72 percent) “did not have documentation of measles vaccination and were considered unvaccinated.”3

CDC officials admitted that during the spring 2024 measles outbreak among mostly Venezuelan migrants at the Chicago shelter, “the percentage of measles cases among persons with a history of previous vaccination was higher than that reported through recent national surveillance in the United States.”4 They blamed the nearly 30 percent measles vaccine failure rate on “prolonged or close exposure to measles virus” among residents of the crowded shelter and said that Venezuela had seen a drop in first-dose measles vaccination coverage for children twelve months and older from 95 percent to 68 percent between 2017 and 2021 because of worldwide “disruption of routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic.” They also defended the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine by repeating the often-quoted mantra that “primary vaccine failure occurs in approximately 4% of recipients of 1 MMR dose and is rare among recipients of 2 MMR doses.”5

Keep reading

Measles vaccine math

Executive summary

One person has died from measles in the last 10 years. Is this a sign that everyone who has not been infected or vaccinated for measles should get vaccinated?

According to all health authorities the answer is yes.

According to your friendly neighborhood misinformation superspreader (me), the answer is a big NO.

Why? Because you’re more likely to die or be seriously injured for life from these shots than benefit from them.

Here’s how the math works out today

Today, the math is obvious: even if the vaccine is 100% effective, we’d save 1 life every 10 years. But in 10 years, injecting 3M kids a year, even with a 1 in 1M death rate from the vaccine (which would be unbelievably safe), we’d have 30 deaths from the vaccine and 1 from the disease. So it’s a no-brainer today to avoid the shots. The same argument can be made for morbidity since if we just look at autism alone, there’s no question. But “science” isn’t able to make this very obvious association and none of the scientists are willing to be publicly challenged.

The math will be different 70 years from now. Should you get it then?

Let’s look at another scenario. Suppose we stop vaccinating kids tomorrow. Then in around 70 years, most everyone will be unvaccinated and we’ll probably have more measles deaths because the NIH will still never let people know about any early treatment with repurposed drugs.

So we should end up with somewhere around 450 deaths a year which is what it was before we had a measles vaccine.

So you have roughly a 1 in a million chance of dying from the measles each year, but your probability of dying from the shot, assuming it is AMAZINGLY safe at 1 death per million, is about the same. It’s a wash.

Generally, you only want to risk a medical intervention when you are absolutely certain that the benefits way outweigh the risks.

Keep reading