2,686 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

News from Samoa:

The death toll from the measles epidemic in Samoa has reached 33 as of Wednesday and infection rates continue to rise.

Of those who have died, 29 are children under the age of 4 years old.

Despite mass immunisation efforts, the Government of Samoa confirmed 249 more cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2686 on Wednesday.

Government of Samoa tweets:

Latest update: 2,686 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak with 249 recorded in the last 24 hours. To date, 33 measles related deaths have been recorded. Since the Mass Vaccination Campaign on 20 Nov 2019, the Ministry has successfully vaccinated 33,085 individuals.

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Comments

5 responses to “2,686 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak”

  1. Screechy Monkey Avatar
    Screechy Monkey

    WaPo:

    Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, visited the country in June, appearing next to officials at Samoan independence celebrations. His visit was “for a program that is not government-related,” an official in the prime minister’s department told Samoan news media at the time.

    Kennedy has asserted that vaccines cause autism, a claim disproved by extensive research. Members of the Kennedy family have publicly criticized him for helping “spread dangerous misinformation.”

    An Instagram photo shows Kennedy embracing the Australian Samoan anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein in Samoa on June 4.

    Hey, hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

  2. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Daaaaaaamn.

  3. Screechy Monkey Avatar
    Screechy Monkey

    I can’t take credit for the line, nor can I give it as I forgot who tweeted it originally.

  4. Claire Avatar
    Claire

    And even if measles vaccines did increase the risk of autism (which it doesn’t of course), surely it’s better to be alive and autistic than dead.

    I wish I believed in hell so I could hope Andrew Wakefield would go there when he dies.

  5. ibbica Avatar
    ibbica

    There’s a suggestion going around social media to fund vaccines from UNICEF, in the name of an anti-vaxxer XD

    https://shop.unicef.ca/health

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