Over 1,000 In Arizona Are Watched For Measles

Over 1,000 In Arizona Are Watched For Measles

By JULIE TURKEWITZ JAN. 29, 2015

DENVER — Arizona health officials on Thursday were tracking more than 1,000 people, including at least 195 children, who might have been exposed to measles as part of an outbreak that began at Disneyland in Southern California and has grown to 67 cases in seven states.

Arizona has seven confirmed cases of measles, and officials in three counties in the Phoenix area — Maricopa, Gila and Pinal — are asking residents who have not been vaccinated and who might have been exposed to stay home from school, work or day care for 21 days.

The announcement comes as thousands of people are arriving in Phoenix for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

“This is a critical point in this outbreak,” the state health director, Will Humble, wrote on his blog. Any missed cases, he wrote, could cause “a long and protracted outbreak.”

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In a conference call with reporters, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official advised anyone with symptoms not to attend the Super Bowl. “The very large outbreaks we’ve seen around the world often started with a small number of cases,” said the official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the agency’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Have You Decided Not to Vaccinate Your Children? Tell Us About Your Experience

New York Times journalists would like to hear from parents, particularly those in California and Arizona, who have chosen not to vaccinate their children against measles and other diseases.
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Health officials said that one of Arizona’s cases involved a woman who had recently walked into a Maricopa County pediatric clinic, potentially exposing about 200 children. She had been in contact with a family that had traveled to Disneyland, but she did not know then that she had the disease.

Measles is a viral illness that spreads easily through coughing and sneezing. Before vaccinations became common in 1963, about three million to four million Americans contracted it each year, according to the C.D.C., and about 400 to 500 died from it.

Besides Arizona, the recent California outbreak has spread to Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as to Mexico. Health officials are concerned that opposition to childhood vaccinations has prompted a resurgence of an illness that the country believed it had eliminated in 2000.

California has 79 confirmed cases of measles, some not related to the Disneyland outbreak.

Arizona requires children to be vaccinated for measles and other diseases before attending school, unless a parent files for an exemption citing personal beliefs. There has been a rise in the number of parents choosing not to vaccinate: In 2004, 1.6 percent of kindergartners in Arizona were not vaccinated; by 2013, that number was 4.7 percent.

“It allows the disease to get into those areas and really establish a foothold, and once it establishes a foothold, it’s very, very difficult to control,” said Dr. Cara Christ, the state’s chief medical officer.

Five of the seven measles cases in Arizona are in Kearny, a copper mining town of about 2,000 residents. Four of those cases are from a family that recently visited Disneyland.

Residents have begun keeping young children at home after school, Mayor Sam Hosler said. And local establishments have posted notices advising passers-by of the time and date when measles-infected people passed through.

“We were lucky,” said Rich Walker, a manager at Kearny Health Mart Pharmacy, which had a visit Jan. 22 from a man later found to have the illness. All of his colleagues, he said, had been vaccinated, and few customers were in the store at the time.

In Maricopa County, three clinics have had a surge in visitors requesting measles vaccinations for their children, according to health officials, who reported a 50 percent rise in vaccination requests over last year.

The clinics have added nurses, and lines have begun to form.

One visitor was a parent from Mesa who had two children, ages 12 and 14, who had not received measles vaccinations.

“If you’re trying to make lemonade out of the situation,” said Jeanene Fowler, a spokeswoman for the county health department, “that’s the best we can ask for.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/us...osed.html?_r=0

Measles outbreak with Disney park origins grows to 95 cases

Updated 9:32 am, Thursday, January 29, 2015

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Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP

A woman with a Mickey Mouse hat walks toward Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. California public health officials urged those who haven't been vaccinated against measles to avoid Disney parks where a spreading outbreak originated. 95 people have been infected.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A measles outbreak whose spread originated at Disneyland has grown to 95 cases.

The California Department of Public Health tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/15W9x2B)on Wednesday that 79 of those in infections are in California and 52 of them can be linked directly to Disney Parks.

The rest are in Michigan, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska and Mexico.
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• Measles outbreak casts spotlight on anti-vaccine movement

The new overall figure shows eight more cases than the 87 confirmed earlier this week.

Measles has been spreading since an outbreak linked to Southern California's Disney parks last month. Most of those infected were not vaccinated officials have urged people to get the measles shot.

The U.S. experienced a record number of measles cases last year, with 644 infections from 27 states despite being largely eliminated in 2000.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/articl...ws-6047509.php

California measles cases still increasing;some unvaccinated students told to stay home

POSTED 12:29 PM, JANUARY 29, 2015, BY CNN WIRE

https://tribkcpq.files.wordpress.com...5369.jpg?w=927 VIEW GALLERY (3 IMAGES)

LOS ANGELES — California health officials said Wednesday there are 79 confirmed measles cases in the state, as federal health authorities reported that the number of U.S. cases in 2014 more than tripled any total in recent years.

According to the California Department of Public Health website, 52 of those cases are linked to an outbreak at Disneyland.

There are four confirmed cases in Riverside County, where the Desert Sands Unified School District told 66 students — who have either not been vaccinated for measles or can’t show proof — that they need to stay home.

CNN affiliate KESQ reported that one student at Palm Desert High School is suspected of having had measles. The student has been cleared to return to class but health officials are still trying to determine if the student actually had measles.

For now, the others will have to study at their homes.

“They are going to be asked to stay home until the incubation period for contagion is complete,” a spokeswoman for the school district, Mary Perry, said of the students who were released. The earliest a student can return without proof of vaccination is February 9, the station reported.

There are 16 cases linked to Disneyland outside California (seven in Arizona, three in Utah, two in Washington, one in Colorado, one in Oregon, one in Nebraska and one in Mexico).

Arizona officials said they have identified 1,000 contacts of the seven cases in their states. They’re asking anyone within that group to isolate themselves for 21 days if he or she isn’t vaccinated.

The disease outbreak became apparent when visitors reported coming down with measles after visiting the park from December 15 to December 20. At least five Disney employees have been diagnosed with measles, Disney said.

Also, the families of 195 children in Mesa, Arizona, have been contacted because they were in an urgent care clinic with someone who has measles.

Across the country, at the University of Minnesota, a student who had traveled abroad is self-isolating after contracting the disease, the school said in a statement. The university is working to find everyone who may have been exposed to the student, who attended class four days last week.

Though students have largely been immunized because of enrollment requirements, the university warned anyone who had not been vaccinated to be vigilant.

Minnesota is one of 27 states that reported measles cases last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 644 cases reported in 2014 mark a stark spike compared with recent years. Since 2001, the number of cases has topped 100 only five times, and 2011 was the only year in which cases topped 200.
Measles is a highly communicable respiratory disease caused by a virus and spread through the air. Measles starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes and sore throat, the CDC says.

http://q13fox.com/2015/01/29/califor...-to-stay-home/

Once again, unvaccinated people experience a measles outbreak

Seriously, just vaccinate your children

• By Elizabeth Lopatto
• on January 29, 2015 07:30 pm

The Disneyland measles outbreak is directly attributable to vaccine-denier movements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a conference call with reporters.

From January 1 to 28, 84 people in 14 states have been reported as having measles, said Anne Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Most of these cases — 56 people — are linked to the outbreak at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, where five employees are sick as well. The remainder were infected abroad and brought the disease back.

LAST YEAR, THE CDC REPORTED 644 MEASLES CASES

Measels was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but they've been creeping back. From 2000 to 2010, there were usually about 60 cases a year. Last year, the CDC reported 644 cases — the highest number of measles infections since 2000. More adults are getting sick than in typical outbreaks, Schuchat said. The majority of people who got sick were unvaccinated.

"This is not a problem of the measles vaccine not working.

This is a problem of the measles vaccine not being used," said Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in the call. "It is frustrating that people have opted out of vaccination."

Some parents have avoided vaccinating their children after a now-discredited study by Andrew Wakefield suggested a link between vaccination and autism.

The British Medical Journal has called Wakefield a "fraud," and the studies where he claimed to have found the link were retracted by the journal that published them, The Lancet. In multiple studies since Wakefield's original report, no link has been found between vaccines and autism.
"THIS IS A PROBLEM OF THE MEASLES VACCINE NOT BEING USED."

That message hasn't made it to some people, though. Celebrities like Jenny McCarthy spread conspiracy theories — nicely detailed in Seth Mnookin's book, The Panic Virus — about "toxins" in vaccines that could cause autism in children.

Our best evidence suggests that this is not what's happening.

But parents don't seem to want to listen. Communities, especially in California, are springing up where significant parts of the population are unvaccinated.

And now, The New York Times is publicly wondering if measles are going to spell trouble for the Super Bowl (over 1,000 people in Arizona have been exposed; health authorities are engaged in contact tracing now). Anna Edney, of Bloomberg News, asked the CDC if they were worried about such a large crowd gathering, on the press call. Because — in case it's not obvious by now —measles is highly contagious. A person with measles doesn't show symptoms for four days before the rash appears, but is capable of infecting others. The virus is airborne, and can live for up to two hours on surfaces after being ejected from the body, according to the CDC.

"Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected," the CDC writes.

MEASLES IS HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS

Measles is a miserable disease. Its characteristics are a high fever, a runny nose, a rash, and conjunctivitis. Children under the age of five and adults over 20 are most likely to suffer serious complications, which include: pneumonia (the most common cause of death in children with measles), brain swelling, and (of course) death. But even the mild cases are brutal.

But we've beaten measles before. The effort for public vaccination began in 1963, when three million to four million in the US were infected yearly by the virus; the yearly death toll was around 500. The vaccination campaign in the 1960s was so successful that we've forgotten what a powerful enemy measles can be. "We have a generation that hasn’t seen this disease," said Schuchat. "Clinicians who haven’t taken care of it, parents who wonder if this disease exists." It definitely exists.

And even vaccinated people can be sickened by measles, although the phenomenon is rare. Our vaccination rate among children varies by state: 82 percent in Colorado is the low end; the high end is Mississippi, where virtually everyone got their shots. Public health officials say vaccination rates need to be higher than 95 percent to avoid outbreaks — otherwise, because measles is so good at spreading, it can find and exploit gaps in immunity.

VACCINATION RATES NEED TO BE HIGHER THAN 95 PERCENT

That's what's really frustrating about vaccine denialists. If you want to run the risk of having your child suffer (and possibly die!) from a preventable disease for no good reason, hey — you're more of a gambler than I am, and the best of luck to you. But there are some people that are put at risk when the number of vaccinated people drops. People whose immune systems aren't as strong — so you know, pregnant women, newborns, cancer patients, HIV-positive people, transplant recipients, the elderly — are also affected by the choice not to vaccinate. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their kids aren't just gambling with their kids' lives, they're gambling with the lives of others, too. Again: with no evidence.

There is no reason why we should have measles outbreaks.

Put on your grown-up outfit, suck it up for the good of society, and vaccinate your ****ing kids.

Verge Video: Can We Conquer Infectious Disease? (The Big Future, Ep. 10)

• http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/79...asles-outbreak

Disney Measles Outbreak Came From Overseas, CDC Says

BY MAGGIE FOX

An outbreak of measles that started in California's Disneyland probably came from overseas, carried either by a foreign tourist or by an American coming back with the virus, a top federal health official said Thursday.

The virus has now infected 94 people in eight states, and 67 can be clearly linked to Disneyland, California health officials report. Because measles is so contagious, more cases can be expected.

"We don't know exactly how this outbreak started but we do think it was likely a person infected with measles overseas," Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.

"We assume that someone got infected with measles overseas, visited Disneyland park, and spread the disease to others."

"This is a wake-up call to make sure that we keep measles from regaining a foothold in our country."

There's been on ongoing outbreak of measles in the Philippines, but no imported U.S. cases have been linked to the Philippines this year, Schuchat said. Genetic tests of the virus affecting Americans are similar to strains seen in Indonesia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Dubai.

Whoever first brought the virus to Disneyland is probably long gone, Schuchat said, and could even be unaware that he or she caused the outbreak.

"This is a wake-up call to make sure that we keep measles from regaining a foothold in our country," Schuchat said.

"France went from about 40 cases a year to over 10,000 cases. It is only January and we have already had over 84 cases."

France reported 10,000 cases of measles in 2000. Like other countries, the numbers vary greatly from one year to another, and in 2011 France reported nearly 15,000 measles cases but that fell to just 272 cases in 2013.

No matter what the source, doctors and nurses need to be on the lookout for the highly infectious virus, she warned.
A
"We are urging all health care professionals to think measles during medical visits," Schuchat said. Anyone with a fever, especially if there's a rash, should be evaluated for measles. It's the most infectious virus known, with a 90 percent transmission rate among people who are not immunized or otherwise immune to it. Each patient with measles can infect 12 to 18 other people."

The reason it's spreading is simple. People have failed to get vaccinated, Schuchat said.

"This is not a problem of the measles vaccine not working. It's a problem of the measles vaccine not being used," she said. "Measles can be a very serious disease and people need to be vaccinated."

Most Americans have been vaccinated but some cannot get the vaccine for medical reasons — if they have a damaged or compromised immune system, for instance. Babies under a year old are not vaccinated because their bodies don't really respond well to the vaccine and it doesn't protect them.

But the biggest problem is people who skip vaccines for philosophical reasons, said Schuchat.

"It is frustrating that some people have opted out of vaccination," she said. "I think we do have some communities with many who have not received vaccines."

Measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but a few imported cases come in every year.

"Measles can come into our country easily through visitors or when Americans travel abroad and bring it back," Schuchat said.

"Measles is still common around the world and we estimate there are around 20 million cases a year," Schuchat added. Of them, more than 145,000 die every year.

"For every 1,000 children who get measles, one to three of them die despite treatment," Schuchat said. And 28 percent of kids who get measles are sick enough to be hospitalized, and can suffer permanent brain damage.

Last year, a big outbreak was traced to Amish volunteers who went to help after a typhoon in the Philippines and who got infected during a measles outbreak there. It helped make for a record year in the U.S. with 600 cases.

What CDC wants to avert is something like what happened between 1989 and 1991, when 55,000 people got measles and 123 died.

Most of the kids made sick in the Disney outbreak had not been vaccinated, Schuchat said. But more adults than usual have been infected.

"There's no harm in getting another MMR vaccine."

This might not mean much. The vaccine isn't 100 percent effective and most U.S. kids are vaccinated. That means the vulnerable people are more likely to be adults, just by virtue of the fact that adults travel more and there are more adults than children in the United States.

Schuchat says it's impossible to predict how bad the outbreak will get and where new cases will emerge.

"I think people really need to know that you can get measles anywhere. It's invisible and we have importations every year," she said.

But she says CDC is not especially worried about the upcoming Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday. Schuchat doubts an unusual number of unvaccinated people will be traveling to the Super Bowl and measles only spreads to people who are not immune.
But the non-immunized need to take care.

"You can catch measles just by being in the same room as a person who has measles," she said.

"If you are not sure whether you have had the measles vaccine or not … contact your doctor or nurse," she advised.

"There's no harm in getting another MMR vaccine."

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health...c-says-n296441

Arizona tries to contain measles outbreak before Super Bowl

January 30, 2015 8:06 AM

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Associated Press

NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks takes place Sunday at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

http://www.post-gazette.com/libercus...cs/rm_link.pngSome doctors won't see patients with anti-vaccine views

By Anna Edney / Bloomberg News

Health officials in three Arizona counties said hundreds of people may have been exposed to the highly contagious measles virus, three days before thousands of sports fans pour into the state for the Super Bowl.

The National Football League championship game will be held in Maricopa County at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale on Feb. 1. Officials there, and in Pinal and Gila counties, are looking for people who have been to hospitals, grocery stores and a post office where infected residents visited.

“Measles is wildly infectious, which is why it is so important that we identify cases quickly and do our best to stop the spread early on,” Bob England, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said in a statement.

“That means keeping unvaccinated people who have been exposed to the disease away from others.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans on Thursday to get vaccinated for measles amid the outbreaks, saying that 2014 saw the highest number of cases in two decades.

Arizona has reported seven cases so far in its first outbreak since 2008, two in Maricopa County and five in Pinal County, one of which was found in Gila County. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to man, with each original patient able to infect many others if they aren’t vaccinated. The spread of the California outbreak has been made worse, in part, by a growing failure to vaccinate, health officials have said.

Maricopa health workers are trying to track down 195 people, mostly children, Jeanene Fowler, a spokeswoman for the county health department said in an e-mail Thursday.

Lingering virus
The virus can linger in the air or on surfaces for hours, and health officials are contacting those exposed. Maricopa’s county health department said people who have been exposed and aren’t fully vaccinated should stay at home for 21 days. If they need to go out in public they should wear a mask, the department said in a Jan. 27 statement.

This isn’t the measles’ first Super Bowl. In 2012 in Indiana, a boy with measles went to the “Super Bowl village,” a pre-game convention, a few days before the event.

“Our concern was it would be transmitted to the crowd at the Super Bowl,” said Gregory Larkin, the former Indiana state health commissioner.

The only others infected were family members or friends of the boy.

The NFL is confident most players have been vaccinated and are at low risk, said Clare Graff, a league spokeswoman, and medical staffs have been told to be vigilant.

Disease surveillance
The league prepares for diseases like the flu each year, including posting hand sanitizer dispensers throughout the stadium and at other event venues, Ricardo Martinez, the senior medical adviser to the Super Bowl, said in an email.

The University of Arizona will have a group of students from the epidemiology program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health helping first responders at the Super Bowl watch for any potential measles cases.

“We know measles, we know that it can get out of hand,” Kristen Pogreba-Brown, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the college, said in an interview.

Pogreba-Brown leads an epidemiology course that will post a student at each of the stadium’s six first aid stations. The students will question people that visit the stations to check for rash, fever and travel history. They’ll also check for signs of other diseases, such as gastrointestinal symptoms that could signal norovirus, the U.S.’s leading cause of infection from contaminated food.

Disney outbreak
The Arizona measles cases are among 84 identified this year in 14 states, 67 of which are linked to Anaheim’s Disneyland amusement park, the CDC said.

Arizona allows vaccination exemptions for children entering public schools for religious reasons as well as what’s known as a philosophical exemption, where parents can choose not to vaccinate and still send their children to school.

Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said this recent outbreak is a “wake-up call” to improve vaccination rates.

“These outbreaks the past couple years have been much harder to control when the virus reaches communities where numbers of people have not been vaccinated,” Schuchat said.

While most states permit religious exemptions from vaccine requirements, 19 states also have so-called philosophical exemptions, including Arizona and California, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/hea...s/201501300176

New York Student With Measles Boarded Amtrak

BY JESSICA SMITH / JANUARY 31, 2015

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The New York State Department of Healthconfirms a college student with measles boarded Amtrak station from Penn Station earlier this week and may have exposed other passengers to the contagious virus, state health officials said.

The student at Bard College in Dutchess County took Amtrak train #283 from Penn Station to Albany at 1:20 p.m. on January 25. He got off in Rhinecliff, New York. The train stopped in Albany before traveling on to Niagara Falls.College officials said the student has been isolated during his recovery.

The state Department of Health advises individuals who may have been exposed and who have symptoms consistent with measles to call their doctor or a local emergency room before going for care in order to prevent the illness to spread to others.

Symptoms of measles include runny nose, cough, fever, and red, blotchy rash that typically starts on the face and spreads downward and outward to the hands and feet.New York has had three cases of measles this year – one in Dutchess County and two in New York City.

New York requires that all college students show proof of immunity to measles.At Bard College, the Dutchess County Department of Health held a measles vaccination clinic for any students, faculty or staff who has not been vaccinated against measles.

The latest nationwide outbreak of measles has spread to 14 states and includes 84 cases reported this month. Most of the cases are linked to an outbreak at Disneyland and another theme park in Southern California that began in late December and now has spread to six other states, including Utah, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

Measles is a highly contagious illness. It can spread through coughing or sneezing and can infect an estimated 90 percent of people who not immune to the virus. The incubation period is on average 14 days, but an infected person can be contagious up to four days before they start to show symptoms.

http://www.smnweekly.com/new-york-st...-amtrak/12971/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/experts-rai...dozens-317210/

Amid vaccination debate, U.S. House leaders support inoculations

WASHINGTON Tue Feb 3, 2015 12:08pm EST

http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources...=LYNXMPEB120NGNga Ngyen, seven year old, gets an influenza vaccine injection from nurse Maya Kahn-Woods during a flu shot clinic at Dorchester House, a health care clinic, in Boston, Massachusetts in this file photo taken on January 12, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER

(Reuters) - Two leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday all children should be vaccinated, amid a recent measles outbreak that has led to the most cases in two decades in 2014 and infected more than 100 people to date.

President Barack Obama this week urged parents to have their children vaccinated against preventable diseases such as the measles. But Republicans are split on whether parents should have more leeway to decide which shots their children need.

"I don't know that we need another law, but I do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated," House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, told reporters.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said at the Brookings Institution in Washington that she was sympathetic to parents' concerns, but that maintaining public health required that all children receive the necessary shots.

Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, but the December outbreak that began in California has shone a spotlight on the so-called anti-vaccination movement.
Debunked theories that once suggested a link between vaccines and autism have led some parents to refuse to have their children inoculated. Even though doctors say those fears are unfounded, many libertarian-leaning Republicans believe parents should have the freedom not to vaccinate their kids.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican who is often mentioned as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, on Monday said parents needed a "measure of choice." His spokesman later said the governor believed kids should be vaccinated against measles.

Two other possible Republican presidential candidates, both with medical backgrounds, diverged on the issue.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ophthalmologist, said in an interview with CNBC on Monday that he had heard of instances where vaccines caused "mental disorders" and said parents should have input on whether their children receive them.

However, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and conservative pundit, said preventable diseases should not be allowed to return just because some parents object to "safe" vaccines, according to the Washington publication The Hill.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0L71OI20150203

ByELLEN UCHIMIYACBS NEWSFebruary 2, 2015, 6:25 PM

Ted Cruz calls vaccine issue "largely silliness stirred up by the media"



Last Updated Feb 3, 2015 2:26 PM EST

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday that the vaccination issue "is largely silliness stirred up by the media.

Nobody reasonably thinks Chris Christie is opposed to vaccinating kids other than a bunch of reporters who want to write headlines." CBS News' John Nolen reports that Cruz went on to say, "This question has historically been decided at the state level. And most states choose to do what the state of Texas does which is to mandate vaccines for children to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases." A statement he released noted that most states make exceptions for good-faith religious convictions, "But on the question of whether kids should be vaccinated, the answer is obvious, and there's widespread agreement: of course they should."

And another senator considering a presidential run, Marco Rubio, R-Florida, also believes that measles vaccinations should be "absolutely" mandatory for children, medical exceptions aside. Rubio mentioned that his grandfather was "disabled by polio as a young child." And he warned, "If enough people are not vaccinated, you put at risk infants that are three months of age or younger,...and you put at risk immune- suppressed children that are not able to get those vaccinations."

Other potential 2016 presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Dr. Ben Carson also added their voices to the debate over vaccinations. Clinton Tweeted Monday evening, "The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork.

Let's protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest"
Before this Tweet, the last record of Clinton's stance on vaccines was in 2008, when she had filled out a survey from a group now known as the Autism Action Network, and her answer read, "I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines." An influential study published in the Lancet medical journal in 1998 had suggested there might be a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism, but in 2010, the study was completely discredited and retracted.

Senator and ophthalmologist Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was the first of the potential 2016 presidential candidates (and the first with a medical degree) to offer an opinion on whether or not to vaccinate children.

"I'm not anti-vaccine at all, but most of them ought to be voluntary," Paul said Monday on the "Laura Ingraham Show."
Later Monday, on CNBC, he went further, saying, "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines," a view that is strongly disputed by the medical community.
Carson, a venerated pediatric neurosurgeon and potential GOP candidate, was more aligned with Clinton's perspective, stressing the importance of vaccinations.

"Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society," Carson said in a statement to CBS News. "Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them. Obviously there are exceptional situations to virtually everything and we must have a mechanism whereby those can be heard."

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that 102 people in the U.S. had contracted the measles, tracing most of the cases to "a large, ongoing multi-state outbreak" linked to Disneyland, in southern California.

http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i...037640x360.jpgPlay VIDEO
As measles outbreak grows, some doctors refuse unvaccinated patients


President Obama, in an interview with NBC that aired Monday, had urged parents to get their children vaccinated. "I understand that there are families that in some cases are concerned about the effect of vaccinations. The science is, you know, pretty indisputable. We've looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not," he said.

While touring a facility that makes vaccines in the U.K., New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was asked whether Americans ought to vaccinate their children. He said, "All I can say is that we vaccinated ours. That's the best expression I can give you of my opinion." But, he added, "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well," a response that was roundly criticized by Democrats.

According to CBS News Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes, his office later clarified his comments, saying, "there is no question kids should be vaccinated."

Paul's children were also vaccinated, although because the number of recommended vaccines for children is high, he chose to delay some of the vaccinations and stagger them over time. He reminded listeners on Ingraham's show that another potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, had for a time issued an executive order mandating one vaccine for girls.

"I don't know if you remember when Gov. Perry made it mandatory to get, for a sexually transmitted disease, to have everybody have to take it," Paul said. "While I think it's a good idea to take the vaccine, I think that's a personal decision for individuals to take and when they take it."

While Perry was running for president in 2012, he came under heavy criticism for the executive order, and later called it "a mistake." Perry has not said anything recently on the topic.

The CDC says that the greatest number of measles cases reported since the disease was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 was last year, with 644 cases from 27 states.

All 50 states require that children get vaccinated, but 48 of them allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/vaccine-politics-for-2016/

Look! It's the Aztlan map Measles outbreak! Illegal aliens spreading the disease to communities in America where we once had it vanquished along with many others.

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