• tae glas [siad/iad]@slrpnk.net
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    6 days ago

    between measles and covid, there are a lot of people walking around who are immuno-compromised now & don’t even know it yet, beyond a vague idea that they don’t remember being sick so often before a few years ago.

    i really hope that the us swings away from fascism & eugenics and moves towards things like free healthcare asap, because it really doesn’t have to be like this.

    the huge cheers from all sides for the death of a healthcare ceo really shows that there are basic needs like healthcare & housing & UBI that have broad support, far beyond what culture war BS would have people believe, imo.

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      Sick for the second time in less than a month, and I got my flu and covid vaccines a couple months ago… these guys are ruining flu season for everyone, not just themselves. Admittedly, I could be better about wearing my mask regularly, but I try to whenever I’m in a really congested train or spot.

      • tae glas [siad/iad]@slrpnk.net
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        5 days ago

        even occasionally masking is better than nothing, it’s breaking those chains of transmission! 💪

        unfortunately, the covid vaccine only really prevents the worst outcomes (hospitalisation & death) for about 4-6 months, it doesn’t prevent transmission or long covid.

        i’ve got my fingers crossed for a vaccine that does prevent transmission or long covid, but in the meantime, wearing a well-fitted mask really does work!

        • Echolynx@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          Yeah I think it’s my second time with covid, or at least symptomatically. Part of me feels like I may already have long covid, but the other part hopes I’m just imagining things…

          • tae glas [siad/iad]@slrpnk.net
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            3 days ago

            i’m sorry to hear that ❤️‍🩹

            i hope you can get your hands on some paxlovid, and that you can rest as much as possible. if you think you’re resting enough, rest some more for good measure!

            • Echolynx@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              I’ve been sleeping through pretty much most of my free time, so perhaps not ideal.

    • calliope@retrolemmy.com
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      6 days ago

      I have always related to this Isaac Asimov quote from 1980:

      There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        my favorite part of lemmy is when i cite a government source and get told that it’s wrong or doesn’t apply or is fake.

        because feelings are all that matters, apparently.

        • MotoAsh@piefed.social
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          6 days ago

          If it’s a source like the trump FDA, it probably is wrong, though…

          For example, Tylenol does not cause autism.

          • madjo@feddit.nl
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            5 days ago

            And like that Trump made government documents less trustworthy and thus useless as a source… great job, trump-voters! You have made your life worse.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

        I’ve heard this used as an argument against democracy more times than I can count. Nevermind that vaccination is overwhelmingly popular or that the anti-vax policies have to be jammed down the public’s throat.

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      6 days ago

      I know it’s easy to shit on the US, but the per capita measles infection rate is higher in many EU countries than it is in the US right now. France, for example, had 744 cases from Jan-Jul of this year, Spain had 339, and the Netherlands had 474.

      US: 5.6 cases per million
      France: 11.2 cases per million
      Spain: 6.9 cases per million
      Netherlands: 25.6 cases per million

      And this includes several more months of data for the US than the other countries

      Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

      • khannie@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Very interesting. I had a look at Ireland. Here’s the historical graph

        Our lowest was 2015 where it was 0.4 cases per million or just two cases for the whole year. Generally it’s hovering around 10x to 15x that with most of the cases among adult men.

        I’ve never actually heard of anyone with measles here. The health agency does follow up rigourously if your kid misses the vaccine in school because they were out that day or whatever.

        • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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          4 days ago

          Narrowly missed that.

          Old enough to have gotten immunised to it from the old fashioned way. In that spike in the middle of the graph. And glad for it.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          6 days ago

          Ireland had 49 cases over Jan-Jul of '25, for a rate of 9.6 per million, 50% higher than the US

            • protist@mander.xyz
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              6 days ago

              Yeah sorry, was just stating the rate. I’ve also never known anyone who’s gotten measles. While there may be hundreds to thousands of cases each year in a given country, it’s still only a few out of every million people

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            5 days ago

            I’m in the states and my kids had the option to get their flu shots at the school this year. Somehow one of my kids was skipped despite us immediately signing and returning the consent forms.

            It does feel like it’s very hit or miss whether or not flu shots are offered at the schools though. I remember getting the flu vaccine at the school just once and I never remember seeing lines or anything at any of my schools for flu vaccines the years I didn’t get it at the school. I imagine they only do it when either there’s special funding for it or the data says they especially need a lot more vaccination this year

          • khannie@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Doctor or health centre for the early ones but the later ones (boosters and HPV vaccines for girls) are all done in school yeah.

            They did flu vaccines this year in the school which I think is the first time.

          • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            Wouldn’t want for profit healthcare to lose out on middlemanning childhood vaccines. America Freedumb.

      • optissima@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        How are the changes in the rates over time? I’m much more comfortable with a location that’s higher steadily dropping than one rapidly increasing.

      • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        You thought US had a monopoly on oligarchs-controlled medias and conspiracy lunatics? Same causes, same consequences! Canada’s cases are on the rise too.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        I do wonder if a lot more measles cases go unreported in rural America where these outbreaks are prevalent. There are no doctors in rural America.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          5 days ago

          There are no doctors in rural America

          Yeah this is false far more often than it’s true. I live in a small town (the kind where ambulance and fire services are all volunteers) with nothing but farming communities and farm/hunting land surrounding me. I have 4 hospitals in a 30 mile radius, and more clinics than I care to count

          Yes there are some very poor rural regions of states where access to healthcare is a struggle, but they are the exception rather than the norm

        • ronl2k@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          There are no doctors in rural America.

          False. I doubt that anyone in America is more than 30 miles from a medical facility.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            I…don’t even know where to begin when refuting your statement. Do you have an example location or lived experience in mind when you say this?

            • ronl2k@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              There are no doctors in rural America… I…don’t even know where to begin when refuting your statement.

              Why not start by proving that there are no doctors in rural America?

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      5 days ago

      Conservatives have been actively suppressing the teaching of Critical Thinking Skills for decades:

      The 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform, adopted June 9 at the state convention in Forth Worth, seems to take a stand against, well, the teaching of critical thinking skills. Read it for yourself:

      We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

      https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/texas-gop-no-more-critical-thinking-in-schools/2012/06

      Critical Thinking Skills undermine parental authority. Can’t have your kids getting smarter than you, right?

    • krooklochurm@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      I’m Canadian even, and I’ve often spotted Joe Biden lurking around my home, hiding behind the bushes. He often carries a syringe full of what I can only assume is some deadly disease or another, and a large burlap sack with a question mark on it.

      I’ve noticed Joe Biden stealing jobs from my neighbours, which he places into the burlap sack, as well as money, babies, and other various items.

      I try to avoid him, and have thus far been successful, but I fear that one day he’ll either steal my job or infect me with some deadly disease.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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      6 days ago

      He took them behind the barn. The rest he infected by using FEMA to poison the water supply.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      5 days ago

      My sister in law has a neighbor who flooded his home and immediately blamed the Democrats…I wish I was joking…

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Because the U.S. is now the country where the surgeon general of the Louisiana Department of Health can cause a whooping cough outbreak in Louisiana, get caught by local journalists trying to cover up the deaths of infants that occured, and then instead of being fired in disgrace from his state level job, he’s promoted to number 2 at the CDC.

    You know how it’s SOP in any merit based field where you really fucked up at the state level, and they send you off to do the same at a national level.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/11/25/nx-s1-5620991/louisiana-surgeon-general-ralph-abraham-cdc-deputy

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    6 days ago

    While this is awful, it’s also cherry-picked data. There were 1,274 cases in 2019, and 667 cases in 2014, for example. Last year in 2024 there were only 285.

    I suspect 2020, which had the lowest measles infection rate in the US in all of recorded history, was so low only due to covid and people isolating much of the year.

    • normanwall@lemmy.world
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      1912 / 285 = ~6.7

      So yes it’s cherry picked data but totals are at 670+% of last year and the year isn’t finished yet

      RFK is going to end up causing a pandemic of something eventually and will go down in history for it

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        6 days ago

        When you look at the variability in cases per year over the past 20 years, it’s clear you can’t tie this back to one person. He’s a total idiot who is going to make things worse, for sure, but the anti-vaccination movement on both the left and right predates his involvement in politics by many years

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            The modern anti-vax movement started on the left. The first notable measles outbreak in modern US history was in Marin, California which is full of crunchy hippies. You just didn’t hear about it as much because the left shuns their idiots instead of platforming them like the right does.

          • protist@mander.xyz
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            6 days ago

            Dude. The New Age crowd started all this, with their “all natural” remedies. California was at the center of the anti-vaccine movement prior to the right losing their mind about vaccines during Covid

  • itisileclerk@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    The answer to the OP’s question is “this is what happens when stupid people elect a stupid president who appoints stupid health officials.”. The cure is simple, stupid people can’t vote or at least stupid people can’t be candidates.

    • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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      The biggest problem is money in politics. Money means rich people get their way.

      They want people just smart enough to press buttons on the rich person’s factory floor but stupid enough to vote how rich person’s news channel tells them to vote.

      There are probably enough people that aren’t so stupid that you could educate them enough to vote in their interests if you can get to them against all odds. You just have to get through the social media algorithms and mass media blockade that are completely against change that would hurt their owners profit.

    • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      The cure is simple, stupid people can’t vote or at least stupid people can’t be candidates.

      How democratic of you.

      • BillBurBaggins@lemmy.world
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        It’s Democracy+™. Hopefully in the future we’ll realise how dangerous and barbaric giving the stupid the vote was

    • suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world
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      The cure is simple, stupid people can’t vote or at least stupid people can’t be candidates.

      While I agree that in principle this would solve a lot of problems with our current setup, in practice the racists and idiots always end up getting control over who gets to vote and who doesn’t, and they end up only allowing people they approve of to vote. It’s been tried before and it failed spectacularly due to corruption, like most things.

  • Blubber28@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Idiots! Percent only goes up to one hundred, dummies. Big pharma isn’t even hiding it anymore…

    • antivaxxers right now, probably
  • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    I wish other countries would ban muricans at the airport due to them posing a health hazard…

  • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    RFK Jr would blame on people reading poetry or something like that. Probably just reading in general.

      • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        there’s this study that tells you that reading corrupts your neuron pathways in the brain. Don’t do it, man! Keep the sanctity of your brain’s neuron pathways intact!