Focus at Four: Measles cases rising in the United States
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is concerned about a global uptick in measles. So far this year, there have been 58 cases in 17 jurisdictions including states like Arizona, Florida, California and Pennsylvania.
The CDC is calling on doctors to encourage vaccinations, especially for children traveling internationally.
Dr. Simon Haeder is a professor at the Texas A&M; School of Public Health who recently published an article titled “U.S. public support and opposition to vaccination mandates in K-12 education in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.” He joined First News at Four Wednesday to discuss his findings.
“[What] the paper actually found is that the vast majority of Americans are very, very supportive of requirements to be vaccinated when it comes to schools,” Haeder said. “Particularly for things like polio and measles, mumps and rubella, and to a lesser degree, even COVID-19. Although that was the least supported vaccination mandate of all the mandates.”
Haeder said the biggest concern with measles is how contagious the virus is.
“I think the biggest issue is that measles is such a contagious disease,” Haeder said. “If you’re not vaccinated or have no immunity, you will catch it if you’re exposed to it, and it’s very easy to get exposed to it.”
Haeder added along with it’s contagiousness, how people view vaccines is another challenge public health officials face.
“With the growing rates of vaccination hesitancy, it becomes a it can become a really, really a big problem really, really quickly.”
