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There's been a lot of drama around these measles "outbreaks" lately. 30 people in Washington, a couple dozen in New Jersey, one person in Oregon... wow, these numbers really sound scary don't they?! The media does their best to heighten the drama using targeted scare tactics...but why?

Many think it may be a new attempt at customer satisfaction. The pharmaceutical industry, which makes and sells childhood vaccines, is a powerful player in the media advertising world accounting for at least 8% of direct-to-consumer advertising. Latest stats say the pharmaceutical industry now spends $25 BILLION a year on advertising.

"Pharmaceutical advertising has grown more in the past four years than any other leading ad category," said Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media, a consulting firm that tracks multimedia advertising. This includes television advertising on shows such as the major network's evening news programs, the CBS comedy Mike & Molly and ABC's daytime drama General Hospital are heavy with drug ads, the Kantar data shows. (Full article here)

Right after the media reports, lawmakers (also on the receiving end of pharmaceutical money) in the multiple states, including Washington, proposed bills attempting to tighten mandatory vaccine laws - meaning more profits for Big Pharma. Could this be the end goal of all these fear-mongering media reports?

Before you let the media reports scare you, here are five things everyone needs to know about the measles:

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1. There's no outbreak.

The WHO definition of an outbreak is: "the occurrence of cases of a disease in excess of what would normally be expected in a defined community, geographical area or season." While there will always be pockets of measles cases, the numbers don't change drastically from year to year. Annually in the United States, there are usually under 500 cases out of 326,000,000 people, per the CDC numbers, with NO DEATHS. Rates did not increase in 2018, nor does 2019 look any different than previous years. In fact, in 2014, cases were almost double 2018 numbers.

Is this "outbreak" a scare tactic to increase vaccines sales? News reports show more parents are saying no to vaccines, some after realizing that vaccines contain toxins that can actually harm your health and cause health issues (like T1 diabetes, developmental delays, tics, seizures, autoimmune issues, sudden death, etc). More than a thousand science studies on this here. These issues are also listed as adverse events (aka side effects) on vaccine product labels. These 20-40 page product labels are rarely shown to those receiving vaccines. While pharmacists are required by law to go over prescription drug side effects with all patients, this rule doesn't seem to apply to vaccines.

Back to measles: there are a few hundred cases of the measles spread out around the US every year. There's no emergency "outbreak." CDC measles stats here.

2. Why is there all this fear of measles when it's not a fatal disease in countries with proper sanitation?

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While there have been no confirmed deaths caused directly by measles in the US in more than 10 years, there have been at least 96 reported deaths from the measles vaccine. A 2010 Harvard Medical School report on the relatively unknown US government reporting system call VAERS states that fewer than 1% of all vaccine adverse events and reactions are even reported. Did the media forget to mention this?

Even in the U.S. when sanitation systems were still being built, the highest rate of death for measles was in 1915 with 14 deaths per 100,000 people. This is 3-4 times LESS than being struck by lightning. Do you fear a lightning strike every time you leave your house?

Measles death rates steadily declined over the next couple of decades to almost zero by 1955. The trend followed the same decline as other diseases, even those without vaccines like cholera and typhoid. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, when disease deaths were lower than 1 per 100,000 people.

3. The measles vaccine did NOT reduce measles deaths.

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U.S. measles mortality rates show the highest death rates for measles never rose above 14 per 100,000 persons.
Media reports often rely heavily on drama and lightly on actual data. If you look at the historical death reports by year, it's easy to see that the vaccine was not responsible for the decline in measles deaths. According to a report in the Journal of Pediatrics titled Trends in American Health in the 20th Century, researchers who analyzed death data from the years 1900-1999:
"Vaccination does NOT account for the impressive declines in mortality seen in the first half of the century...Nearly 90% of the decline in infectious disease mortality among US children occurred before 1940, when few antibiotics or vaccines were available."
This is true of other illnesses as well, including those without a vaccine program. In 1900, the top causes of death were tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, and scarlet fever. None of these had a vaccine in the US, yet ALL declined at the same time as other diseases due to public health improvements, clean water and food into newly populated cities, indoor plumbing, and water treatment systems. More on the fascinating history we're not told about here.

4. A large chunk of measles cases is caused by the vaccine.

Source: FDA.gov
© Source: FDA.govThe MMR measles vaccine product label shows measles as a potential reaction to the vaccine.
While the measles vaccine doesn't reduce measles deaths, the vaccine does inject a live virus into children, some of who will end up developing measles. Yes, you read that right. The measles vaccine can cause measles. It's even listed as a possible side effect of the vaccine on the manufacturer's product information sheet.

And here's more proof: 38% of measles cases that were tested in the 2015 US outbreak were vaccine strain measles. So if an average of 40% of cases is the vaccine strain, it means the vaccine is causing these cases. Will mandating further vaccines reduce measles... or increase it?

"During the measles outbreak in California in 2015, a large number of suspected cases occurred in recent vaccines (3). Of the 194 measles virus sequences obtained in the United States in 2015, 73 were identified as vaccine sequences". See the study from the Journal of Clinical Microbiology here. There are dozens of other reports of measles cases in vaccinated populations. (Studies listed at the bottom section of this page.)

5. Contracting measles naturally REDUCES your risk of cancer, Parkinson's disease, and heart disease, according to researchers.

In fact, humans are supposed to naturally contract these benign and temporary illnesses in our childhood years, so that we prime our immune system to better fight off bigger health issues later in life, like cancers, heart disease and Parkinson's. Science has proven this repeatedly. (links below)

So when the media says measles "outbreak," we really need to see it for what it is: an opportunity to sell more vaccines for their favorite advertiser, the pharmaceutical industry.

For more reasons to question what we're told, click here.

For more information on vaccine ingredients and side effects, click here.

Studies showing the reduction of cancer risk, heart disease and Parkinson's for those who contract measles:
  1. Wild Measles: Glaser et al also found that lymph cancer is significantly more likely in adults who were not NATURALLY infected with measles, mumps or rubella in childhood [In J Cancer 2005; 115(4): 599-605].
  2. Wild Mumps: Researchers investigated whether mumps might engender immunity to ovarian cancer through antibodies against the cancer-associated antigen MUC1 abnormally expressed in the inflamed parotid gland. Mumps reduced the risk of ovarian cancer.
  3. Wild Measles: Adults are significantly protected against non-breast cancers - genital, prostate, gastrointestinal, skin, lung, ear-nose-throat, and others - if they contracted measles earlier in life. [Med Hypotheses 1998; 51(4): 315-20].
  4. Measles infection [naturally] decreases the risk of Parkinson's.
  5. Wild Measles: Montella et al found that contracting measles in childhood reduces the risk of developing lymphatic cancer in adulthood [Leuk Res 2006; 30(8): 917-22].
  6. Wild Measles: Alexander et al found that infection with measles during childhood is significantly protective - it cuts the risk in half - against developing Hodgkin's disease (OR = 0.53) [Br J Cancer 2000; 82(5): 1117-21].
  7. Measles to the Rescue: A Review of Oncolytic Measles Virus. MV Clinical trials are producing encouraging preliminary results in ovarian cancer, myeloma and cutaneous non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the outcome of currently open trials in glioblastoma multiforme, mesothelioma and squamous cell carcinoma are eagerly anticipated. Aref S, et al. Viruses. 2016.
  8. Wild measles and mumps protect against heart problems.