2.6 million people died of measles in 1980

[Kerlassic]

Measles has an R of 12-18 and a fatality rate of around 15%.

It killed millions in 1980, in living memory for most of us.

No one mentioned lockdown. No one shut schools. No one stopped seeing their Nan. No one wore a mask.

Can someone explain to me WHY we are behaving this way when it comes to Coronvirus. I understand it was a novel virus so we didn’t know much about it initially. I know there was a hope we could stamp it out completely in the beginning, which sadly didn’t happen and it is now endemic.

So why are we carrying on with all this? Why for coronavirus and not for the measles?

Honest and agenda-free question. I am struggling to understand.

Eyam in Derbyshire did effectively lock down due to the plague though didn't it - they got it in the small village from rats travelling in a delivery I believe, and so many people in the village got infected that they closed themselves off, which prevented the disease from spreading further.

Yes, but I believe they were very much exception, which is why it’s famous! I wasn’t being seriously with my comparison by the way.

I think Eyam was fleas in fabric that came from London rather than rats.

Do you feel your question has been answered OP?

Why the countries who had a big measles problem in 1980 didn't lock down is an interesting question

Because they didn't need to, @NuffSaidSam. The solution is the vaccine. Measles is a childhood illness. It's so infectious that if you are not vaccinated and live somewhere were there is no herd immunity, you will catch it as a child.The sad truth is that nearly all those deaths were preventable, in developing nations, and children (and poor). Lockdown in the developing world would have been pointless in stopping transmission anyway as most adults would be immune.

You can't use global statistics and then use the fact that the U.K. had a vaccine

You either consider the situation globally or nationally. Don't mix the 2 to suit.

Bloody hell why do people come up with this crap?

I'm no crusader for lockdown and I'm not even very good at following the rules myself.

But

You have conflated an issue here. There is and was no lockdown for HIV, Measles, Ebola, TB, and other preventable illnesses, because...well they are preventable. There are treatments and vaccinations for many of them so the globe does not need to panic.

This is why epidemiogists and infectious disease specialist are drawing parallels to the Spanish Influenza in the early 1900's because like this there was no treatment or a vaccine. It just ripped through the globe. Places like New York contained it better as they had been running quarantine hospitals for typhoid for years so we're adept with locking down/isolating/ and disinfecting areas of infection.

Let's pretend your figures are correct, perhaps the world went in to lock down to try to prevent that many deaths? Dunno, seems like logic to me.

This is a global pandemic so I was looking at global figures.... the whole world is locking down for this, which it didn’t for measles

Because we had a vaccination for measles. It's really very simple. If we had a vaccination for covid19, we wouldn't need lockdown.

Jesus wept

@Kerlassic

I am asking an honest question.’I want to understand why we are reacting in this way. What is the nonsense?

It's a valid question. My dad, 75, remembers the polio epidemic...but no shutdown.

Measles are past. Somewhat of a blueprint, but not something that applies totally.

So not nonsense, but consider the global context. We've got media for better or worse! Back in the day If we lived in (fair) Verona, we would not likely know what is happening in Paris

And...I think we've been comfortable for a long time.
I have had several family members that served in the military (WWII-Vietnam - they ran off at 16!). Would rather send my almost-16 year old DS to navigate this mess at secondary school than in Vietnam. The odds v. the reality? The horror stories there...

It's serious, but please hang on to some hope that things will be okay. Not perfect, but what is?

Why the bloody hell are you asking us you silly bugger?

Turn the telly on and watch the news.

Apples and oranges. And biscuits.

I'm messaging my dad, who lived through the polio epidemic - and was one of the truly terrifying memories of his childhood. I'll let you know.

Hearing stories about young boys in Korea and Vietnam were enough to make me rethink my "panic-meter."

‘Measles is a childhood illness‘

That’s not quite right

If introduced to a completely unexposed population, it will affect all age groups, we think of it as a childhood illness because it was endemic - everyone caught it. So most of the herd was immune and there were a few small outbreaks amongst those who somehow missed it (ie it never went away completely). And new people were born, and ever 4-5 years, the numbers of new people meant that the odd case, instead of petering out on a handful of cases because the herd was immune from the wild disease, swept through all those born since the last big outbreak - ie the children. And that’s why we think of it as a childhood disease.

No-one has immunity to COVID-19. It’s a new disease spreading through a non-immune population. As there is neither vaccine nor effective treatment. nearly everyone (apart from those who isolate effectively) will catch it. and around 1% will die. Round down the UK population a bit, and apply the 1% rate and you get 600,000

That’s why it’s different.

And why lockdown (which stopped the exponential growth in transmission) was necessary and has been successful

Some people are just being mean.

What can you possibly get out of being a jerk and then pressing ?

Power trip? Secret thrill? Sad.

Switch threads if you don't want to be helpful!

Er only 26 people died in the U.K. because there was a vaccination.

DamnYankee the OP is trying to be smart....they have failed.

Perhaps the question you should be asking is - why didn’t the whole world have the measles vaccination in 1980 to prevent 2.6million needless deaths?

because measles killed poor kids not elderly people in high income countries?

Because even then, people were nervous of new vaccines. There never was a golden age when there was instant uptake. And there had been a major safety scandal in 1970s which led to a plummeting in DOT take up

Also. poor countries couldn’t afford it, and there was a view that their countries were in no worse a position than they had been for centuries. Because it was an endemic disease that they had been living with for so long. The programmes came, but without pandemic urgency. Though they were going on, and were accelerated in the years where there were the big outbreaks.

What makes it different for CV is that it is a novel disease. This isn’t going to threaten 0.1% of those of your non-immune who are nog protected by the herd. It’s going to be 0.1% if everyone (though those deaths will as pointed out, not fall evenly across the population)

Perhaps the question you should be asking is - why didn’t the whole world have the measles vaccination in 1980 to prevent 2.6million needless deaths?

I recommend this brilliant article I read the other day:

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/01/cholera-and-coronavirus-why-we-must-not-repeat-the-same-mistakes

Even if we get a vaccine by September (seems likelier now) there is no way this virus will just disappear. It will always be there and the poorest of countries will be the ones that suffer bouts of it for potentially hundreds of years to come because they won’t have access to vaccines. There are now only THREE countries in the world that have yet to eradicate Polio transmission, and this is a disease that first came about towards the end of then 1800’s.

It's a valid question. My dad, 75, remembers the polio epidemic...but no shutdown.

Schools in NZ were closed in 1948 during the polio epidemic and children were not allowed in places where there would be crowds.

I am asking an honest question.’I want to understand why we are reacting in this way. What is the nonsense?

You are not asking an honest question, you being disingenuous with your faux credulity. And the nonsense is you using (possible) global figures without context.

Not sure there were widespread vaccinations in 1980. I had measles in 1977, so if there was a vaccination programme it must have been very new.

Anyway, I get what the OP is trying to say - we've had lots of life-threatening diseases before and haven't got hysterical about them. Our parents and grandparents had to live with polio, measles, TB, rheumatic fever (my mum missed a year of school with the latter).