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.

Just to put polio in context:
Prior to vaccination, there were up to 7,760 cases a year in the U.K. & up to 750 deaths.
I think we can all agree that although a terrible disease, the number of polio cases & deaths do not compare to what COVID19 has caused in a matter of months. That is why we now have lockdown and didn’t then.
We are not hysterical. We are in the midst of a global pandemic.

"Not sure there were widespread vaccinations in 1980"

The measles jab was introduced in UK in 1968, and uptake was good by the 1980s

OMG

Some countries spend little of their money on doctors, hospitals etc. The army and politicians often steal the money - for multi £million property in London, private jets, etc. Some countries controlled by primitive religions actually stop people being vaccinated. People are conspiracy followers, basically Bill Gates is out to kill us all, etc.

Which is why everyone everywhere is not vaccinated

Well we have a vaccination for measles so that probs why we're not doing it for that now.

I can't even begin to tackle the stupidity in your post. But will just ask you this; are you saying those millions of deaths per year from measles were OK? So if that's the outcome of covid we should just get on with things? Because if it is you need some help.

@cologne4711 I'm doing my family tree at the moment. There is a section on the census for how many children yiu had, how may were alive and how many dead. Regularly there are 6 to 12 children born and around 3 or 4 remained alive. Sometimes all children died and that's just the kids. Yes our ancestors had to live with these diseases. But are you honestly saying that this type of death rate should be something we should accept as its a new disease. Come and tell us that when it's your children or family.

Urgh. Another one.

If you were actually thinking about it, what you'd need to do is look at Measles from the point of view of a native American who has never come into contact with Measles ever before, but has all the knowledge of disease transmission, mortality rates, comorbidities and the ability to enforce measures on the people who are transmitting it.

If we were well enough (which wasn't likely with Measles) we didn't stop seeing elderly relatives because they were already a self selecting sample, as they had already managed to not die of the Measles as a child and therefore had immunity.

chickenpox is a better disease to compare covid to.

It's almost always mild in children, but can be harmful in adults and dangerous as first time infection in the elderly. Circulates wildly in UK now. Most countries don't have vaccination programmes. I think CP is a bit more contagious & has a longer incubation period. Immunity against CP seems to usually last decades. Pretty darn similar, though, otherwise.

In the UK, 20 people a year die of chicken pox. Hope that helps clear up the distinction.

As we’re on COvid-19 vs other infectious diseases, TB (also much cited on this & similar threads) is at its lowest levels in the U.K. since records began in 1960 (4,672 cases in 2018) & couldn’t find data on deaths because so few of them.

How many people over age 70 get chickenpox for the first time each year?
I think that distinction might matter, too.

TB scares heck out of me (!)

The nearest comparison to how infectious it is and how deadly it is, is Spanish Flu.

I know it's a different type of virus but that's the closest at those levels

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.

Well it depends. HIV isn't transmitted with fomites or droplets so you can lock down your own genitals and stop it. Measles, there's a vaccine. Ebola absolutely they lock down particular areas. Just much smaller ones. And TB... interestingly I had a client in a homeless hostel I worked in who contracted a particularly nasty strain. He also had mental health issues. Disappeared for a few months and came back well. Lots of rumours about him being subject to a 'hold' that wasn't entirely voluntary. And everyone in the place was tested.

My dad said they had no clue about transmission rates, etc. And no social media/instant information.

He remembers standing in line for the vaccine, though.

We're getting our flu shots (again) this fall, and we'll be getting this vaccine when it is available to us.

Can someone explain to me WHY we are behaving this way when it comes to Coronvirus.

1. there is a vacine for measels
2. lots of people have immunity
3. We know how the disease starts and develops

Have a look at how communiities reacted to Polio before a vaccine. It might not have been called lockdown but it looks fairly similar.

Simple reason - there was already a vaccine available for measles, so they just needed to increase production and vaccinate.

Not the case with CV19.

A better question for relatively contemporary times would be why no lockdown in 1957-8 when 33k died of 'Asian Flu in the :', or way more startling - 1968 when an incredible 80k died in UK.

No vaccine then, either.

This tells you all you need to know. If any of you here have a Nobel prize, feel free to counter it.

Kids still die of measles in significant numbers where they don’t vaccinate.

COVID kills mostly Older adults so heavier impact on first world countries - Africa predicted a lot of COVID but less pro rata deaths due to the skew or population age.

Though whether the BMAE link will continue ?

Sorry,. *33k died in UK not :', . Obvs.

Its always interesting to see what line nudge units/thinktanks/journalists usually end up taking, Id let your higher ups know this one is unlikely to gain much ground OP, I mean your government melts will accept any bollocks but I dont think this is the line thats going to get people angry at lockdown

Also, do you not feel that it was considered necessary to lockdown for the exact reason was because there wasn't a lockdown a previous novel virus pandemic? (Lessons learnt type of thing. Same way authorities will learn from this pandemic and do things differently in the next novel virus pandemic. )

You also have to consider who the pandemic effects. This has a huge affect on the reaction.

On that tangent, it fascinates me why people mention Ebola as if it were a similar case study of a virus to Covid-19. Ebola has been about for decades, a vaccine was developed when. (Even more fascinating is that I've seen mentioned (not on this thread) as if it there has an Ebola epidemic the UK.)