Vaccines 101

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Queen’s University has launched an investigation into one of its instructors after students accused her of suggesting a connection between vaccines and autism during a lecture. This link was disproven years ago, but misinformation like it is still around.

The World Health Organization has credited the measles vaccine with saving over 15 million lives since the year 2000. Measles isn’t treatable- and in one in 1000 cases causes potentially deadly swelling in the brain.

For years it was virtually eliminated in developed countries, but according to infectious disease specialist, Dr. David Goldfarb, it’s been creeping back recently .

“We’re starting to see cases including cases in people who haven’t traveled which means there’s been locally circulating measles virus.”

“The woman diagnosed in Niagara wasn’t vaccinated. The number of people refusing vaccination began to rise after a small study connected the measles vaccine to autism. But that study was proven to be a fraud.”

“The lead author on that publication has subsequently lost his license because of unethical practices.”

The measles vaccine has been studied for decades and proven safe. Severe allergies to it are so rare- less than one in a million- that’s it’s impossible to pinpoint the vaccine as the cause of symptoms.

It’s composed of a weakened form of the virus that triggers your body to build up immunity.

“It causes your immune system to mount a response so that when it sees a real wild strain of the viruses, you’ll be able to protect yourself against it.”

This protection is even more important as outbreaks begin in North America, and parents who grew up in a measles-free society face the reality that they and their children could be exposed.