Remember measles? The ugly, highly contagious virus that spots your face and kept you home from school? If not, don’t feel too bad—we figured we’d wiped measles out in the US back in 2000. But it’s back now, in record numbers around the country and hitting New York City particularly strong. In a very cranky op-ed for the Daily Beast, a pediatrician who goes by Russell Saunders blames the anti-vaccination movement for measles’ resurgence, saying “This is sheer lunacy. Just over a dozen years ago this illness was considered eliminated in our country, and this year people are being hospitalized for it. All due to the hysteria about a safe, effective vaccine. All based on nothing.”
Of course, it may not be fair to blame all this on a very small group of parents in America. Other officials have noted that New York City gets a lot of international travelers who come from places where vaccines aren’t as readily available as they are in the US. Either way, New York City health officials are reminding everyone who hasn’t received a measles vaccination that now is as good a time as any …
