The CDC says that for every 1000 measles cases, one or two will die, and one will develop encephalitis, which commonly leads to brain damage, here and here

Another example from the CDC:

That makes measles look rather dangerous.

Many news stories about measles or vaccines quote these statistics, often with a prominent doctor saying it.

These figures have for a while struck me as odd because the death rate from measles in the US was more like one in 10,000 cases in the decade before widespread measles vaccination (with a vaccine that worked) started in 1967. I also did a very rough calculation for Australia and got a similar result. [Read more…]

Today I am very pleased to be bringing you a guest post by Wendy Lydall, author of the book Raising a Vaccine Free Child.

On Sunday the 14th of June 2015 the Australian population was treated to a blast of the terrifying “news” that measles cases were increasing and some people could die or become brain damaged because not every parent was vaccinating.

The chief protagonist of this scare campaign was Professor Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. Professor Booy had chosen to not learn something from me when we both appeared on a TV morning show in May 2013. The news anchor had introduced me as someone who claims, “… that diseases like the measles are beneficial for a child’s development.”

Professor Booy’s response to this was, “… hoping that you’ll get some kind of boost to your immune system has never been proved for measles. It’s a theory that’s been around for decades and there’s no proof for it.”

I interjected with, “I beg to differ. There is proof. There are studies in the medical literature which show that it is beneficial. For instance, a person who has had measles as a child is less likely to get chronic diseases in their adult life. And that is in the medical literature.” [Read more…]