Several years ago, Dr. David Gorski coined the phrase “everything old is new again” to describe how contrarian doctors perfectly parroted what “old school” anti-vaxxers said about measles and the MMR. None of their arguments against the COVID vaccine were new or original, at least to those of us who cared about the anti-vaccine movement before the pandemic, and tried to warn of its threat. It was obvious to us that myths spread by anti-vaxxers to minimize measles were being recycled by contrarian doctors to minimize COVID.
Now, measles is back. Thanks in part to the efforts of contrarian doctors, RFK Jr. is trying to stop it with vitamin A and cod liver oil. He’s not getting on camera urging vaccinations. As measles spreads, the anti-vaccine movement is prepared, emboldened, and empowered. Respected doctors from respected universities amplified their ideas and made them mainstream. Today myths spread by contrarian doctors to minimize COVID are being recycled by anti-vaxxers to minimize measles.
The anti-vaccine circle is complete.
Child that died in Texas apparently had pneumonia and RSV and word is they vaccinated while sick for measles.
In August 2021, as the Delta variant ripped through the country, Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg looked a random data fluctuations and decided to “just ask questions” about whether SARS-CoV-2 was really hurting children. To minimize COVID, she suggested that RSV was filling up pediatric hospitals and that incompetent pediatricians were misdiagnosing their patients. I debunked that myth here.
Today, anti-vaxxers are claiming that the child who died of measles in Texas, actually died of RSV.
Unless children have underlying conditions or are malnourished, measles in not a problem.
With COVID, Dr. Marty Makary spread the myth that there was a “mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia.” I debunked that myth here.
Today, anti-vaxxers are claiming that measles is harmless for healthy children. Although anti-vaxxers don’t seem to recognize this, children with underlying medical conditions also are loved and have value.
The 6yr old did not die from measles. She died because the hospital refused to give her breathing treatments.
Because he could not utter the words “I underestimated COVID”, Dr. John Ioannidis decided to throw frontline doctors under the bus. He said lives were lost in 2020 because doctors were “just going crazy, and intubating people who did not have to be intubated”. They, not COVID, were to blame for the demise of their patients. I debunked that myth here.
Though they now blame the lack of “breathing treatments,” anti-vaxxers are again blaming doctors, not measles, for the death of the child in Texas. In this universe, doctors are deadlier than measles and COVID.
Did the child die with measles or from measles?
Another technique Dr. Ioannidis used to minimize COVID was to claim that people were dying with COVID not from COVID. In one typical interview he said:
It’s very difficult to differentiate between deaths by SARS-CoV-2 and deaths with SARS-CoV-2. Since we had close to 99% of people dying have other causes that may have contributed to their demise, it’s very difficult to dissociate and say that these people specifically died because they were infected.
Only someone who never worked in a hospital would say anything that absurd, and I debunked that myth here.
Now, anti-vaxxers are again claiming that children die with measles, not from measles.
I don’t remember measles cases (which happen every year) being breathless national news in previous years. Does the media know children are dying from chronic diseases (not measles.)
Even though COVID hospitalized 234,000 children, Dr. Vinay Prasad tried to minimize it by claiming it was “breathless, fear-mongering” created by the news. He portrayed anyone who wasn’t apathetic to sick children as both hysterical and indifferent to other risks. I discussed this misleading technique here.
Now anti-vaxxers are claiming measles is a creation of “breathless” of the news and that anyone who disagrees doesn’t care about “chronic diseases.”
For children, getting sick and recovering is part of a natural and healthy life.
Along with Allison Krug, Dr. Prasad also argued that COVID was “natural and healthy” for children to contract COVID and that it was “reckless” to prevent infections. Their article Should We Let Children Catch Omicron? was written during the deadliest wave of the pandemic for children, and it said:
When it comes to infectious disease, normality means a world where they are routinely exposed to, and overcome, viral illness. For children, getting sick and recovering is part of a natural and healthy life…
Parents must consider that exposures are how we best protect our children against the variants of the future. In fact, it is reckless to let children age into a more serious encounter with a disease best dealt with while younger.
I debunked the myth that COVID is healthy for children here.
Today, authorities are asking parents not to hold “measles parties”. These parents have been told that for children, getting sick and recovering is part of a natural and healthy life
Indeed, everything old is new again, again. However, beyond using identical language and techniques to mislead their audience, there is no fundamental difference between someone who minimizes COVID and someone who minimizes measles. Grieving parents aren’t focused on which particular virus killed or injured their child. It’s a tragedy any time a child suffers because their parents were tricked by anti-vaxxers.
This didn’t used to be controversial in medicine.