Amid measles outbreak, health care professionals step up
Using blogs, infographics, media interviews, even visits to mosques, doctors and communicators are emphasizing the importance of vaccination—and dispelling ‘anti-vaxxer’ mythologies.
Health care practitioners and communicators are waging a concerted, multiple-front battle against measles.
When an outbreak hit Washington state recently, Swedish hospital in Seattle pitched one of its doctors to a local TV station to discuss the importance of “community immunity.”
Dr. Elizabeth Meade, the chief of pediatrics, told King5 News that 97 percent of those who have had the required two doses are protected. Yet as growing numbers of people don’t get vaccinated because of fears of complications, they put themselves and their communities at risk.
“We need a certain threshold of people to be vaccinated in order to prevent epidemics and really widespread outbreaks like we’re seeing right now in Washington state,” Meade said.
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