Possible measles outbreak at UC Berkeley? Or even further? Unbelievable but true. Because a Berkeley student who didn’t know he’d been infected (probably while traveling overseas) rode public transportation (BART) around Contra Costa County and interacted with strangers, friends, family, and other students.
Measles is easily spread and is very serious, often causing pneumonia, brain damage, seizures, or death. We don’t see it too often anymore in the U.S., though, because so many Americans have been immunized. But not this young man.
Why not? There are nine other diseases, besides measles, that are preventable: chickenpox, lockjaw (tetanus), whooping cough, polio, mumps, German measles,hepatitis B, and type B flu. All it takes is preventative vaccinations, which everyone should have.
But that interferes with my Constitutional rights, my freedom of choice, some will say. My answer to them is this: protect yourself, and therefore the rest of us, or become a hermit and live somewhere totally away from us. Now, THAT’S your choice.
