THAT'S WHY HERD IMMUNITY IS SO IMPORTANT.
If there hadn’t been an outbreak when Renae was a baby, I don’t think she would have contracted it.
She was eligible for the vaccine just seven months later, and I gave it to her, but it was too late.
Parents must realize that refusing vaccinations doesn’t just put your own child at risk. It puts other children at risk.
I don’t know where Renae picked up measles.
It’s ONE OF THE MOST CONTAGIOUS VIRUSES that exists, and it could have been from anywhere.
Many states also allow for exemptions to vaccine requirements, and as a result, U.S. vaccination rates are uneven.
Last year, the United States saw its highest rate of measles cases IN MORE THAN THREE DECADES and the country may soon lose its measles elimination status as well.
In January, Britain lost its measles elimination status. Our national M.M.R. vaccination rate hovers at 84 percent, far below the 95 percent target set by the WHO.
In the United States, where schoolchildren are required to be vaccinated against measles, the national vaccination rate is 92 percent.
The doctors told me it was fatal, and there was nothing else they could do.
Not long after, one of the doctors...held my hands and told me that, WITH THE STRESS, he was worried about the health of the baby I was carrying. I was 38 weeks pregnant.
That last weekend in the hospital was traumatic.
Within a couple weeks, Renae had stopped talking and eating.
She was transferred to intensive care and given a breathing tube.
We got the diagnosis when one of the tests of her spinal fluid had come back from London. Renae had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles.
The doctors put her on an antibiotic drip. They did lumbar punctures, collecting cerebrospinal fluid. They hooked her to a machine that took blood out of her body, cleaned it, and put it back in.
She was rapidly slipping away. The nurses tested her strength, and each day she was getting weaker.
She told us she was seeing things that weren’t there.
I wondered if it [was the medication], but she had also started moving very slowly, almost robotically, and often seemed confused.
We took her back to the hospital, where another M.R.I. showed the swelling in her brain had become much worse.
She was admitted to the hospital, where she received an M.R.I. that showed mild brain swelling.
The doctors told us that this can happen sometimes, that maybe she had a recent infection, and it often resolves on its own. They started her an anti-seizure medication and...released her.
In mid-June, I got a call from her teacher. Renae had had a seizure — could I come straightaway? By the time we got her to the hospital, she was pretty much back to herself.
“Oh, my God, did it happen at school!?” she asked, mortified.
A week later, she had another seizure.
Renae’s handwriting...got a bit wobbly. Renae was never athletic, but when I attended her school’s Sports Day, she wasn’t participating. She seemed a bit off balance.
She was growing up quickly. So when her personality changed and she became more snappish, I didn’t think much of it at first.
Measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain, ready to exact a terrible toll years later.
Because both Britain and the United States have outbreaks, I am sharing my story.
Parents should know just how dangerous this disease is.
While I was concerned, I wasn’t panicked by the diagnosis. At the time, I thought of measles as being like chickenpox. And I knew she was in the right place, in the hospital.
Doctors were able to stabilize her breathing, and her fever was dropping. She would feel poorly for a bit, and get better.
In 2013, most of the cases were among school-age children whose parents had refused to give them the vaccine, which is not compulsory in Britain, or among babies too young to be vaccinated, like my daughter.
(The first measles vaccine is usually given at 1 year of age.)
A 1998 study by a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism had caused vaccination rates to plummet.
THE STUDY WAS LATER RETRACTED, and Mr. Wakefield stripped of his medical license, but the damage had been done.
[NOT ON INTERNET ARCHIVE]
MEASLES TOOK MY DAUGHTER. THIS IS WHAT I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW.
Her baby got measles when she was five months old. Ten years later, a complication from the disease killed her.
WHY HERD IMMUNITY IS VITAL.
By Rebecca Archer
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...
On the comedy program "Last Week Tonight", John Oliver presented a mini-biography of Netanyahu, the Israeli leader who persuaded Trump to attack Iran, which pointed out that his ruling coalition has parties which advocate aggression against neighbors: [Profanity used] www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Bw...
The actions of one soldier should not be attributed to that nation's entire military, just as hateful action by a white supremacist in the U.S. military does not represent every person.
But we need to begin questioning the way billions we have GIVEN Israel are being spent.
We need to recognize that Israel is a pluralistic society, and that the Israeli population contains many people opposed to the creation of an Israeli hegemony in the region.
But the right wing controls Israel and its military, and Gaza has shown that over decades "defense" has lost its meaning.
An annual report by the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, an interreligious group in Jerusalem, documented “a continued and expanding pattern of intimidation and aggression” of harassment or violence directed at Christians IN ISRAEL by Israeli Jews in 2025.
[Right wing regime controls IDF]
“We also hope that the Israeli army will open an investigation into the homes they are destroying in Debl and into the breaking of statues of saints inside them,” he said.
Lebanon is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any country in the region.
[WHAT have they done to Moslem homes?]
#LINK_TO_ARTICLE
ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (IDF) SOLDIER IN LEBANON SMASHES STATUE OF JESUS WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER
Akl Naddaf, a mayor in southern Lebanon,, said the statue was in the garden of a private home, where IDF forced residents to flee a month ago.
By David M. Halbfinger
archive.ph/TaKda
Investigators spoke with several dozen witnesses and uncovered evidence that Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her staff abused federal spending limits on personal trips, including on fancy hotels, S.U.V. rentals and meals.
Professional misconduct with her work also had been alleged by a whistleblower.
Pressure on Ms. Chavez-DeRemer had mounted in recent weeks, as investigators and congressional leaders homed in on questions about her conduct in office, and that of her aides and members of her family.
The Secretary had been reported to have used department resources for personal trips.
Staff members have described her as disconnected from the work of the department.
Four people have been forced out of their jobs, including her former chief of staff and deputy, her director of advance, and a member of the secretary’s security detail with whom she was accused of having an affair.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members that are now under review by the department’s inspector general.
The inquiry has revealed deep frustration in the department with Ms. Chavez-DeRemer.
#LINK_TO_ARTICLE
LABOR DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATES TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN SECRETARY'S FAMILY MEMBERS AND STAFF
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer asked young female staff members to keep in touch with her husband and father, who made unwanted advances
By Rebecca Davis O'Brien
archive.ph/S1v8j
#LINK_TO_ARTICLE
LABOR SECRETARY RESIGNS RATHER THAN BE QUESTIONED UNDER OATH BY THE DEPARTMENT'S INSPECTOR GENERAL
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican member of the House, quits before being fired.
By Rebecca Davis O'Brien
archive.ph/0FQwZ
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS JOINS THE COALITION CONDEMNING TRUMP'S ATTACKS ON PRESS FREEDOM
#LINK_TO_SPJ_SITE
The SPJ site displays a copy of the coalition's petition, which also contains a list of the Trump regime's attacks on press freedom, with bullet points.
www.spj.org/spj-joins-co...
Because REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE.