Despite the best efforts of doctors around the country, more than 100 cases of measles have been diagnosed this year in 21 states, including Kansas and Missouri. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention report says most of the people who got measles had not been vaccinated.
Pediatricians like Dr. Steve Lauer with The University of Kansas Health System get frustrated with reports like this. In the video, Dr. Lauer explains even though the overall vaccination rate has increased in his practice, it’s dipped enough in some pockets of the population that one case of the measles can spread. He says there are now two generations of families with no memory of the days when everybody got the measles. Some families don’t understand why it’s important for their child to get a shot for an uncommon disease. Lauer says 90,000 children around the world died from measles in 2016 in countries that don’t vaccinate, and that Kansas City is one plane ride away from an outbreak. He also explains what can happen to a child who gets the measles, and what he tells parents in his clinic about measles vaccination.
The video also includes b-roll of patients being vaccinated.
