Anyone recently visiting Harvard (Visitas or otherwise) or planning a visit, should be aware that there is a serious Mumps outbreak at Harvard. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/26/mumps-concerns-HUHS-director/
I saw this story and mumps can be very very serious.
“Incoming freshmen are required to have received the MMRV vaccination, a vaccine commonly used to prevent the incidence of mumps.”
The article did a fantastic (/sarcasm) job of ignoring the elephant in the room.
If the kids are “required” to be vaccinated, why is there an outbreak?
Answer: those kids aren’t actually vaccinated, and they are infecting others with suppressed immune systems and unvaccinated people.
Ludicrously, the article bemoans the fact that the kids are not taking proper precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, but those kids have been raised in the mindset that these diseases are less dangerous than the vaccinations that the parents have prevented them from receiving.
"Barreira said the increase in incidence of mumps on Harvard’s campus can be attributed to students taking inadequate precautions.
“Students are not acting in a responsible way, knowingly exposing other students to the virus,” Barreira said. “It’s both disappointing and frustrating because I thought we were on the decline.”
If the “Health Services Director” Barreira thinks it’s the kids’ fault for this disease spreading, he needs to be fired. What an idiot. He knowingly allowed unvaccinated kids to matriculate at his school and is then surprised when they behave as if the disease is not dangerous. Hello! This is their belief! Why would you think they’d behave differently?
From Harvard’s vaccination requirement:
"The only circumstances under which a student may be exempted from these regulations are as follows:
• The student provides a signed written statement that the required immunizations would conflict with his or her religious beliefs. "
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/forms/ext_imm.pdf
That’s right of course that if people are not vaccinated, that makes an outbreak more likely.
However the mumps vaccine is not 100% effective . . . it’s more like 90% . . .so people who have been vaccinated can get it, though the chances are much lower than for an unvaccinated person.
@MotherOfDragons, perhaps dial back your rhetoric a bit. I agree that antivaxxers create a dangerous public health situation. However, most of the mumps cases at Harvard have been contracted by students who have received the vaccine. Like @bluewater2015 said, the mumps vaccine is not 100% effective. The number I’ve heard is 85%.
I would venture that many of the students who got mumps are recorded as having the vaccine and never got it.
I’ll be going there next week. I had these vaccines as a child. I was concerned whether I was still immune. Blood test revealed I am still immune to mumps, but have lost immunity to measles.
Mumps is not easy to catch. Mostly, it’s transmitted through bodily fluid. Your chances of getting it just by visiting the campus is very very slim. In fact, I know a few people who’s roommates had mumps. I didn’t get it, they didn’t get it.
the Mumps vaccine is not 100% effective. That’s how it can spread.
At any rate, they put you in quarantine for 2 weeks, and then you’re fine.