It’s my party and I’ll get measles if I want to?

Health News

The idea of a ‘measles party’ should probably as apocryphal as the idea of a ‘rainbow party’ in the early 2000’s, but the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) nonetheless warned parents on Monday against intentionally exposing their kids to measles. “CDPH strongly recommends against the intentional exposure of children to measles as it unnecessarily places the exposed children at potentially grave risk and could contribute to further spread,” department spokesperson Anita Gore said. The CDPH said it had no information on so-called measles parties – as inquired about by the media – or their frequency, if any.

Back in 2011, law enforcers cracked down on a chicken pox-infected mail order operation. Anti-vaccine parents – or; the kind of people who shouldn’t have children – were exchanging pox-contaminated lollipops via mail (think Ted Kaczynski if he’d worked for Willy Wonka… the Oompa-Bomber?) in a retarded attempt to develop children’s immunity by exposing them to the virus, as well as a federal crime. The CDPH’s warning however follows a recent report by San Francisco radio station KQED that a local woman volunteered to get the mother of two unvaccinated children in contact with someone infected with the measles. Fortunately the mother was not as deranged as someone who refuses to vaccinate their kids would seem at first, and declined the offer.

“The basic notion is ‘This is my opportunity for my kid to get immune the old fashioned way, the way God intended,” University of California at Berkeley epidemiologist Art Reingold KQED. Another proof that when you use the word god as part of your argument, you don’t really have an argument. There have been no other reports, and there is no evidence that anyone is holding measles parties – although a health official told the LA Times that he had a number of inquiries about the benefits of natural immunity as opposed to vaccine immunity – , but there is a precedent. Before the chicken pox vaccine was introduced in 1995, parents commonly held ‘chicken pox parties’ when one child got sick, under the wrongful impression that it was better for children to fall ill and recover then than waiting for the disease later on. Of course, these people make the tenants of the Bramford apartment building seem normal by comparison.

The craziest part is that the practice continued after the vaccine became available. A 2004 account of such a party in the ‘natural family living’ magazine Mothering (“motherin’, what’s your price for flight…”) went like this: “sharing sippy cups, whistles, and lollipops (sugar- and saccharine-free, of course), the wee revelers romped and stomped and ran amok as microscopic varicella viruses triggered the alarms of their mucous membranes, manufacturing ideal antibodies for a lifetime of immunity. We at the party were doing what we felt was safest, after weeding through the propaganda and rhetoric about America’s latest ‘Red Scare’: the deadly scourge of chickenpox panic.” Sounds just like a party at the Overlook Hotel.

Even though intentional exposure to chicken pox may relatively be a calculated risk, measles is a different animal entirely. According to the CDC, 28% of cases in children under five resulted in hospitalization between 2001 and 2013. The rate of hospitalization for the current outbreak is about 15%. “It doesn’t make sense to say I’d rather have my kids get the measles than the measles vaccine,” Reginald told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s based on misinformation that the measles is a benign childhood illness.” Flu specialist at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College Anne Moscona added that “I think it’s totally nuts. This is like the Middle Ages, when people deliberately infected themselves with smallpox. It’s vigilante vaccination — you know, taking immunity into your own hands.” To follow up on that thought, just imagine the measles is actually Danny Glover pointing a gun at you. Smugly, you tell him you have “natural immunity!” He pulls the trigger anyway, quipping “it’s just been revoked!”

Related Read:

- California warns against intentional measles exposures

- California officials warn against ‘measles parties’

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