Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that mostly targets children. It causes a full body rash along with flu-like symptoms and can be deadly to some although death rates have been consistently dropping. Despite this, measles is not curable as it is a virus so those infected must let it run its course within the following few days/weeks.
Measles was first discovered by a Persian philosopher in the 9th century and in 1757 a Scottish physician discovered that it could be found in the blood of the affected individuals. While measles was not a reportable disease before 1912 due to such small numbers, by the year 1920, around half a million people had been infected in the US with 7,500 dying that year. By the late 1950s to early 1960s, reported cases had stayed consistent although the fatality rate dropped much further only killing around 500 a year. Almost every child that reached the age of 15 would have had measles at least once during this time.
In 1953, two American scientists attempted to isolate the measles virus in Boston, MA. Although they were successful, they were not able to create a vaccine until 1963 where it became licensed in the US. In 1968, another improved vaccine was developed and some in the CDC claimed that measles could be eradicated within a few months with the help of vaccinations. Despite these claims, measles still persisted and outbreaks still occurred in these highly vaccinated areas. Thus, by the end of 1968, the number of cases was down under 25,000 but it was still a large number of people that were infected.
In 1979 the CDC introduced a plan to eradicate measles within a few years and although this fell short, they were able to reduce the number of cases to only 1700 in 1982 leaving many to believe that eradication was going to happen soon.
Then in 1989-1991, there was a massive resurgence as over 50,000 cases were reported in those 3 years leading the CDC to ask children to have an additional vaccination before entering school. Thus by 1999 - 2001 there were only 15 cases reported in the US. CDC proclaimed that measles had been eradicated and that it no longer existed in the US.
Although it had been eradicated, there had been multiple outbreaks of the virus over the next 2 decades. These outbreaks were mostly traced back to visitors from other countries but they decimated communities that didn't vaccinate such as an Amish community that reported almost 400 cases in 2014. In 2015, more measles outbreak were found in the US prompting a media firestorm blaming parents of unvaccinated children. Many state legislature moved to pass pro vaccination laws that would restrict religious/conscientious exemptions for the virus and while many of these bills were shot down, a decent amount of these were able to pass into state law in CA and other states.
https://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/measles/measles-history-in-america.aspxhttps://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html
I wonder did the laws regarding religion not pass because they seemed unconstitutional. If freedom of religion is one of America's values would making people get the shots be breaking a constitution laW.
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