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While the number of measles cases in the country has reached levels never seen since the announcement of the elimination of the virus in 2000, some people opposed to vaccines cite a strange cultural reference as evidence of anxiety about measles: an episode of 1969 Brady's group.
Some old Brady Bunch distribution members are not happy about it.
The episode "Is there a doctor at home?" present the whole sick family of measles. First of all, Peter is fired from school at home. Mother Carol Brady, played by Florence Henderson, describes her symptoms as "a slight temperature, lots of points and a big smile" because he has to stay home for a few days.
Once the rest of the six children has caught measles, the two younger Brady siblings are having fun, Bobby trying to stain Cindy's measles stains in green.
"If you have to get sick, you certainly will not be able to defeat measles," says his sister Marcia, while the older, Bradys, sit around a Monopoly board on one of the children's beds. All children are grateful that they do not have to take medication or, worse, get vaccinated, which makes Jan groan.
People who criticize vaccines often mention this episode. It is used in videos and memes and is cited by activists like Dr. Toni Bark, who testifies against vaccines in court and at public hearings in the United States. For them, this illustrates well what they regard as the safety of the disease.
"You stayed at home like the Brady Bunch show. You stayed at home. You did not go to the doctor, "she says. We have never said: "Oh my God, your child could die. Oh my God, it's a deadly disease. It's become that. "
Del Bigtree, a television producer who runs a vaccine-critical YouTube show that has produced a film about them, is also looking at this episode to show that the current frenzy about the measles outbreak is misplaced. .
"We were all laughing and laughing because the whole family in the Brady Bunch to measles, "he says. Where is the sitcom that joked about dying of AIDS or about dying of cancer? "
Some former cast members are unhappy the show is used in 2019 to strengthen arguments against vaccines. Maureen McCormick played Marcia in adolescence. She learned a few months ago that a Facebook anti-vaccination group had circulated memories of measles that she had contracted during this episode. She was furious, she said.
"I was really concerned about that and I wanted to get to the bottom of things because I have never been contacted," she says.
"I think it 's really wrong when people use people' s images today to promote what they want to promote and that the image they use does not make any sense. is not asked for or that they have no idea of their position on the subject, "she added. "As a mother, my daughter has been vaccinated."
McCormick says that she had measles in her childhood and that nothing looked like the Brady Bunch episode; she really got sick.
"Having measles was not a fun thing," she says. "I remember that it's prevalent in my family."
In 1969, the year in which the Brady Bunch According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25,000 cases of measles and 41 deaths have been reported. It was six years after vaccine development, and the vast majority of people with measles recovered fully, as now.
Elena Conis, badociate professor in the history of medicine at the University of California at Berkeley, explained that the circumstances in 2019 are very different from those in 1969.
"In 1969, we controlled less infectious diseases," she says. "Smallpox was still a reality, there were many more cases of polio, and in that context it made sense to think of measles as a lesser threat."
Public health officials have begun trying to change the public's awareness about measles after developing a vaccine, she said.
"They said," Well, wait. There is this rate of complications; there is this number of hospitalizations; there are this number of deaths. We really need to change our vision of the threat of measles. ""
This effort to change the public's understanding about measles is evident in the 1964 Public Service Communiqué, sponsored by vaccine maker Merck, titled "Mission: Measles – The Story of One." vaccine".
"Many parents view measles as a simple common nuisance that makes their children feel miserable and prevents them from staying in school for a while, but doctors now know that measles is more that's a nuisance, "said the announcer. complications, such as bacterial infections, fatal pneumonia and inflammation of the brain.
The messages worked, along with federal funding initiatives aimed at vaccinating children. Over the next two decades, measles infections and deaths declined precipitously with increasing vaccination levels. In 1984, there was more than one measles-related death, historically low and far removed from the estimated 500 deaths attributed each year to measles prior to vaccine introduction.
Everyone who has caught measles in the Brady Bunch the episode went well until the next episode, and most people who catch measles in 2019 will be too. But this is not always the case. the virus can cause pneumonia and, in severe cases, swelling of the brain and deafness.
According to the measles outbreak in New York, about 29 people were hospitalized, including six requiring intensive care, according to the city's health department. Two pregnant women in the city have contracted the virus in recent weeks, which could lead to serious complications for their babies. and a flight attendant who caught the virus while flying from New York to Tel Aviv, Israel, was in a coma of measles complications, according to NBC.
Lloyd J. Schwartz, son of Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of The Brady Bunch, who died in 2011, also challenged the use of the show to deter vaccination.
"Dad would be sorry because he believed in vaccination, had all his children vaccinated," he says.
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