[ad_1]
-
Listening Audio story
While the number of measles cases in the country has reached levels never seen since the elimination of the virus in 2000, some opponents to vaccination quote a strange cultural reference as evidence of anxiety about measles: an episode of Brady Bunch of 1969.
Some former members of Brady Bunch's cast are not happy with that.
The episode "Is there a doctor at home?" present the whole sick family of measles. First, Peter is fired from school at home. Carol Brady's mother, played by Florence Henderson, describes her symptoms as "a slight temperature, lots of dots and a big smile" because he has to stay home for a few days.
Once the rest of the children get measles, the two youngest Bradys frolic and Bobby Brady tries to color Cindy Brady's measles spots in green.
"If you have to get sick, you certainly will not be able to conquer measles," says Marcia, while the older, Bradys, sit around a Monopoly panel on one of the beds of the beds. children. All the children are grateful that they do not have to take any medicine, or worse to be vaccinated, which reminds Jan to moan in an audible way.
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 across the country. For them, this illustrates well what they consider to be the safety of the disease.
"You stayed at home as in Brady Bunch's show, you stayed at home, you did not go to the doctor," she says. "We've never said," Oh my god, your child could die, oh my god, it's a deadly disease. "It became 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 all laugh and laugh because the whole Brady Bunch family had measles," he says. "Where is the sitcom that jokingly said to die of AIDS or 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 discovered a few months ago that a Facebook anti-vaccination group had circulated memories of her with measles from this episode and she was furious, she said.
"I was really concerned about that and wanted to get to the bottom of it because I was never contacted," she said.
"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 issue, "she added. As a mother, my daughter was vaccinated. "
McCormick stated that she had had measles when she was a child and that it was nothing like the episode of Brady Bunch; she really got sick.
"Having measles was not a fun thing," she said. "I remember that it's prevalent in my family."
The year the Brady Bunch episode came out, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 25,000 cases of measles and 41 deaths. It was six years after vaccine development, and the vast majority of people with measles recovered fully, as now.
Elena Conis, associate professor at the University of California – Berkeley, specializing in the history of medicine, explained that the situation in 2019 was very different from that of 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 began trying to change the public consensus on measles once a vaccine had been developed, she said.
"They said," Hold on, there's this complication rate, there's that number of hospitalizations, there's that number of deaths, we really need to change our view of the threat that the measles."
This effort to change the public consensus on measles is evident in the 1964 public service announcement sponsored by vaccine maker Merck, titled "Mission Against Measles: The Story of a 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. like bacterial infections, fatal pneumonia and inflammation of the brain.
The messages worked, along with federal funding initiatives for the immunization of children. Over the next two decades, measles infections and deaths declined precipitously with increasing vaccination levels. In 1984, there was more than one death related to measles, historically low at the time. Far from some 500 deaths each year attributed to measles before the introduction of the vaccine.
All those who have caught measles in the Brady Bunch episode have performed well before 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, 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 New York 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, the son of Sherwood Schwartz, creator of the Brady Bunch who died in 2011, also contested the use of the show to deter vaccination.
"Dad would be sorry because he believed in vaccination, had all his children vaccinated," he says.
[ad_2]
Source link