Dr. Klotman’s Week 305 video address is here for your viewing. My summary notes are:
Measles (again)
- The R0 for Measles is 12-18. An infected individual can infect 18 others; for comparison, Flu has an R0 of 2-3
- During the respiratory phase of the Measles, a person who coughs will put an aerosol of Measles virus into the room that will last 3-4 hours
- 10-20% of children who get Measles require hospital care, 10% develop ear infections that can cause hearing loss, and 5% develop pneumonia that can lead to death
- The MMR vaccine is highly effective in preventing these complications, and in vaccinated folks who get the illness, the symptoms are much milder
- In 2000, the US had essentially eliminated Measles
- Last year we had 2242 US cases of Measles because people skipped vaccinations – Texas led the way
- So far in 2026, we have racked up 171 cases. The epicenter of this outbreak is Spartanburg County, South Carolina
- 95% of the cases in South Carolina are in children under 18yo who are unvaccinated
- The lowest rates of vaccination are in the South, of course (I’ve always said that we are a dull and backward people)
Influenza
- This flu season has been of typical severity – 18M infections, 230K hospitalizations, ~9K deaths with ~32 pediatric deaths (90% unvaccinated)
- Positive Flu test rates are falling
- The vast majority of this season’s cases have been Influenza A H3N2
- A recent Danish study of the efficacy of Flu vaccine among older folks found (confirmed) that the high dose Flu vaccine was more effective than the standard dose
Vaccine Hesitancy
- Recent data shows that the majority of vaccine avoidance is the result of non-medical exemptions for religious or personal beliefs, and much of that has followed in the wake of the COVD pandemic
- The resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases, especially among children, is the result of misguided government policy (enabled by SCOTUS, IMHO)
RSV
- A recent Italian study has shown that monoclonal antibody to RSV infused into children whose mothers did not take RSV vaccination during pregnancy was highly effective in preventing RSV illness among those infants
- Similarly, RSV vaccine in the elderly (me and most of my friends) is highly effective in preventing severe infection and hospitalization
My notes from 65K feet where the new F-15 Eagle flies at Mach 2.5
- To the MAGA “freedom” folks who refused to wear masks: May you learn ASL to communicate with your deaf children who earned their deafness from vaccine preventable diseases
- To white Americans who complain that they are being replaced by non-white immigrants: Perhaps if you protected your progeny from vaccine preventable disability and death, your “race” would fare better
- To healthcare researchers in other countries: We need your continued support of honest, non-political research so that the world doesn’t fall back into an age dominated by religion, flimflam artists, and patent snake oil “medicines”
I remember one of our med school lecturers telling the ladies in our class to look around at their female peers. “One in five of you is going to have breast cancer in your lifetime,” he said. The gals looked uneasy; I would have been too.
Then I am reminded of my own residency when an Italian study of lumpectomy and local radiotherapy was compared to radical mastectomy for breast cancer. The study was done by Gianni Bonadonna and published in the NEJM. The study couldn’t have been done in the US because it would have been declared unethical. Massive disfigurement of the female chest was the only way to go, according to America’s surgical societies. Dr. Bonadonna proved that it was all bullshit and dogma dressed up as science.
Since those years, three or more of the women in my extended family have developed breast cancer and been cured with lumpectomy and local radiation. Thank you, Dr. Bonadonna.
We owe much to our European and other non-American friends who continue to search for truth as we ourselves once did. Sigh.