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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — and measles

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  • An alarming editorial in The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows how outbreaks spread when social bonds become frayed.

 

  • Measles increased in 98 countries last year, with 229,000 cases reported. It’s a worsening global health crisis, even though measles can be prevented easily with the vaccine. The spread of disinformation, which is turning parents against vaccines, is driving new outbreaks “from the Philippines to France, from Ukraine to the USA.”

 

  • Similar dynamics are in play in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where MSF has reported violent attacks on health workers racing to stop the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak—and where rumor has it that Ebola is a government ploy. 

 

  • In both cases, people’s distrust in authorities—including government and pharmaceutical companies—is feeding the spread of disease. That distrust is not entirely irrational, The Lancet’s editorial board argues, but it’s wildly misplaced.

 

 

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