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| KING IDIOT: Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin |
idiot. The Governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin (R) intentionally exposed his nine children to chickenpox instead of vaccinating them against the disease, he said in a radio interview. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chickenpox can be serious and can lead to severe complications and death.
Here's the story about KING IDIOT:
A GOP governor doesn’t believe in chickenpox vaccines.
He took his 9 kids to a pox party instead.
By Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post
March 20 at 10:59 PM
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) turned heads this week after saying on a radio show that he had intentionally tried to get his children infected with chickenpox and that he did not support the state’s mandatory chickenpox vaccine.
Bevin, appearing on a radio station in the state, Talk 104.1, said that every one of his nine children had come down with chickenpox — on purpose.
“We found a neighbor that had it,” the first-term governor said. “And I went and made sure every one of my kids was exposed to it and they got it. And they had it as children, they were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine.”
Chickenpox is less deadly in children than adults, but public health experts say it is still important to get vaccinated to prevent a small number of deaths every year and protect others with weaker immune systems. As of 2012, some 36 states and the District required children to receive the chickenpox vaccine or have other evidence of immunity against chickenpox before starting school, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seventeen, including Kentucky, allow parents to exempt their children for medical, religious or philosophical reasons.
But Bevin criticized requirements that children get vaccinated for chickenpox. “This is America and the federal government should not be forcing this upon people,” Bevin said.
MIS-INFORMED:
Public health experts said that the governor seemed misinformed.“It’s a public health hazard,” said Steven Teutsch, an adjunct professor of health policy and management at the University of California at Los Angeles and a former officer at the CDC. “One of the things that we worry about is that you know people who think these things — you’re on a slippery slope that leaves the kids and the population vulnerable.”
The CDC advises against the practice of intentionally exposing children to others who are infected with the virus, which is sometimes referred to as “chickenpox parties.”
CHICKENPOX CAN LEAD TO DEATH:
“Chickenpox can be serious and can lead to severe complications and death, even in healthy children. There is no way to tell in advance how severe your child’s symptoms will be,” the CDC says on its website. “So it is not worth taking the chance of exposing your child to someone with the disease. The best way to protect infants and children against chickenpox is to get them vaccinated.”
BEFORE AND AFTER THE VACCINE:
Before the chickenpox vaccine debuted in 1995, about 4 million Americans were infected with chickenpox, also known as varicella, every year, according to the CDC. Of that group, 10,500 to 13,000 people were hospitalized and 100 to 150 people died, the CDC said. But those statistics decreased sharply in the years after the introduction of the vaccine: The prevalence of chickenpox has decreased by an estimated 79 percent, according to a CDC study of 31 states between 2000 and 2010. In the two four-year periods the CDC studied before and after the vaccine was introduced, deaths went down 87 percent. In children and adults younger than 20, deaths declined by 99 percent over the same period, between 2008 and 2011 compared to 1990 to 1994.
