Dr. Kristin Lyerly
@drkristinlyerly • 8,480 subscribers
Wisconsin OB/GYN 🩺 | Boy mom ×4 | Former WI-08 candidate | Host of 'The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show' — real talk w/cool people about health, medicine & politics
Videos
I’m in the Cusco, Peru airport with measles warning signs are everywhere. Meanwhile, Wisconsin just confirmed 9 cases of a disease we eliminated in the US 25 years ago. As a physician watching this unfold: We are failing our children. The data is stark: • 33-year high in US measles cases • 1,300+ cases nationally in 2025 (so far) • 3 deaths this year • 150+ hospitalizations • All from a completely preventable disease Why is this happening? Vaccination rates have dropped below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity. Wisconsin’s school vaccination rate: 86%. That’s a 9-point gap that measles is now exploiting. Here’s what every parent needs to understand about measles: It spreads through the AIR. If one person has measles, 90% of unvaccinated people who share that airspace will catch it. It’s one of the most contagious diseases known to medicine. It starts subtle: fever, cough, runny nose. Then comes the characteristic red rash spreading from face to entire body. But here’s the terrifying part - people are contagious BEFORE the rash appears. The MMR vaccine works. Two doses = 97% protection. Serious adverse events are extraordinarily rare. The risks from measles itself - encephalitis, pneumonia, death - dwarf any vaccine risk by orders of magnitude. Wisconsin now has one of the LOWEST measles vaccination rates in the entire country. We’re creating pockets of vulnerability that endanger not just unvaccinated children, but babies too young to be vaccinated and immunocompromised individuals. This isn’t about individual choice anymore. It’s about collective responsibility. Countries like Peru take measles seriously because they remember what we’ve forgotten: vaccine-preventable diseases kill children. They don’t have the luxury of vaccine hesitancy that we’ve developed in our success. Back-to-school season is here. Check your children’s vaccination records TODAY. Schedule catch-up vaccines if needed. Have honest conversations with your pediatrician about any concerns. We eliminated measles once through science, public health infrastructure, and community solidarity. We can maintain that elimination. But only if we choose evidence over fear, community health over individual hesitancy. The choice is ours. The consequences affect us all. #measles #publichealth #vaccination #Wisconsin #outbreak #MMR #pediatrics #backtoschool #herdimmunity #preventable #medicine #vaccines #immunization
Dr. Kristin Lyerly190,709 просмотров • 10 месяцев назад
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