The number of measles cases reported in France during the first five months of 2017 is 295, according to Sante publique France (computer translated). This is six-times the number of cases reported during the same period in 2016 (47).
Measles has circulated widely in the general population in metropolitan France this year with 40 percent of the departments in France reporting at least one case.
Outbreaks have been reported in Lorraine, New Aquitaine and Occitania.
Now the health minister wants to make 11 vaccines compulsory, according to a The Local report. New health minister Agnes Buzyn said she wants to extend the number of mandatory vaccinations to 11 to include immunizations against conditions such as measles, hepatitis B, meningitis C, rubella, mumps and whooping cough.
Currently, only diphtheria, tetanus and polio are mandatory in France.
This follows Italy’s new decree to make 12 vaccines compulsory for schoolchildren.
According to health officials, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2016, in 9 years, more than 24,000 measles cases were reported in France (nearly 15,000 cases in the year 2011 alone). Nearly 1,500 cases had severe pneumonia, 34 neurological complications (31 encephalitis, 1 myelitis, 2 Guillain-Barré) and 10 died.
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- Measles death toll now 30 in Romania
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In the USA, Centers for Disease Control records reveal a startling truth – while no one has died of measles in the U.S. in the last 12 years, 108 have died as a result of the adverse effects of the vaccine in that same time period. The death statistics are recorded by Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, which captures only a small percentage of the actual number of deaths and other adverse reactions to the vaccine. In addition, 96 of the 108 deaths in that 12-year time period were a result of the MMR vaccine, now the preferred shot for measles immunization.
Also, the CDC statistic show measles deaths were rare in the U.S. before the vaccine became widely used.
Bad reactions to the measles vaccines are much more widespread than death, points out Dr. Lee Hieb, an orthopaedic surgeon and past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons who has studied vaccines and written about them in medical journals.
In the study, Hieb questions the zealous push for mandatory measles vaccination.
“If you believe absolutely in the benefit and protective value of vaccination, why does it matter what others do?” she asks rhetorically. “Or don’t do? If you believe you need vaccination to be healthy and protected, then by all means vaccinate your child and yourself. Why should you even be concerned what your neighbor chooses to do for his child – if vaccination works? The idea of herd immunity is still based on the idea that in individual cases vaccines actually are protective.”