Is the Measles Panic Warranted?
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Officials in New York’s Rockland County declared a state of emergency after yet another measles outbreak. In Brooklyn, more cases of measles have cropped up over the last several months as well. Both places are home to a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish population that has become increasingly skeptical of vaccinations. Why is this particular community so susceptible to the disease? And how are they getting their information about vaccines? Rockland County has gone so far as to bar unvaccinated children from public places. So, is this the right approach? And is all this news coverage just making hysteria worse?
Guests: Gwynne Hogan, health reporter at WNYC Dan Engber, Slate’s science columnist
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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For Brooklyn moms looking for advice, there's this hotline they can call. |
| 0:09.5 | It's called Echaris Abias. |
| 0:11.5 | It means it translates roughly to housewife or keystone of the home. |
| 0:18.3 | Gwyn Hogan from WNYC Public Radio. |
| 0:23.4 | She's been eavesdropping here. Akara Sabias, it's actually Yiddish. It's not, it's like more grandiose than housewife. |
| 0:28.1 | Sort of like the mainstay of the home, I guess is a better translation in Yiddish. |
| 0:32.5 | The advice on this phone line, it's geared towards Orthodox Jewish people. |
| 0:36.5 | So if you dial that number or one of |
| 0:39.5 | their several numbers, if you dial one of those numbers, then you get kind of like a phone |
| 0:45.2 | tree where you can click one for information on potty training or two for information on this. |
| 0:52.7 | And there's actually a section on kidnapping. How to not be |
| 0:56.7 | kidnapped. I know that. I never listened to that section. And then eventually through the |
| 1:02.4 | numbers, if you listen through, you can find out the truth about vaccines. The truth about vaccines. Right now, revealing the truth about vaccines. |
| 1:11.7 | Right now, revealing the truth about vaccines, in this tight-knit community, it's important. |
| 1:18.2 | New York's in the middle of one of the largest outbreaks of measles in decades. |
| 1:22.4 | Many of those infected are part of this sheltered Orthodox community, |
| 1:26.0 | and this hotline has become a place for families to gather. |
| 1:31.5 | Welcome to the Akaristau-Vayas hotline. |
| 1:34.5 | A right hand for the Jewish mother. |
| 1:36.8 | And you can press certain buttons to ask a question. |
| 1:40.5 | In some cases, it's a free-for-all. |
| 1:42.0 | Anybody can answer it. |
... |
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