Is the Measles Panic Warranted?

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Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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 Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For Brooklyn moms looking for advice, there's this hotline they can call.
0:09.6	It's called Icarus Abias.
0:11.6	It means it translates roughly to a housewife or a keystone of the home.
0:18.3	Gwen Hogan from WNIC Public Radio.
0:21.1	She's been eavesdropping here.
0:23.2	Icarus Abias, it's actually Yiddish.
0:25.5	It's not.
0:26.5	It's like more grandiose than housewife.
0:28.0	It's sort of like the mainstay of the home, I guess, is a better translation in Yiddish.
0:32.6	The advice on this fun line.
0:34.2	It's geared towards Orthodox Jewish people.
0:36.7	So if you dial that number or one of their several numbers, if you dial one of those numbers,
0:42.8	then you get kind of like a phone tree where you can click one for information on potty
0:49.7	training or two for information on this.
0:53.2	And there's actually a section on kidnapping.
0:56.1	How to not be kidnapped.
0:57.1	I'm kind of, I never listened to that section, but and then eventually through the numbers
1:03.0	if you listen through, you can find out the truth about vaccines.
1:09.6	The truth about vaccines.
1:12.1	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 and decades.
1:22.6	Many of those infected are part of this sheltered Orthodox community.
	...

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