Over the next 2 days I have travel and appointment things to do. Intermittently TMC may have amusements for you and I will contribute as possible.
We’ll for sure have tonight’s Primaries in Florida and Arizona.
Aug 28 2018
2018 Midterm Election: North Carolina Edition
Oops they did it again. A panel of three federal judge ruled that districts in North Carolina were unconstitutionally gerrymandered and must be redrawn before the November midterm elections just 70 days away.
In 2016, the federal court ruled that the 2011 legislative map was racially gerrymandered. The Republican dominated legislature passed a plan that essentially left the map nearly the same stating that they were motivated by politics, not race. It was appealed to the Supreme Court which tossed it back to the lower court based on their earlier ruling that those who bought a similar case over Wisconsin gerrymandering did not have legal standing. Now there is today’s ruling from the same panel that made no bones about the unconstitutionality of the map.
Judge James A. Wynn Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, writing Monday for a special three-judge district court panel, said plaintiffs did have standing under the decision in Wisconsin’s Gill v. Whitford, which he said reinforced the judges’ earlier views that the congressional districts were drawn with improper partisan goals.
He said the court was leaning against giving the North Carolina legislature another chance to draw the congressional districts.
“We continue to lament that North Carolina voters now have been deprived of a constitutional congressional districting plan — and, therefore, constitutional representation in Congress — for six years and three election cycles,” Wynn wrote. “To the extent allowing the General Assembly another opportunity to draw a remedial plan would further delay electing representatives under a constitutional districting plan, that delay weighs heavily against giving the General Assembly another such opportunity.”
He proposed several unusual ideas: appointing a special master to draw new districts, holding general elections without party primaries or even turning the November elections into a primary and holding the general election sometime before the new Congress convenes in January.
Wynn and his fellow judges called for immediate briefing from the parties about which remedy to pursue. [..]
Wynn said it should be clear that such partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional.
“A common thread runs through the restrictions on state election regulations imposed by Article I, the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause: the Constitution does not allow elected officials to enact laws that distort the marketplace of political ideas so as to intentionally favor certain political beliefs, parties, or candidates and disfavor others,” he wrote.
“Although North Carolina’s loud and proud admission that legislators drew districts for partisan advantage is unusual, the practice is universal when politicians are in charge,” said Kathay Feng, Common Cause national redistricting director. “Until we prohibit partisan gerrymandering, a true representative democracy will remain out of reach, and the voices of all Americans will continue to be silent.”
Currently the Supreme Court has eight justices. If they take the case as an emergency and deadlocks 4 – 4, North Carolina would have new districts for 2018 and help Democrats take back the House.
What happens next could be quite a story.
Aug 28 2018
The Breakfast Club (change you can believe in)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
AP’s Today in History for August 28th
Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech; Clashes mar the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Black teen Emmett Till abducted and killed in Mississippi; Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana granted a divorce.
Breakfast Tune Rhiannon Giddens – Lonesome Road / Up Above My Head (Live on 89.3 The Current)
Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
White-Collar Criminals Got Off Scot-Free After the 2008 Financial Crisis — and That Helped Fuel President Trump’s Rise
Marshall Auerback, Independent Media Institute
In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, bank officials at HSBC admitted to the Department of Justice that the bank violated the Bank Secrecy Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act. This amounted to one of the largest and most destructive money laundering and anti-terror finance sanctions-busting in history. Fines were leveled, but no senior bankers went to jail. In another investigation, the DOJ implicated Deutsche Bank and UBS in a bid-rigging cartel that illegally manipulated LIBOR, the most important global benchmark interest rate. Professor Bill Black estimates that the “dollar amount of deals affected by the collusion range[s] from $300-550 trillion in deals manipulated at any given time.” It was a scandal that may have been history’s largest financial crime, yet the U.S. Department of Justice refused to prosecute any of the elite bank officers involved.
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger reminds usthat no top bankers were ever “held accountable for the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression… No one. No top officer from any major bank went to prison.” All of these instances of corporate corruption occurred well before Trump’s election. Trump stands accused of much the same. But how do you make a political case for the latter’s impeachment on the grounds of corporate corruption (even as the president virtually daily violates the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause), given the earlier reticence of multitudes of politicians, regulators, and DOJ officials to prosecute similar white-collar crimes whose impact dwarfed those allegedly committed by America’s 45th president?
It says something about the way we have (to paraphrase the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan) as a society gotten very soft on criminal deviancy that the practices alleged to have been perpetrated by Trump not only in the 2016 election,but also for decades before in his real estate ventures, no longer appear to be disqualifications for the office of the presidency, let alone grounds for impeachment. The previous Obama administration’s embrace of the concept that the systemically dangerous institutions (SDIs), particularly the largest banks, whose senior officials were “too big to jail,” meant that the bankers who grew wealthy from leading the largest and most destructive fraud schemes in banking history got off scot-free. And they also created a context in which the business practices of a candidate like Donald Trump were normalized to a degree that they were considered an insufficient bar to block him from the presidency.
These facts are worth recalling in the context of the recent convictions of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on charges related to bank and tax fraud, and the guilty plea by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who directly implicated the president in campaign finance law violations. As sordid as their actions were, they are small beer compared to what took place in the decade, in which a whole industry literally succumbed to an epidemic of fraud, money laundering, and other forms of malfeasance.
…
The Democrats’ largely absentee approach to the problem of white-collar crime could well explain why the party and the special independent prosecutor continue their efforts to make the case for “Russian collusion.” The theory being that conspiracy with a foreign power to influence an election will create a sufficient threshold to attain the “high crimes and misdemeanors” standard needed to secure impeachment.
Treason is also sexier than white-collar crime and, in theory, easier to prosecute. But it’s still not a slam dunk. We’re now 18 months into Mueller, and the polls still suggest that the Democrats have not gained sufficient political traction with this issue beyond their base. No smoking gun has yet emerged, or least insufficient evidence to encourage Republicans to abandon their president. Hence, calling for impeachment remains a risky strategy if Mueller fails to deliver the goods, as it will appear to many voters that the Democrats are using the courts to overturn an election result (much as Democrats used to allege during the GOP/Ken Starr-led impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton). But, it’s also hard to make an impeachment case on the basis of white-collar offenses, given the Democratic Party’s historic accommodation of Wall Street criminality.
And until the Democrats come face-to-face with their legacy—their complicity in failing to bring about “change you can believe in” in the aftermath of 2008—it will be harder for them to argue for Trump’s removal on that basis, at least to the degree that is required to secure bipartisan support. A promised “return to normality” isn’t enough, given what “normality” gave us 10 years ago. Democrats can’t enable arsonists, and then complain when the fire spins out of control. But that’s exactly the situation in which we find ourselves today with our modern-day Nero tweeting as Washington, D.C., continues to burn
- What on Earth is Obama doing?
Ryan Cooper
- What The Party ‘Strategists’ Say Is Not What The Voters Want
It’s a class war. The rich are winning
MoA
- Two Challenges The Single-Payer Movement Must Address
Jonathan Walker
- If Trump shot Michael Cohen in broad daylight, here’s what Republicans would say
Lawrence Douglas and Alexander George
- Why the Chicago ’68 Convention Matters Today
Andy Thayer
Something to think about over coffee prozac
Tweet over deli packaging gets gov’s attention, and a change
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A supermarket customer’s tweet on stickers placed over the opening of bagged deli meats got the attention of New Hampshire’s governor, and a change.
NH1 reports Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith recently took to Twitter to ask that the company, Market Basket, not put the price tag stickers over the zipper of the meat bag. He said it’s impossible to open it without destroying the bag.
Gov. Chris Sununu responded, saying he has to re-bag cheese every time because of the problem.
Market Basket answered that it would speak to its deli departments about it.
On Tuesday, both Smith and Sununu tweeted that the stickers were moved to the bag itself.
Sununu said he was celebrating with grilled cheese for dinner.
Aug 27 2018
No NAFTA?
There is probably much less here than meets the eye. Readers know I’m no fan of Neo Liberal Trade Agreements for the benefit of Multi-National Mega Corporations, particularly those which detract from a Country’s Sovreignity and ability to regulate for the benefits of its citizens.
On the other hand I wouldn’t trust Trump to know how to wipe his own bottom, much less negotiate a complicated deal
Once again, Trump declares victory long before getting the job done
By Paul Waldman, Washington Post
Opinion writer
August 27, 2018
Is Trump actually going to terminate NAFTA? I’m guessing not, but it would be an enormously complicated thing to do and it would take some time to figure out what the effects of doing so would be.
But here’s the truth about what’s happening right now. The United States and Mexico did in fact resolve some disagreements they’ve had in negotiations over revising NAFTA, particularly in the area of auto manufacturing. The amount of a car’s value that would have to be produced in North America in order to be exempt from tariffs would be raised from 62.5 percent to 75 percent, more local materials would have to be used, and more of the manufacturing would have to be done by high-wage workers. One major demand the Trump administration made, that a revised NAFTA would sunset every five years, has been emphatically rejected by Mexico and Canada (and roundly criticized by businesses, which would find it much harder to plan for the long term).
So, what we have here is some genuine progress in one corner of complex negotiations on which there’s still a long way to go. For starters, Canada has not yet approved these changes. There are other areas where there are still disagreements to be ironed out. Furthermore, a revised NAFTA would have to be approved by Congress, which might not be easy.
The even bigger picture is that this is just one part of the overall trade situation. NAFTA has lots of critics, and there are many changes that could be made to it to make it work better for Americans. Trump wasn’t wrong about that, even though he never seemed able to specify exactly what his complaint with the agreement was, other than his belief that it was the worst deal ever.
But in even the most generous interpretation of what Trump announced today, some jobs in the auto and steel industries might be made somewhat more secure — a drop in the bucket compared to the entire American economy.
So why is Trump celebrating? Maybe it’s because he has had so little to celebrate lately. Or maybe it’s because this is how he does things: If you haven’t actually won a great victory yet, just pretend that some incremental step along the way is in fact the victory itself.
We’ve seen it before. You’ll remember that when the House passed a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act, Trump held a triumphal Rose Garden ceremony to celebrate, even though the bill faced tougher odds in the Senate, where it eventually died. After having a friendly meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump proclaimed that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” But the agreement the two leaders signed was all but meaningless; Kim agreed only to “work toward” denuclearization, and in the meantime the North Korean nuclear program continues on.
There’s a theory behind such events, one that comes from Trump’s time in business. He always knew that image could in fact be transformed into reality: If he convinced everyone that the Trump name was the embodiment of luxury and quality, it would mean greater demand for his condos or steaks or scam “university,” and that would mean greater success and profits. That often meant pretending that success had already been achieved before it actually had. If people believed the hype, the hype could become real.
Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t; one analysis found that of Trump’s major business ventures, about a third failed outright, a third faced major problems, and a third actually succeeded. But he never stopped insisting that everything he touched was a success.
But I suspect that Trump is bothered by the fact that when it comes to dealmaking, his presidency has so far been a spectacular failure. The author of “The Art of the Deal,” who ran for office complaining that the United States makes terrible deals and he would revive the country by making fantastic deals, has not made a single deal of any significance since taking office. There have been no new trade deals, no new foreign policy deals, not even any legislative deals, unless you count his success in convincing Republicans to pass a tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, which is about as hard to accomplish as convincing your dog to eat a piece of cheese that has fallen on the kitchen floor.
It’s entirely possible that at the end of all this we’ll end up with a version of NAFTA that serves Americans better than the current one. But despite what Trump says, victory is still a long ways off.
Aug 27 2018
Oops, John’s Bad
John Oliver’s next episode is September 9th. Stephen has new episodes starting September 3rd. Seth Meyers returns September 5th as does Samantha Bee.
Aug 27 2018
The Breakfast Club (SOS)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Krakatoa erupts in South Pacific; President Lyndon Johnson and Mother Teresa born; America’s first successful oil well; Britain’s Lord Louis Mountbatten killed; Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
When you’re travelling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. William Least Heat-Moon
Aug 26 2018
Democrats Democratic?
People forget that the debacle of 1968 led to serious Democratic Party reforms that included among other things the wholesale replacement of Caucuses (notoriously corrupt) with Primaries.
Then Dr. George “DFC” McGovern, B-24 Liberator pilot who flew 35 combat missions over German-occupied Europe, lost in a landslide to Richard “Not A Crook” Nixon because being against an unwinnable War and for social justice and equal rights were too damn Hippy.
It had nothing to do with Tricky Dick pulling a Trump- honest.
Instead, said the wise men of the Democratic Party, “We need to make sure we never nominate a damn Hippy again.”
And so the Super Delegate was born. While Democratic public servants get them ex officio, a big chunk are reserved for State Party Officials, notable donors, and Emeritus has beens (May has been a delegate at every DNC since ’68). I consider them Tory-Lite Traitors like the Parliamentary Labour Party.
But like 1968, 2016 (is it 50 years? I mean, I have been at every DNC starting with the Chicago Police Riot, but as a writer not a delegate.) was a debacle for the Leadership in that the transparency of their corruption and incompetence became quite difficult to ignore and their strategies demonstrably ineffective.
So while Sanders didn’t win the nomination, he has, through persistence and organization, like Howard Dean before him able to achieve a level of success (50 State Strategy) in setting directions that may result in improved performance at the polls (if that’s really your goal) through the simple expedient of expanding democracy!
It’s right there in the name you dummies.
Here’s hoping this is at least some of what it appears to be.
Democrats vote to limit role of superdelegates in party nomination contests
by Jason Linkins, ThinkProgress
Aug 25, 2018
Officials at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in Chicago voted to radically alter their party’s superdelegate system, which has been the source of controversy in two of the past three presidential election cycles.
Previously, these party elders had an outsize role in determining the Democratic party’s presidential nominee. Going forward, superdelegates will serve in a “break in case of emergency” capacity, playing a role in determining a nominee only in a very few scenarios.
…
In previous contests, most of these delegates have been won within the states’ primary systems, and apportioned according to the rules governing each state’s primary or caucus. However, a substantial number of the overall body of delegates (over 700 in 2016) have been superdelegates — in most cases elected officials, but whose ranks also include various Democratic party grandees.These senior figures, unlike other delegates, are free to vote for whomever they wish in casting ballots for a presidential nominee, and their support often has been secured via lobbying and side deals — much to the chagrin of many party regulars.
…
The DNC’s new proposal would accord the superdelegates their determining power only in instances where the first round of voting on the convention failed to yield a nominee, a scenario of limited likelihood in the as the nominating process is currently practiced. This new role — as party brokers — essentially strikes a balance between the superdelegates’ symbolic place in their party’s hierarchy and the actual power with which they were vested — which has in recent years become the cause of considerable intra-party rancor.
…
(R)eduction of the superdelegates’ power contains its own controversies. As Cramer points out, the superdelegate process allowed the Democratic party to elevate women, members of the LGBT community, and people of color in their midst. Some who supported retaining the superdelegate system fretted that eliminating it would strip these marginalized voices of vital representation.It’s also likely that in the coming days, some will ruefully express regret that the presence of superdelegates is how a party avoids nominating someone like, say, Donald Trump — the theory being that had there been a coterie of Republican party elites similarly vested with this sort of power to alter the trajectory of a nomination, the reality-show mogul might have been kept from the presidential ballot.
This theory, of course, presumes that GOP superdelegates would behave differently than their Democratic counterparts, opting to intervene in the nominating process instead of sitting back and going with the will of voters.
It also makes some rather generous assumptions about Republican party elites having the level of conviction necessary to oppose an objectionable presidential candidate who’s nevertheless popular with voters. While it’s a pleasing sounding idea in theory, it has not been observed in nature in recent years.
Aug 26 2018
The Breakfast Club (Good Journalism)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
American women gain the right to vote, as the U.S. Constitution’s 19th Amendment takes effect; Investigators pinpoint the cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; Aviator Charles Lindbergh dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be ‘gotcha’ journalism, but it’s also good journalism.
Aug 26 2018
In Memoriam: John Sydney McCain (1936 – 2018)
Senator John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018)
Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Mary C. D. Hamilton (1915)Oh, Watchful Father who dost keep
Eternal vigil while we sleep
Guide those who navigate on high
Who through grave unknown perils fly,
Receive our oft-repeated prayer
For those in peril in the air.
Emma Mayhew Whiting (1943)
Aug 25 2018
My Sister’s Catholic Wedding
In youth and folly my sister married someone I can hardly characterise as a gentleman who happened to be at least ‘socially’ Catholic (my activist brother married Catholic too, I’ll have to tell you that one sometime) and as was customary in his family it was a full bore, sanctified, butts in the pews Church ceremony.
As I said, youth and folly. My sister decided to terminate their relationship and to bolster her case for custody of the kidlings she had to agree to get an annulment.
So weeks of mandatory counseling and months of separation later, but that’s not really the point. Annulment means the legal agreement (Canon Law) never existed, just like some kind of Whovian paradox.
It also made my niece and nephew thoroughgoing bastards but I seldom say that to their faces.
Don’t Just Impeach Trump. Annul His Presidency
Robert Reich
Friday, August 24, 2018
The only way I see the end of Trump is if there’s overwhelming evidence he rigged the 2016 election. In which case impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy. His presidency should be annulled.
Let me explain. Many people are convinced we’re already witnessing the beginning of the end of Trump.
In their view, bombshell admissions from Trump insiders with immunity from prosecution, combined with whatever evidence Mueller uncovers about Trump’s obstruction of justice and his aide’s collusion with the Russians, will all tip the scales.
Democrats will take back the House and begin an impeachment, and the evidence of impeachable offenses will put enough pressure on Republican senators to send Trump packing.
I don’t believe this for a moment.
First, the Senate has never in history convicted a president of impeachment.
Second, even if Democrats flip the House in November, Republicans will almost certainly remain in control of the Senate – and so far they’ve displayed the integrity of lizards.
Third, Fox News and the rest of the right-wing sleaze media will continue to distort and cover up whatever the evidence shows – convincing 35 to 40 percent of Americans, along with most Republicans, that Trump is the innocent victim of a plot to remove him.
Finally, Trump himself will never voluntarily resign, as did Nixon. He’ll lie and claim a conspiracy to unseat him.
He’s proven himself a superb conman, an entertainer-demagogue capable of sowing so much confusion and instigating so much hate and paranoia that he has already survived outrages that would have broken any garden-variety loathsome president – Helsinki, Charlottesville, children locked in cages at the border, firings and cover-ups, racist slurs, clear corruption.
In all likelihood, we’ll have him for another two and a half years.
Don’t bet the house on him losing in 2020, either. A malignant bullying megalomaniac who lies like most people breathe, and who’s able to suck the oxygen out of every news cycle, might pulverize any Democratic opponent.
Even if he loses in 2020, we’ll be fortunate if he concedes without being literally carried out of the Oval Office amid the stirrings of civil insurgency.
Oh, and let me remind you that even if he’s impeached, we’d still have his loathsome administration – Pence on down.
But lest you fall into a miasma of gloom, there’s another scenario – unlikely, but entirely possible.
Suppose, just suppose, Robert Mueller finds overwhelming and indisputable evidence that Trump conspired with Putin to rig the 2016 election, and the rigging determined the election’s outcome.
In other words, Trump’s presidency is not authorized under the United States Constitution.
Suppose these findings are so compelling that even Trump loyalists desert him, the Republican Party decides it has had enough, and Fox News calls for his impeachment.
What then? Impeachment isn’t enough.
Impeachment would remedy Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But impeachment would not remedy Trump’s unconstitutional presidency because it would leave in place his vice president, White House staff and Cabinet, as well as all the executive orders he issued and all the legislation he signed, and the official record of his presidency.
The only response to an unconstitutional presidency is to annul it. Annulment would repeal all of an unconstitutional president’s appointments and executive actions, and would eliminate the official record of the presidency.
Annulment would recognize that all such appointments, actions, and records were made without constitutional authority.
The Constitution does not specifically provide for annulment of an unconstitutional presidency. But read as a whole, the Constitution leads to the logical conclusion that annulment is the appropriate remedy for one.
After all, the Supreme Court declares legislation that doesn’t comport with the Constitution null and void, as if it had never been passed.
It would logically follow that the Court could declare all legislation and executive actions of a presidency unauthorized by the Constitution to be null and void, as if Trump had never been elected.
The Constitution also gives Congress and the states the power to amend the Constitution, thereby annulling or altering whatever provisions came before. Here, too, it would logically follow that Congress and the states could, through amendment, annul a presidency they determine to be unconstitutional.
As I’ve said, my betting is Trump remains president at least through 2020 – absent compelling and indisputable evidence he rigged the 2016 election.
But if such evidence comes forth, impeachment isn’t an adequate remedy because Trump’s presidency would be constitutionally illegitimate.
It should be annulled.
Aug 25 2018
Health and Fitness News
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Measles
Measles or rubeola is the most deadly childhood rash/fever illnesses caused by the virus, rubeola, and spreads very easily. Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent measles. It is highly contagious and spread easily through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes or by contact when the infected particles settle on surfaces. Sharing drinking glasses or eating utensils with an infected person increases the risk of infection. The virus can live on surfaces for several hours.
Measles is the leading cause of death in children. Approximately 89 780 people died from measles in 2016, mostly children under the age of 5 years old according to the World Health Organization. That was the first year the death toll from measles was under 100,000. The drop is attributed to an aggressive global vaccination program.
Measles outbreaks can result in epidemics that cause many deaths, especially among young, malnourished children. In countries where measles has been largely eliminated, cases imported from other countries remain an important source of infection.
Signs and symptoms
The first sign of measles is usually a high fever, which begins about 10 to 12 days after exposure to the virus, and lasts 4 to 7 days. A runny nose, a cough, red and watery eyes, and small white spots inside the cheeks can develop in the initial stage. After several days, a rash erupts, usually on the face and upper neck. Over about 3 days, the rash spreads, eventually reaching the hands and feet. The rash lasts for 5 to 6 days, and then fades. On average, the rash occurs 14 days after exposure to the virus (within a range of 7 to 18 days).
Most measles-related deaths are caused by complications associated with the disease. Serious complications are more common in children under the age of 5, or adults over the age of 30. The most serious complications include blindness, encephalitis (an infection that causes brain swelling), severe diarrhoea and related dehydration, ear infections, or severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia. Severe measles is more likely among poorly nourished young children, especially those with insufficient vitamin A, or whose immune systems have been weakened by HIV/AIDS or other diseases.
In populations with high levels of malnutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency, and a lack of adequate health care, about 3–6%, of measles cases result in death, and in displaced groups, up to 30% of cases result in death. Women infected while pregnant are also at risk of severe complications and the pregnancy may end in miscarriage or preterm delivery. People who recover from measles are immune for the rest of their lives.
Treatment
No specific antiviral treatment exists for measles virus.
Severe complications from measles can be avoided through supportive care that ensures good nutrition, adequate fluid intake and treatment of dehydration with WHO-recommended oral rehydration solution. This solution replaces fluids and other essential elements that are lost through diarrhoea or vomiting. Antibiotics should be prescribed to treat eye and ear infections, and pneumonia.
All children diagnosed with measles should receive two doses of vitamin A supplements, given 24 hours apart. This treatment restores low vitamin A levels during measles that occur even in well-nourished children and can help prevent eye damage and blindness. Vitamin A supplements have been shown to reduce the number of deaths from measles by 50%.
Prevention
Routine measles vaccination for children, combined with mass immunization campaigns in countries with high case and death rates, are key public health strategies to reduce global measles deaths. The measles vaccine has been in use for over 50 years. It is safe, effective and inexpensive. It costs approximately one US dollar to immunize a child against measles.
The measles vaccine is often incorporated with rubella and/or mumps vaccines. It is equally effective in the single or combined form. Adding rubella to measles vaccine increases the cost only slightly, and allows for shared delivery and administration costs.
In 2016, about 85% of the world’s children received 1 dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services – up from 72% in 2000. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks, as about 15% of vaccinated children fail to develop immunity from the first dose.
Currently in Europe there is a measles outbreak with approximately 41,000 cases reported. The out break is due to an increase of the number of people who not vaccinated.
Ukraine was the hardest hit among the 5 European countries covered in the WHO analysis, with more than 23,000 cases so far in 2018.
Six other countries in the region — Italy, Greece, Georgia, Russia, Serbia and France — have recorded more than 1,000 infections in adults and children in 2018.
Serbia reported 14 deaths related to the disease this year, the highest number of any country included. Thirty-seven people have died across Europe, according to WHO.
While 43 of the 53 member states suspended the endemic spread of measles — where the continued transmission of measles persists for more than 12 months — the WHO is still concerned about low immunization coverage in some countries as well as the quality of disease monitoring, factors that interrupt the spread of the disease.
There is a lot of misinformation about vaccine safety being spread through social media. It was recently reported that the same group of Russian, trolls who infiltrated the 2016 election, have taken to Twitter to sow division and distribute malicious content.
Scientists at George Washington University, in Washington DC, made the discovery while trying to improve social media communications for public health workers, researchers said. Instead, they found trolls and bots skewing online debate and upending consensus about vaccine safety.
The study discovered several accounts, now known to belong to the same Russian trolls who interfered in the US election, as well as marketing and malware bots, tweeting about vaccines.
Russian trolls played both sides, the researchers said, tweeting pro- and anti-vaccine content in a politically charged context. [..]
Russian trolls appeared to link vaccination to controversial issues in the US. Their vaccine-related content made appeals to God, or argued about race, class and animal welfare, researchers said. Often, the tweets targeted the legitimacy of the US government.
“Did you know there was secret government database of #Vaccine-damaged child? #VaccinateUS,” read one Russian troll tweet. Another said: “#VaccinateUS You can’t fix stupidity. Let them die from measles, and I’m for #vaccination!” [..]
“To me it’s actually impressive how well-organized and sophisticated the anti-vax movement has become,” said Dr Peter Hotez, the director of the Texas children’s hospital center for vaccine development at Baylor College of Medicine, and the father of an autistic child. Hotez, who maintains an active Twitter presence, said he struggled to identify whether Twitter accounts were human or bots.
“There are clearly some well-known anti-vax activists that I know to look out for and I know to block or to mute, but that’s a minority,” said Hotez. “A lot of it just seems to come out of nowhere, and I’m always surprised by that.” [..]
One of the most striking findings, (David) Broniatowski said, was an apparent attempt by Russian trolls to Astroturf a vaccine debate using the hashtag #VaccinateUS. Accounts identified as controlled by the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm backed by the Russian government, were almost exclusively responsible for content emerging under #VaccinateUS.
Some of the Russian trolls even specifically used a hashtag associated with Andrew Wakefield, the discredited former physician who published fraudulent papers linking vaccines with autism, such as #Vaxxed and #CDCWhistleblower.
Fortunately, here in the US most people believe vaccines are safe and have had their children vaccinated.