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“Measles Mayhem”: Where is this going?

“Measles Mayhem”: Where is this going?

The headlines are full of measles at the moment, in the way that always reeks of coordination.

The measles outbreak in the US has been simmering away for weeks, but was brought back to the front burner in the last few days. The Daily Mail headlining:

America on verge of measles MAYHEM: Hundreds feared to be infected in California and Arizona outbreaks as US suffers year’s worth of cases in two months

It’s not just Arizona and California either. Chicago, Florida and Philadelphia all have “outbreaks” of their own.

An article in the Atlantic headlined “The Return of Measles”, claims there have been measles outbreaks in 19 separate states.

Meanwhile, on our side of the pond, a measles outbreak that started in Birmingham in January has apparently spread north and south. The UK’s total cases are apparently up to ~733.

In Ireland, the scary story is that one person on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Dublin tested positive for measles a couple of days ago. That number has since risen to three! The authorities are desperately hunting down anyone who was on that plane.

That’s three measles scare-stories in three different countries at the same time, with maybe more on the way

To quote Ian Fleming, “once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence and three times is enemy action”.

So what is this “enemy action”? Where is this story going?

First, let’s get this out of the way: This is not a public health scare. Not a real one. Measles is not especially dangerous, with a reported case fatality ratio of about 0.02% in Western countries, meaning for every 5000 people who get measles 4999 will survive.

So what’s with the scary headlines? What’s the endgame here?

To answer that we need to ask “who are the media are blaming?”, and as with most issues these days there are two answers to that.

Yes, it’s another binary.

On the one hand, the “left” arm of media is busily blaming “anti-vaxxers”. The “right” arm of the media is blaming illegal immigrants.

Let’s examine the left side first.

Last week the New York Times headlined:

Vaccination Rates Dipped for Years. Now, There’s a Measles Outbreak in Britain.

Then, two days ago the Los Angeles Times reported:

More parents are delaying their kids’ vaccines, and it’s alarming pediatricians

The Louisville Courier-Journal has an article in a similar vein, claiming “Covid denialism allows other infectious diseases to spread”.

In the UK the “liberal” press is laying the blame at the feet of the so-called “Wakefield generation” (referencing Dr Andrew Wakefield, who publicized a possible link between MMR and autism in the 1990s).

In Canada, TVO.me, a not-for-profit run by the Ontario Board of Education, opines “With measles making a comeback globally, we need to talk about vaccine hesitancy”

Having established “blame”, is there a proposed “solution”?

Of course — making the MMR vaccine mandatory.

The UK’s NHS has already launched a major MMR vaccine drive, with accompanying talk in the media claiming “Want to get rid of measles? Make the vaccine compulsory for kids”

(As noted in our previous article on measles, there is a new “vaccine” in the works combining MMR and Covid vaccines into a single nasal spray. Look for that to get more media attention soon.)

Measles: The First Panic Narrative of 2024?

In Canada – where there has barely been an outbreak yet – CTV discussed the possibility of mandatory measles vaccines four days ago.

That’s one side of the argument, which can be roughly summed up as “Anti-vaxxers are fueling measles outbreaks, make vaccines mandatory”

What’s the other side?

The other is blaming illegal immigrants

The “outbreak” in Chicago has been traced to an “overcrowded” migrant centre.

Two separate articles in the Daily Mail cite “experts” who blame the nationwide “outbreak” on the “open southern border”:

Biden’s border is leaving America open to drug-resistant outbreaks, experts warn – as second measles case is confirmed in Chicago migrant shelter

They’ve been setting the stage for this particular “issue” since at least last summer, when USA Today warned that New York’s Asylum Seekers were a potential “public health crisis”, while the UK tabloids were talking about TB outbreaks in asylum centres.

Their proposed “solution”? Control the borders. How? Why, with biometric visa tracking and digital IDs obviously.

This was first suggested years ago. When Trump was campaigning in 2016 he promised what they now call the “digital border wall”, powered by AI. Similar systems are already in the works in other places around the world. According to the DHS website, they are already using biometric facial recognition at border crossings.

In December 2023, the UK’s former Lord Chancellor David Gauke wrote:

Do you really want to stop the boats? If so, you should back digital ID cards.

As I wrote in my piece 2024: The Year Global Government Takes Shape, digital identity systems have long been the elite’s catch-all solution, including to stopping illegal immigration.

2024: The Year Global Government Takes Shape

That’s the other side of the argument. Essentially, “Illegal immigrants are bringing disease over the border, we must institute AI-powered biometric digital identity checkpoints to stop them”

This split-blame approach existed when we published our previous Measles article back in January, the difference is now the solutions are coming out, a manipulated non-choice between two different dystopian tools of control.

That’s the false binary: are the anti-vaxxers or immigrants to blame? Should we introduce digital identity systems to secure the border or mandatory vaccines to increase immunity?

Whichever side you pick, you lay the groundwork for both, because by your taking a position you have legitimized the false predicate of the argument. That’s the rhetorical trick.

Both sides build their position on the same underlying assumption – i.e. there is a measles outbreak and we must do something about it – and both sides play on existing biases to scapegoat a minority, hoping to leverage that division into more authoritarian social controls of one kind or another.

Which way modern man – digital IDs or vaccine mandates?

Choose neither, or you’ll end up with both.

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