In the modern era we have managed to overcome many diseases, but according to this CNN article the threat remains. The article talks about the states in which the cases occurred. It also talked about the symptoms, death rates, and treatment of the plague. The average number of plague cases in the U.S. every year is 7 this also fluctuates greatly from time to time sometimes reaching 15-17 cases in a year. Plagues are not even a threat to the average person today especially within the U.S. where the rate is literally less than 1 in a million. The article however states that it isnt proven as to what exactly is causing this specific increase in cases of the plague.
The threat is very small but we worsen the situation by using our free speech as citizens to promote baseless conspiracy theories to try and increase public distrust in vaccines and medicine in general. This movement called “Anti-vaxer” can be the start of a great catastrophe if they are successful. They use “alternative facts” to try and make it seem as though the very medications to stop or prevent these diseases will actually give you the disease in mention or give you some other illness so that the doctors can make profit off of your return to the hospital. In addition to this a common argument is that the vaccines carry numerous toxins and harmful ingredients particularly to children and are therefore unsafe to consumption and should be banned or restricted.
An example of a pseudo-science website bent on making an enemy out of vaccinations is this article from “A Voice For Change”. This article mostly tries to list components of vaccines and doesn’t tell us any reason to believe these are causing harm it then goes on to state some wild facts afterwards such as “It’s rare that ANY kid completely escapes from some effect caused by the toxic materials in vaccines”. There is a journal from the NCBI that responds to this here.
Thanks to the “anti-vaxer” community there is already a surge in diseases thought of before to be eliminated. My best example being the increase in measles. This article by the CNN goes into how measles made a return and how this is likely due to people being hesitant to take the vaccine. This distrust being caused by this community could later on lead to more outbreaks possibly even greater numbers of plague cases.
This movement is largely based in the U.S. as a result this puts Minnesota at direct risk to exposure not only to this rhetoric but to these diseases aswell. Even if we were to say that this movement never gains any traction in Minnesota and that this state remains believing in vaccinations we still have a moral obligation as well as a clear interest to make sure other states do well alongside us especially those in close proximity.
History at Normandale 