The financial implications of the US measles outbreaks  Earlier
today, the CDC released a report about the measles outbreaks
that have been occurring across the country since the beginning
of the year. (Hat tip to USA Today‘s Liz Szabo for this story.)
I wrote a fair amount about measles in my book, and one reason
measles outbreaks are so scary (and so difficult to contain) is
that measles is the most infectious microbe known to man–it’s
transmission rate is around 90 percent. It has also killed more
children than any other disease in history.  If you’re skeptical
about the correlation between measles vaccination rates and the
spread of the disease, or about the danger deliberately
unvaccinated members of the population pose to infants, you
should check out the CDC’s figures. They’re pretty stunning:  *
There have been 118 reported measles cases in the first nineteen
weeks of the year — which is the highest number of infections
for that period since 1996. That’s particularly noteworthy
because, as the CDC poi