Needless deaths: Mumps cases soar by 600%

In recent weeks 62 people have died in Samoa’s measles epidemic. Most of these needless deaths are among children, 54 were aged four or younger.

The government of the Pacific Island nation, population 196,000, have told most workers to stay home.

Unvaccinated Samoans have been told to stay indoors and fly a red flag so vaccination workers might call and give them a simple, uncomplicated life-preserving injection.

Prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi criticised those who had not been vaccinated: “They seem to take a kind of lackadaisical attitude to all the warnings.”

It might be comforting to imagine this a faraway issue but it is not. Mumps cases in Limerick have increased by almost 600% in a year. Like the Samoan measles outbreak, young people aged 15-24 are most vulnerable.

This back-to-the-dark-ages foolishness has been linked to the lower uptake of the MMR vaccination from 1998.

Personal responsibility is of course a factor but those who spread fear and misinformation about vaccinations play a shameful role in this regression. So much so it may be time to consider mandatory vaccinations.