10 March

Here’s something less well known about the measles vaccine, that makes it even more of a good idea. When they started vaccinating kids for measles, child mortality dropped significantly. But it wasn’t just because kids weren’t getting measles. It’s called heterologous immunity, the vaccine provides cross-protection against other diseases too. The flu vaccine for example does the same against heart disease. The shingles vaccine too. My advice to anybody is to get every vaccine you qualify for, for any disease. Cross-protection will come into play, even for longer-term things like dementia and heart disease. Some scientists have even suggested giving everybody MMR (measles) boosters, to fight Covid. Get your MMR shots, if you haven’t already. Measles is spreading worldwide, and is extremely nasty. If you’ve had measles, even ask your GP to order serology tests to see if you are still immune, and get more MMR shots if not. It will likely also protect you from the nastier side of Covid, and a range of other things.