16 April 25 • 2019
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ver since Dr. Jeffrey Band gradu-
ated medical school at University 
of Michigan in 1973, he’
s been 
busy saving lives. Now semi-retired, the 
former chief of infectious diseases and 
international medicine at Beaumont 
Health spends time traveling and enjoy-
ing his family, but still makes plenty of 
time for his passions: seeing patients 
periodically, consulting with the health 
department and teaching medical 
students at Oakland and Wayne State 
universities. Here he talks about the 
Michigan measles outbreak. 

What about those who say “no one 
in Michigan has died because of the 
measles, so it’
s hard to feel it’
s really so 
dangerous.
” 
For every 1,000-2,000 cases of measles, 
there may be a death. In the pre-vaccine 
era, when there were a million or so 
cases of measles annually, there used to 
be several thousand deaths per year due 
to measles. At the last count, Michigan’
s 
outbreak numbered 43. It’
s a matter of 
numbers — hopefully, we won’
t get to 
those numbers. 

Some people think the MMR vaccine 
is just as dangerous or more dangerous 
than the measles. What’
s your opinion?
It’
s almost unheard of for someone to die 
from the MMR vaccine. MMR is one of 
our safest vaccines. In comparison, 1 of 
every 1,000-2,000 people who develop 
the measles will die. I would think pur-
posely exposing someone and deliber-
ately trying to contract the measles is like 
playing with fire. 
My own children were certainly 
immunized. I had no hesitation what-
soever. Of course, I want to protect my 
family members to the best of my ability. 

Jewish law says to protect ourselves and 
our neighbors.
Except for people who cannot be 
immunized or who had a previous 
severe reaction to an MMR, I cannot 
think of a single reason not to immunize. 
Some people seem to think that not 
vaccinating is a passive choice. I disagree; 
not immunizing is an active decision to 
remain susceptible to serious diseases. 

How often do you see complications 
from the MMR vaccine?
About 5-10 percent of people will devel-
op a low-grade fever or a small rash 
from the vaccine. Because it’
s a live vac-
cine, there’
s a small chance that a flu-like 
illness will appear after administration. 
It is extremely rare, but some people also 
have serious reactions to the vaccine, in 
which case, of course, they should not 
get a second dose. 
Adults who receive the MMR can 
sometimes develop painful joints for a 
while or experience a decrease in their 
platelet count although it will return to 
normal within a week or so. 
An extremely rare reaction of the 
MMR is febrile seizures, which can 
occur in approximately 1 out of 2,500-
5,000 doses. 
Some people cannot receive live viral 
vaccines — pregnant woman, patients 
with immune-compromised conditions 
and people who’
ve experienced a severe 
reaction to a previous vaccine. 

What about reports about a link 
between the MMR and autism?
This claim can be traced to a 1998 
publication by Andrew Wakefield who 
had a small number of kids enrolled in 
a study where he supposedly found a 
link between vaccines and autism. That 

study spread and spread — it was more 
contagious than measles! Later, the 
publication was proved fraudulent with 
manipulated data. Some of the parents 
of the children in that study even came 
forward saying things like, “That never 
occurred with my child!” Almost every 
co-author on the paper retracted their 
name. The report was removed from 
medical publications, but by then it had 
already been published. Wakefield was 
found in a court of law to have commit-
ted fraud among other things and his 
license was revoked. 
The silver lining to this whole story 
was that it spurred further studies on the 
topic. The largest test studied 500,000 
patients in Denmark and found no 
association whatsoever with autism. In 
fact, an American study in 2015 followed 
100,000 children with an increased risk 
of autism — they had a family member 
with autism — and still found no cor-
relation. In fact, it was discovered there 
was a lower risk for autism in kids who 
were vaccinated, even those who had 
a sibling with autism, than those who 
weren’
t. 

It seems many people here who got the 
measles were vaccinated. Why didn’
t 
the MMR work for them? 
At least 97 percent of people develop 
immunity after receiving the vacci-
nations at the right time. There is still 
approximately 3 percent of the pop-
ulation it just won’
t work for, people 
who would receive the benefits of herd 
immunity if most of the community is 
vaccinated. 
Additionally, vaccines are complicated 
things. The MMR contains two parts 
— the live part and then the solution it’
s 
put in. Until the two parts are mixed, 

one part is kept in the freezer and one 
in the refrigerator during the entire time 
it’
s transported from the company to 
the doctor’
s office or health department. 
If those temperatures are mixed up, it 
could destroy the vaccine. 
The MMR is also light-sensitive. Once 
it’
s drawn up, if it’
s exposed to light for 
more than a few hours, it could become 
inactivated. 
Pediatricians have had a lot of expe-
rience with giving childhood vaccines, 
but now adults who only received one 
shot as recommended when they were 
kids are going to their internists for their 
booster, but how much do these doctors 
know about “childhood” vaccinations? 
Do they know how to store them prop-
erly? There is so much involved that 
some physicians are not comfortable 
with administering vaccinations and 
refer their patients elsewhere. 

Why are close-knit communities like 
Orthodox Jews most prone to getting 
measles?
Two main reasons. One, there’
s a higher 
rate of vaccine refusal these days, in gen-
eral. It’
s not just these groups — you find 
it everywhere, in every community, in 
many select populations. 
Most importantly, this population is 
one big extended family, attend many 
common events and go to synagogues or 
places of worship as a daily part of their 
lives. There’
s a lot more potential for 
spread in these close-knit communities. 

Can the outbreak be contained and 
eradicated?
Absolutely. The local health depart-
ments have done a wonderful job iden-
tifying the sites of exposure, finding 
people who may be at risk and getting 
them evaluated. Some people then 
received a vaccine, which is still effec-
tive within 72 hours after exposure, and 
were isolated just in case to keep them 
from potentially spreading the disease 
to others. 
I can’
t predict when it will end, of 
course, and I do get nervous with 
Passover coming up and the family 
events that come with it, more people 
traveling, etc. But once we get past this 
period, I do think it will get under con-
trol. It’
s due to a diligent system of sur-
veillance and intervention — it works. 
We eradicated measles once before in 
2000, and I have hope we will do it 
again. ■

jews d
in 
the

The Scoop on 
MEASLES

Q&A with Dr. Jeffrey Band,
an infectious disease expert.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dr. Jeffrey Band