This is a remake of a well-known chart produced by the Wall Street Journal graphics team (published Feb. 11, 2015). The primary change with this version is to regionalize the states, illustrating apparent disparities and possible underreporting of cases in Southern states (pre-1963). Also, the original color scale was abandoned in favor of scaled points. A jitter was added to evoke Measles blisters, furthered by plotting on the image of a child’s back.
Charted are incidence rates per 100,000 population based on historical population estimates (the chart should say this).
Data imported and plotted from R into an SVG device, then refined in Adobe Illustrator.
Despite being not super dangerous, measles is probably one of the most contagious diseases. I’ve heard of people contracting it by simply delivering something to a home of someone with measles.
Edit: you should get vaccinated for measles if you aren’t already. They work and won’t give you autism
They thought I had measles in junior high… Turns out I’m just horribly allergic to eggplant.
My great aunt caught measles when she was pregnant with my great uncle. He was born deaf because of it, his inner ear physiology never formed. It was, and is, still pretty dangerous despite modern medicine.
Would be curious to see this for the years since then, especially the 2000s (and beyond), when somehow antivax became a thing. Is that data available to you?
I don’t like the scale: 2000, 1000, 10. It doesn’t even imply a logarithmic scale. The issue is that it doesn’t illustrate how much of a decline it really was.
Don’t ruin RFK Jr’s bs narrative of vaccines being unproven and untested…
Measles previously caused WAY more deaths and permanent disabilities than people think – and if the new administration gets their way, will make great again – even just from their rhetoric not actions which alone has the effect of scaring parents from keeping their immunisations up.
Hopefully his stuff will all get shot down and we won’t have to deal with that fool for too long.
Man I’d like to see it be more effective than that tbh
I got the vaccine as a child (1970s) and still got the measles later. It was miserable. Glad to see it vanishing. Hope the anti-vaxers don’t bring it back.
You know, it almost looks like vaccines are beneficial and help prevent serious illness, but based on what dear leader and super doge man say, I must be reading the charts wrong…
Vaccines are a modern miracle and have saved more lives than almost any other measure. Few people piss me off more than antivaxxers
Really visually effective! Nice job OP.
Don’t worry, trump and co will being those dots back..
![[OC] The Impact of the Measles Vaccine in the United States, 1938-1988](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/aa80gpn9yn7e1-1875x1024.png)
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This is a remake of a well-known chart produced by the Wall Street Journal graphics team (published Feb. 11, 2015). The primary change with this version is to regionalize the states, illustrating apparent disparities and possible underreporting of cases in Southern states (pre-1963). Also, the original color scale was abandoned in favor of scaled points. A jitter was added to evoke Measles blisters, furthered by plotting on the image of a child’s back.
Charted are incidence rates per 100,000 population based on historical population estimates (the chart should say this).
Data imported and plotted from R into an SVG device, then refined in Adobe Illustrator.
Project Tyco, University of Pittsburg
[https://www.tycho.pitt.edu/search/](https://www.tycho.pitt.edu/search/)
Mirror at Wolfram Cloud:
[https://datarepository.wolframcloud.com/resources/Project-Tycho-Level-1-Data](https://datarepository.wolframcloud.com/resources/Project-Tycho-Level-1-Data)
Original chart, Wall Street Journal (2015):
[https://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/](https://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/)
Despite being not super dangerous, measles is probably one of the most contagious diseases. I’ve heard of people contracting it by simply delivering something to a home of someone with measles.
Edit: you should get vaccinated for measles if you aren’t already. They work and won’t give you autism
They thought I had measles in junior high… Turns out I’m just horribly allergic to eggplant.
My great aunt caught measles when she was pregnant with my great uncle. He was born deaf because of it, his inner ear physiology never formed. It was, and is, still pretty dangerous despite modern medicine.
Would be curious to see this for the years since then, especially the 2000s (and beyond), when somehow antivax became a thing. Is that data available to you?
I don’t like the scale: 2000, 1000, 10. It doesn’t even imply a logarithmic scale. The issue is that it doesn’t illustrate how much of a decline it really was.
Don’t ruin RFK Jr’s bs narrative of vaccines being unproven and untested…
Measles previously caused WAY more deaths and permanent disabilities than people think – and if the new administration gets their way, will make great again – even just from their rhetoric not actions which alone has the effect of scaring parents from keeping their immunisations up.
[https://www.immune.org.nz/diseases/measles#:~:text=Risks,-Complications%20from%20measles](https://www.immune.org.nz/diseases/measles#:~:text=Risks,-Complications%20from%20measles)
RFK: “Hold my beer”
Hopefully his stuff will all get shot down and we won’t have to deal with that fool for too long.
Man I’d like to see it be more effective than that tbh
I got the vaccine as a child (1970s) and still got the measles later. It was miserable. Glad to see it vanishing. Hope the anti-vaxers don’t bring it back.
You know, it almost looks like vaccines are beneficial and help prevent serious illness, but based on what dear leader and super doge man say, I must be reading the charts wrong…
Vaccines are a modern miracle and have saved more lives than almost any other measure. Few people piss me off more than antivaxxers
Really visually effective! Nice job OP.
Don’t worry, trump and co will being those dots back..
Not sure all those states are “Southern”…
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