Back in 1969, with the first man landing on the moon, the first TV show on a future doctor’s mind was “Star Trek,” not the “Brady Bunch.” In fact, as a child, I was in awe of Doctor McCoy and his tricorder, and even now, I see the latest advances in artificial intelligence and robotics and I think of McCoy operating on the brain without an incision or instruments. We are getting there. The "Brady Bunch," by contrast, was a laughable comedy promoting good cheer, if it taught a lesson at all it was about what we called then the nuclear family, certainly nothing about health or medicine.

The 13th episode, airing in December 1969 was called “Is There a Doctor in the House.” No one took it seriously; if it minimized the impact of measles, it certainly didn’t do so on a scientific basis. And, if kids like me also took measles too lightly it was because we didn’t know any better. In fact, when I look back on my cavalier attitude towards childhood diseases, I cringe at my own ignorance.

I am cringing even more now that the anti-vaxxer movement is using this episode to minimize measles, the wildly contagious, frequently complicated disease. Social media, as usual, is playing an important role in spreading untruths, using this situational comedy, which wasn’t taken seriously back in 1969, to somehow provide evidence that measles itself wasn’t a problem. I am proud of Maureen McCormick, who played outgoing Marcia in the show, for fighting back. She has recognized the seriousness of the virus and acknowledged getting really sick from it herself before having her own child immunized against it.

'BRADY BUNCH' STAR MAUREEN MCCORMICK SLAMS ANTI-VAXXERS FOR USING MARCIA MEASLES MEME

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “In the decade before 1963 when a vaccine became available, nearly all children got measles by the time they were 15 years of age. It is estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year. Also each year, among reported cases, an estimated 400 to 500 people died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 suffered encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from measles.”

The treatment for anti-vaxx hysteria is education, along with a healthy fear, not of a safe vaccine, but of a risky virus.

So measles was clearly nothing to be taken lightly. In 1978, the CDC set a goal of promoting the new MMR vaccine to help eliminate native measles by 1982. They missed their proposed deadline but did manage to succeed by 2000. Ever since then, measles cases have been brought in solely from other countries by travelers, primarily infecting our own unvaccinated population.

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The anti-vaxxers, ignoring multiple studies showing that the MMR vaccine is safe, and fueled by a defrocked doctor whose study on 12 autistic children was invalidated and ultimately withdrawn, have caused actual harm, banging open a door for measles resurgence that has long been closed. It is only a matter of time before measles takes root here before we have more to worry about than simply stopping travelers from seeding an under-vaccinated population. It is starting to look like this year may be the tipping point to a sad return towards our pre-vaccine past.

The treatment for anti-vaxx hysteria is education, along with a healthy fear, not of a safe vaccine, but of a risky virus. If the "Brady Bunch" were all smiling and laughing in the measles episode, that was because they were all actors who really didn’t have the measles.

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