A woman who caught measles and suffered its brutal symptoms despite being vaccinated has issued a warning over the disease. The childhood MMR vaccine is 97 percent effective at stopping transmission, but measles is so infectious it can still cause breakthrough infections.
Marcy, a teacher from Ontario, was exposed when one of her unvaccinated students came to school with the disease. The child fell sick and after diagnosis, health officials told Marcy and her class to isolate for up to 21 days. Marcy said she had been doubled-vaccinated as a child and received a booster after she was exposed, but over the next six days, she developed a fever that continued to worsen. Then the characteristic rash came. It erupted all over her face, and spread down her neck to her back, arms and legs — covering them in bright red spots. ‘I had a booster, and I still developed the infection — in fact I started to get a fever six days after my booster,’ Marcy said on TikTok.
Marcy, pictured above, developed the measles after being exposed to an infected unvaccinated child in the school where she worked in Ontario, Canada. ‘I got a mild fever at first, and then it got worse and worse, instead of getting better, which should have been the first clue.’ It comes amid a major outbreak in Texas, where more than 250 people have been infected while at least 29 have been hospitalized and two are reported to have died. Of the patients, just five (or 2 percent) were vaccinated. And an outbreak in Ontario that has sickened at least 177 people, mostly children at the state’s schools. Marcy is a patient in this outbreak.
Of these patients, just eight were vaccinated. The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine prevents infections in the vast majority of cases, but the CDC says online that about three in 100 people who receive the vaccine could still be infected. These patients tend to suffer a more mild infection, however, and avoid the worst effects of measles including encephalitis, or brain swelling, and death. Marcy, who revealed her case on TikTok, said that she had received two doses of the MMR vaccine as a child — which are administered at the ages of 12 months and four to six years.
But blood tests in the hospital revealed she had no antibodies against the virus. Normally, people who are fully vaccinated against measles will have antibodies in their blood, although in some cases these may not be picked up in tests. Physicians gave her a booster dose against measles and discharged her. It is possible for immunity from the vaccine to wane over time, particularly in patients who are immunocompromised. It is not clear whether Marcy had any underlying conditions. Revealing her diagnosis online, she said: ‘Hello, so I have, the measles’, before gesturing to her rash-covered face.
Marcy is pictured above attending Taylor Swift’s Eras tour more than a month before she was diagnosed with the disease. There is no risk that she could have been infected at the time. Your browser does not support iframes. She added in a comment: ‘I was vaccinated as a child but my [tests] showed no evidence of immunity. They recommended a booster.’ Marcy said doctors initially thought her temperature was caused by the norovirus, before the rash erupted — leading to a measles diagnosis. Your browser does not support iframes.
She didn’t feel the rash appear, but said that after a few days it started to itch. She said: ‘I developed a rash without even feeling it. ‘I was at home, minding my business, and then my husband came home and took a look at my face and said, “What the heck happened to your face?!”. ‘And I looked in the mirror and it’s got a little worse, I am hoping the rash starts to get better tomorrow.’
The Taylor Swift super-fan is pictured above before she was diagnosed with the disease. The rash lasted for about five days before clearing, she said in the clip that was posted in mid-February and has been viewed nearly 20,000 times. She was able to return to work five days after her rash appeared, which is when someone is no longer infectious for the virus. But said she was frequently exhausted and would come home from work and sleep immediately every day.
Vaccination rates against measles have fallen in recent years amid false claims that the vaccine causes autism and mandates for Covid shots. In Ontario, only about 90 percent of residents have been vaccinated against measles — statistics suggest. While in Gaines County, Texas, at the center of America’s latest outbreak, only about 82 percent of people have been vaccinated against the disease.
