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A woman from Washington state died of measles last week. NPR’s Kelly McEvers talks to Seattle Times reporter JoNel Aleccia about the first confirmed measles death in the United States in 12 years.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Now to the first confirmed measles death in the U.S. in 12 years. The Washington State Department of Health announced last week that a woman who died this spring had pneumonia caused by measles. So far this year, 178 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the disease. The news comes during an ongoing debate about vaccinations. California has passed a law making it much more difficult for parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids. JoNel Aleccia is a health reporter with The Seattle Times, and she joins us from KUOW in Seattle to talk about the case in Washington state. And JoNel, tell us about this woman. How did she get the measles?
JONEL ALECCIA: Well, health officials tell us that she was exposed to the measles in January. We had an outbreak in Clallam County, in the northwestern corner of our state. And she went to a health facility at that time, and she was in the center at the same time as someone else who was later confirmed to have measles.
MCEVERS: And had she been vaccinated for measles?
ALECCIA: You know, her vaccination status is uncertain. Her mother tells health officials that she was vaccinated as a child, but they don’t have any of the documentation that proves it. And so she’s technically classified as kind of an unknown vaccination status. But just after she was exposed, the young woman was tested, and she was found to have antibodies against measles, enough that would’ve protected a healthy person. But she also had multiple underlying health conditions. And so her immune system was suppressed, and she was vulnerable to the infection anyway.
MCEVERS: And this happened in Clallam County, Wash. That’s up at the top of the state. Tell us about it. You know, what’s the county like, and what’s the vaccination rate like there?
ALECCIA: The vaccination rate in Clallam County was quite a bit lower than other places in the state when we looked earlier this year when this outbreak occurred. After, a kindergartner at a local who was exposed to an unvaccinated man in his 50s – she went to a school with high rates of parents who opted out of vaccination. And so when that little girl was diagnosed with measles, the vaccination rate shot up.
MCEVERS: And so we know places like states like California and Oregon, in some places, have really high rates of non-vaccination. How does Washington state, then, compare to other states nationwide?
ALECCIA: Washington is pretty much in line with the rest of the nation. However, like other places across the U.S., we have pockets of places where people are less likely to be vaccinated, and Clallam County is certainly one of those places.
MCEVERS: You actually reported that after last winter’s outbreak at Disneyland – that was linked to Disneyland – vaccination rates actually went up in Washington state. What happened there?
ALECCIA: Well, you know, there was an awful lot of discussion both locally and nationwide about vaccination. And so people just started getting their kids the shots. And we had a big discussion because we had a bill in the legislature that would have done away with the personal belief exemption. It ultimately failed, but the conversation certainly sparked people to look at their own kids’ vaccination status.
MCEVERS: And this outbreak that happened in Washington state that affected this little girl and this woman in her 20s who’s now died, those were unrelated to the outbreak at Disneyland. Is that right?
ALECCIA: Exactly. We did have two cases in Washington state that were related to Disneyland, but this outbreak wasn’t.
MCEVERS: And do you feel like this most recent death is now starting a conversation anew in Washington state?
ALECCIA: Well, you know, we’ve had such a conversation here for such a long time that I think it’s just continuing it. It’s a very heated topic here, as elsewhere. And judging by the comments that we’ve received in response to our story and that the state has received, there are people very strongly entrenched on both sides of the issue.
MCEVERS: Well, JoNel Aleccia, a health reporter with The Seattle Times, thank you so much.
ALECCIA: Oh, thanks for having me.
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Burt Shavitz, the eccentric co-founder of Burt’s Bees skin care products, has died at age 80. His bearded face is on your lip balm.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
The Burt of Burt’s Bees has died. Burt Shavitz was an actual beekeeper who co-founded the company. Today, it’s a brand known around the world for lip balm, lotions and baby products. Shavitz died of respiratory complications yesterday in Bangor, Maine. He was 80 years old. As NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports, he was an eccentric nature lover.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Even though he’s the bearded, cap wearing face of the company, the real Burt Shavitz was not interested in lip balm or moisturizer and definitely not big business. His passions were bees, his golden retrievers and privacy. In the early years, he sold honey out of his van on the side of the road in Maine as he told filmmaker Jody Shapiro in the documentary “Burt’s Buzz.”
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “BURT’S BUZZ”)
BURT SHAVITZ: There was no company. My bees were the company. My truck was the company. My chainsaw was the company.
BLAIR: Then he met Roxanne Quimby. She was hitchhiking during the summer of 1984. She told NPR Burt the bee man, as he was known, offered her a ride in his pickup and the two began a romantic relationship.
ROXANNE QUIMBY: He’s kind of bizarre with his long, curly, flowing hair and very independent kind of a fellow, thinks for himself.
BLAIR: But she’s the one who thought about business. Quimby started making candles from Burt’s unused beeswax. They started making other products like soap and the lip balm, a big seller at crafts fairs. In the early days, Burt’s Bees was very do-it-yourself.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “BURT’S BUZZ”)
QUIMBY: We had one high school boy and he was our accountant. He was on the math team, so he was qualified to do – run the accounting department. He was 14.
SHAVITZ: And made deposits.
QUIMBY: He made…
SHAVITZ: And wanted to wear a suit – and wanted to wear a white shirt and tie to work every day.
BLAIR: Clothes Burt Shavitz probably never wore himself. Shavitz was raised in Great Neck, N.Y. His father and grandfather were in the graphic arts business. In the 1960s, Shavitz worked as a freelance photographer, shooting images of the civil rights movement and artists for The New York Times and Life magazine. With a small inheritance from his grandfather, he bought land in Maine and became a beekeeper.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “BURT’S BUZZ”)
SHAVITZ: And living on the land and having the opportunity to see the seasons is part of the joy of life as far as I’m concerned.
BLAIR: Shavitz and Quimby eventually parted ways and not happily. In 1999, she bought him out for $130,000, according to The New Yorker. She later sold most of her share to a private equity firm for more than $140 million. She reportedly gave Shavitz $4 million. Burt’s Bees was sold again to the Clorox Company for nearly a billion dollars. Today, the products are sold in over 50 countries. Shavitz was compensated for the use of his image on the label, and he was paid to make special appearances to promote the brand. On one such trip to Taiwan, Shavitz visited a beekeeper he knew there. Mariah Eckhardt, the marketing director of Burt’s Bees, says it was quite a sight.
MARIAH ECKHARDT: The rest of the people that were there were all covered in all of this kind of bee protective gear and he just kind of walked right in. And he would have hundreds of bees crawling on his hands, and he used to say you don’t need all this equipment if you know how to handle bees.
BLAIR: Burt Shavitz likely had enough money to live however and wherever he wanted. He preferred a remote cabin in the Maine woods.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “BURT’S BUZZ”)
SHAVITZ: A good day is when no one shows up and you don’t have to go anywhere.
BLAIR: He was, to be sure, the reluctant face of a giant personal care products brand. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
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For Nik Dahl, fan of the U.S. Women’s soccer team, Attorney General Loretta Lynch saved the sport of soccer by exposing corrupt FIFA leaders. To show his appreciation, he brought her to the Women’s World Cup Final — well, a 3-foot cutout of her face that is.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Most people watching the World Cup last night would say Carli Lloyd was the most valuable player. The Olympic gold medalist scored three goals in the first 16 minutes of the match.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Quick shot – goal
(APPLAUSE)
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
The fans were going wild in Vancouver, to say the least, cheering for Lloyd and her teammates, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan.
NIK DAHL: Our section had a lot of cut cutouts of Abby and Alex and Carli.
SIEGEL: But fan Nik Dahl chose to celebrate a different woman.
DAHL: My head was Attorney General Loretto Lynch.
MCEVERS: That’s right. He held a huge cardboard cutout of the face of the new U.S. attorney general.
DAHL: It’s about 3 feet tall, and it’s a lot of hair because Loretta has a lot of hair (laughter). But her face is smiling, and she looks beautiful.
SIEGEL: Dahl says he wanted to show his appreciation for the steps Lynch has taken to keep soccer honest, as in the corruption charges she unveiled against soccer’s governing body in May.
DAHL: I hope that she can know that we are thankful, as fans, for what she did. And it’s personally affecting to a lot of us. It’s a very local thing to us, and it’s nice to know that someone’s trying to make a difference there.
MCEVERS: And while some fans needed a little explanation about the face he was holding, Dahl says most reacted well.
DAHL: This cutout was a rock star. Everyone wanted a picture with it. I had to pose for many, many pictures. It was a lot of fun, and it brought a smile to a lot of people’s faces.
SIEGEL: Nik Dahl points out that neither the U.S. men nor women have lost a game since those charges were made on May 27.
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Most of the people who got measles in last year’s outbreaks hadn’t been vaccinated with the MMR vaccine. Photo illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Photo illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Nothing like a good measles outbreak to get people thinking more kindly about vaccines.
One third of parents say they think vaccines have more benefit than they did a year ago, according to a poll conducted in May.
Credit: NPR, Source: C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, 2015
That’s compared to the 5 percent of parents who said they now think vaccines have fewer benefits and 61 percent who think the benefits are the same.
Vaccine safety also got a boost, with 25 percent of parents saying they believe vaccines are safer than they thought a year ago, compared to 7 percent of parents who think they’re less safe. Sixty-eight percent didn’t change their minds.bee
The numbers came from a poll of 1,416 parents around the country conducted by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
So far this year 178 people have come down with measles, and many became infected after visiting two Disney theme parks in California, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of those people were not vaccinated.
Credit: NPR, Source: C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, 2015
Even though the Disney outbreaks got wide attention, 2014 was actually worse for measles, with 23 outbreaks including 383 cases among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio. In both 2014 and this year, measles is thought to have been brought to the U.S. by unvaccinated travelers.
Polls typically find that people’s opinions change very little in the course of a year, according to Matthew Davis, a pediatrician who directs the C.S. Mott poll. “These numbers are incredibly high, and suggest that parents are hearing about the outbreaks and responding.”
Doctors should know that parents’ opinions can change relatively quickly, Davis says, though in his medical practice, he still sees parents with a wide range of beliefs about vaccine safety.
“It’s important for the medical community to realize that parents care deeply about their children’s well being,” Davis told Shots. “And that is reflected in a wide range of opinions about vaccination.”
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Burt Shavitz, who co-founded Burt’s Bees, died Sunday in Bangor, Maine. Robert F. Bukaty/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Robert F. Bukaty/AP
Burt Shavitz, the man whose face is on your minty Burt’s Bees chapstick and body wash, died on Sunday in Bangor, Maine. He was 80.
NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports that Shavitz’s death was as a result of respiratory complications.
“We remember him as a wild-bearded and free-spirited Maine man, a beekeeper, a wisecracker, a lover of golden retrievers, a reverent observer of nature, and the kind of face that smiles back at us from our Hand Salve,” the company says in a statement.
Burt’s Bees says that before Shavitz became a beekeeper in Maine, he was a photojournalist freelancing in New York City, documenting key figures in the civil rights movement, beat poets and artists in the 1960s.
When TV became popular, Shavitz realized that there wasn’t a big market for his photos anymore, The Daily Beast wrote in 2013.
It adds that:
“In 1970, Burt threw his mattress in his Volkswagen van and, along with a few buddies, drove upstate to the High Falls, New York, area. After a series of heavy rainstorms, Burt decided to drive around and survey the damage. He stumbled upon a swarm of bees on a fencepost.
” ‘The year before, a guy that I’d been buying honey from, who was a beekeeper, had given me everything I needed to be a beekeeper except the bees — a hive, a mask, gloves, a smoker, a hive tool, everything,’ Burt recalls. ‘So, there was this fencepost, and I said, “My lord, this is an act of God! I can’t turn this down.” ‘ “
Burt’s Bees began in 1984 when Shavitz met an artist named Roxanne Quimby. According to the company’s web site, Quimby “was thumbing a ride home (back when you could still do that sort of thing). Eventually a bright yellow Datsun pickup truck pulled over, and Roxanne instantly recognized Burt Shavitz, a local fella whose beard was almost as well-known as his roadside honey stand. Burt and Roxanne hit it off, and before long, Roxanne was making candles with unused wax from Burt’s beehives. They made $200 at their first craft fair; within a year, they’d make $20,000.”
The company grew and moved its headquarters to Durham, N.C., in 1993. But Shavitz’s partnership with Quimby unraveled in the late 90s. The Daily Beast, citing Shavitz and a documentary titled Burt’s Buzz, says the two reached a settlement after Quimby found out Burt had an affair with a college-age girl who worked at one of the Burt’s Bees stores.
Quimby eventually bought out Shavitz. Burt’s Bees is now owned by the Clorox Company.
Here’s the trailer for Burt’s Buzz. It’s a small window onto the life of the unorthodox man who, as Elizabeth reports, “co-founded a skincare company that began with beeswax.”
Burt’s Buzz from FilmBuff on Vimeo.
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