[Troop139] NHL Players with Mumps in 2014...Really?

[J. Gordon Beattie, Jr., W2TTT]

Hi Folks!

 

Just wondering.everyone I know in the last 30 years here in the U. S. has
had an MMR vaccine which immunizes a person from the Mumps.  Recently, there
has been a multi-team outbreak of Mumps among NHL hockey players which made
me wonder whether there was  something missing in the Canadian, European or
U. S. healthcare systems.  Almost all of these players are under the age of
30, so perhaps someone would like to find out their country and state or
province of origin correlates to their having Mumps.  

 

I may be wrong, but my memory suggests these players all seem to be
Canadian, but it would be only reasonable to check before drawing
conclusions.  For reference, the NHL players are roughly 30%, Canadian, 30%
European and 30% American.

 

With the background information in hand, it would be interesting to see if
we can draw some conclusions about the healthcare that these folks have
received from the healthcare systems of their respective homelands.  It is
particularly interesting, in that the training and associated healthcare
given to their world-class athletes is among the best in the world.  In no
way, could they have gotten to their level of performance without excellent
nutrition and medical care, so one wonders how could they have Mumps?

 

Here is the list for anyone interested in researching this topic?   

 

Sidney Crosby

Corey Perry

Francois Beauchemin

Clayton Stoner

Emerson Eten

Ryan Suter

Keith Ballard

Marco Scandella

Jonas Brodin

Christian Folin

Tanner Glass

Travis Zajak

Adam Larsson

 

Another follow-up point is to look at the distribution of players on their
respective teams and to see if you can come up with a risk score for those
of similar background, also taking into account the age of the personnel of
the team.  From there one might want to extrapolate that to the risk for the
populations of their respective countries of origin and try to estimate the
number of "at risk" people in their populations.

 

Any takers?  This would be a good adjunct to Citizen in the Nation, Citizen
in the World and Public Health Merit Badges.

 

Yours in Scouting!

 

Gordon Beattie, W2TTT

201.314.6964