Healthcare professional here - but not your HPC and you cannot confirm that I am who I am so double check what I write:

• Get your titers checked and get revaccinationes asap. If you are not vaccinated or are a non-responder talk to your healthcare provider. Isolate until then.

• Mask up and keep your hands away from mouth, eyes and nose. You will need a properly fitting FFP3/NP95 mask here - measles are far meaner in terms of infectiousness than COVID. Tight fitting means: You have no leaks at the side - if your glasses fog up, if you can feel air going in or out next to your face,etc. it is not working. The usual “duckbill” masks with straps around the ears very very rarely fit properly.

• Wash your hands and desinfect them properly.

• Stay the fuck away from babies. Really. Please.

Hmm…

Measles is the most infectious virus we know of. Contagion is measured by how many people the average patient will infect. Covid was a 4, measles is 18.

The obvious choice here is to get vaccinated if you’re not.

Both shots leave you at 98% immunity. Then if you somehow beat those odds and still manage to get it, it will be much less severe.

You’ll be totally fine. The only victims of measles in the US will mostly be. children of idiot parents, adults who had idiot parents and then became idiot adults, and people with actual medical issues that have prevented them from safely getting the vaccine.

My healthcare provider had me tested for Measles antibodies because apparently that shit can wear off after 50 years in some people. I was still good with Mumps and Rubella, but was wide open to Measles. So I got an MMR vaccine (available at Walgreens, CVS, etc) and I’m good to go. So if you’re over 50, you might want to get tested or simply just ask your your doctor for their opinion about getting another shot.

Get your titers checked by your doctor, that’s about the only other thing you can do. Especially if you were born before 1989, since you may have only had 1 measles vaccine instead of 2, which raises the effectiveness.

If you got 2 doses of the MMR vaccine as a child, you’re probably fine. The vaccine is like 97% effective at preventing measles, and if you’re part of that 3% your symptoms will probably be milder that if you weren’t vaccinated. It’s a damn good vaccine. Even if you got only 1 dose that’s still considered to be 90-something percent effective.

Talk to your doctor, people with certain autoimmune conditions, the elderly, people born when they were only giving 1 dose of the vaccine or who received older vaccine formulas may need a booster. The rest of us who are vaccinated are almost certain to be fine.

The real risk is to children who haven’t been vaccinated yet because they’re too young, people who can’t receive the vaccine for health reasons like allergies or other unvaccinated adults, and people with compromised immune systems.

I can’t really find good numbers of what percent of the US overall is vaccinated, but if the current rates of children being vaccinated are anything to go by, it’s most of them. Even with all of the anti vax talk, it seems like somewhere north of 80% of children in the US are still getting their recommended vaccines from what I can find. This is mostly going to hit that 10-20-ish percent who aren’t vaccinated.

And the real tragedy that a good amount of the anti vax parents were actually vaccinated themselves as children and so get to enjoy that 97% immunity. They won’t be in much danger of catching measles but their children will be.

Otherwise, all of the usual advice applies, wash your hands, disinfect shared surfaces and equipment, cover your mouth when you cough, maybe wear a mask in public, do what you can to encourage your friends and family to get vaccinated if they aren’t.

Being vaccinated and have this vaccination working is already a 97%+ protection. Add a mask, and it’s even better. Maybe avoid hugging infected people…

check to see if there’s a mask bloc near you as they offer free respirators to anyone who needs them and they organize political actions to encourage mask wearing in all public spaces. https://maskbloc.org/. I also highly recommend r/Masks4All, their wiki is packed with so many tips on how to save money when buying masks in bulk. if you’re comfortable with wearing an elastomeric respirator, your wallet is gonna thank you immensely as the price per lifetime use is laughably cheaper compared to buying disposable respirators multiple times per year. one model that I like is Honeywell 7700 with P100 filters.

one of the most effective individual actions you can take is fit-testing your respirator to make sure it’s not leaking. stick to N95 respirators and higher and do a qualitative fit test at home. some mask blocs buy Portacount machines communally so they can offer free fit testing to the people who contact them. if that’s not available locally, contact workplace safety companies to book a quantitative fit test with specialized equipment that you probably couldn’t afford to buy for yourself. some of them also rent out Portacount machines although more rarely.

get educated on the swiss cheese model and stack up prevention methods instead of relying on a standalone one-size-fits-all solution.

you might wanna carry around an air purifier or build your own DIY model that’s cheaper and more effective than most options on the market. you can also run it on a portable battery since the fans only consume 10W at max load. check out the r/crboxes subreddit if you need to ask questions, they’re full of helpful people.

get connected with your local disability community as they have been battling eugenics for decades and developing novel ways of surviving pandemics since forever. ask your local immunocompromised neighbors what measures they’re taking to stay alive. even if you’re able-bodied, their safety measures will undoubtedly benefit you as well.

I’m leaving this option for last because it’s not affordable for most people, but you might wanna look into Far-UVC lighting to disinfect the air. https://cybernightmarket.com/products/mini-far-uvc-lights-set

If you are vaccinated properly (2 doses last I checked) you will be fine. Isolate is really your only other option. It’s that contagious. Thankfully, as you’re old enough to ask here if you do come down with the full illness it’ll suck but you’ll survive unless you have a compromised immune system.

Get vaccinated if you haven’t and check if you need a booster if you have.

Remember COVID? Do that

You should take everything you hear on the internet with a grain of salt (including here). You should really trust the guidelines of your country’s health ministry or the WHO. Then again, the WHO has said some crazy shit in the past…