Guess we’ve gotta learn this lesson for the millionth time: Vaccines stop really bad stuff.
Case in point: A measles outbreak in rural West Texas — where vaccine exemptions are sky-high — is spreading fast. It started in late January with two hospitalized kids in Gaines County, CNN reported. By Wednesday, cases hit six. By Friday? Fourteen confirmed, six more probable. And wouldn’t you know it? Every single case is believed to be from an unvaccinated person — mostly children.
This outbreak represents the first confirmed cases in the county in more than 20 years.
Still, it isn’t exactly surprising, given that nearly one in five kindergartners in Gaines County skipped their measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine last year. At 18%, the county’s vaccine exemption rate is among the highest in Texas, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Meanwhile, new measles cases were also reported last month in Harris County, per the Texas Tribune. Those cases also involved unvaccinated people because when you ignore science, bad stuff happens.
Nationwide, Texas isn’t alone in trying to return to the 1800s. Idaho has the most vaccine exemptions, with more than 14% of kindergartners missing required shots last school year. Texas sits slightly above the national average at around 4%.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 95% coverage to prevent outbreaks, but the U.S. has been missing that mark for four years straight, according to CNN. Now, measles — a disease that can cause pneumonia, brain swelling, and death — is depressingly back in action.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, our likely next federal health secretary is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who repeatedly demands “data” on vaccine safety but ignores it when it’s handed to him. During recent meetings with lawmakers, Kennedy rejected decades of research proving vaccines don’t cause autism, claimed the government has no good vaccine monitoring (it does), and even suggested that Black people might need different vaccines than white people, according to The Associated Press.
Doctors are already warning that his leadership could make outbreaks like this — in Texas, and elsewhere — even more common. “We will see the return of diseases that we really haven’t seen much of, and unfortunately, children will suffer,” Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics told The Associated Press. But sure, let’s put a vaccine skeptic in charge of public health.
Meanwhile, Texas officials are urging residents to get their shots ASAP. There’s even a new measles clinic in the northwest part of the state offering testing and vaccinations. Because, as it turns out, the best way to stop a measles outbreak… is to vaccinate. Who knew?
