On Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as head of Health and Human Services, just in time to experience the fruits of his decades of anti-vaxxer labor. A measles outbreak that began in the South Plains region of Texas, has exploded, with 48 confirmed cases of unvaccinated people or whose vaccination status is unknown. Thirteen people have been hospitalized.
Texas Health and Human Services released an alert about the outbreak on Jan. 23, but the numbers have continued to balloon. Six confirmed cases jumped to 14 between Wednesday and Friday of last week. On Thursday, HHS officials had confirmed 24 cases, which within the last 24 hours has jumped to 48.
Most of the cases that have been confirmed reside in Gaines County, which runs along the western New Mexico border of Texas. Gaines is one of the lowest-vaccinated counties in Texas. Around 82% of Gaines’ kindergarteners are up to date with routine childhood vaccinations, with more than 13% claiming “conscientious exemptions” to school vaccination requirements.
Health officials believe that a 94% vaccination rate is needed to provide a community with herd immunity, which is the point when it’s hard for a disease to spread through a population. Without herd immunity, children who are immunocompromised and cannot get vaccines, are at a far higher risk of infection than they would otherwise be with a community.
Trump’s new head of the Department of Health has a long history of promoting deadly wrong public health misinformation, specifically around the measles vaccine. The GOP’s move away from vaccine science during the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to declines in vaccination rates across the country. According to the CDC, vaccination rates in the U.S. have declined since 2019, and are down to 93% from 95% for kindergarten-age children.
Anti-vaxxers like the one now leading our country’s public health policy have prayed on communities like those in Gaines County, creating skepticism through fear. And while Democratic senators righteously attacked Kennedy’s work sowing fear and doubt around the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it was not enough to sway more than a single Republican to vote to protect our country’s children.
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