Prepare dinner, together with Lubbock’s director of public well being, Katherine Wells, stated they see no finish in sight for the outbreak, which now spans 9 counties in Texas, a lot of which have low vaccination charges. “This outbreak goes to proceed to develop,” Wells stated, declining to forecast how excessive the ultimate case depend may go after a reporter raised the potential for a number of hundred.
Thus far, 116 of the 146 circumstances are below the age of 18, with 46 being between the ages of 0 and 4. Solely 5 of the 146 had been vaccinated with a minimum of one dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Messaging
On a extra optimistic notice, Wells reported that the outbreak has appeared to sway some vaccine-hesitant dad and mom to get their kids vaccinated. Simply yesterday in Lubbock, over 50 kids got here into town’s clinic for measles vaccines. Eleven of these kids had vaccine exemptions, which means their dad and mom had beforehand gone via the state course of to exempt their youngster from having to obtain routine childhood vaccines to attend college. “Which is a extremely good signal; meaning our message is getting on the market,” Wells stated.
Thus far within the outbreak, which erupted in late January, messaging concerning the illness and the significance of vaccination has completely come from state and native authorities. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention solely launched a short assertion late Thursday, which was not despatched via the company’s press distribution listing. It did, nonetheless, notice that “vaccination stays the most effective protection in opposition to measles an infection.”
Throughout a cupboard assembly Wednesday, US Well being Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to a query concerning the outbreak, providing a wide range of inaccurate data. Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, falsely claiming that “it is commonplace.” However, that is an uncommon yr for measles within the US. As epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina famous on Bluesky, the variety of US measles circumstances this yr has already surpassed the entire case counts from eight of the earlier 15 years. And it’s only February.
