Most of the cases are centered in Gaines County, which is reporting 45 cases. Other surrounding areas are seeing spread of the illness too, with 9 cases in Terry County, two in Yoakum County, one in Lynn County and one in Lubbock County.
The cases are mostly in children ages 5 to 17. Although most of the cases are in unvaccinated people or those whose vaccination status is unknown, there were four cases of measles in people who said they had been vaccinated. No other details were immediately available about those four people
As someone with a 4 month old who is still too young to be vaccinated this scares the hell out of me! Good thing we have our best people and their brain worms on it!
In all of the cases, symptoms began in the past three weeks. Thirteen of the people have been hospitalized.
Local health departments in West Texas are hosting free vaccination clinics for the community. There have been at least 95 measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations at a clinic hosted by the South Plains Public Health District, which includes Gaines County, according to Zach Holbrooks, the health district’s executive director. The clinic recently expanded its hours to be open seven days a week for vaccinations.
Given how contagious measles is, health officials warn that cases may continue to rise in the area.
Measles is an airborne illness that can cause rash, fever, red eyes and cough. Severe cases can result in blindness, pneumonia or encephalitis, swelling of the brain. In some cases, the illness can be fatal.
Coverage of the MMR vaccine is particularly low in Gaines County, where nearly 1 in 5 incoming kindergartners in the 2023-24 school year did not get the vaccine.
Measles isn’t common in the US, so here’s a picture of a kid that caught it just so you know how bad it is and why we invented the vaccine in the first place.
Speaking of how we all rallied to eradicate these diseases, who is old enough to remember filling out one of these in school? I did in grade school. Most of the times I wanted to keep it!
Pay close attention what’s happening vaccine skeptics and science deniers with “conscientious exemptions” for religious or moral reasons. This is an example of
what happens when you believe internet conspiracy BS.
Vaccine coverage rates are often lower in rural areas. In three districts in northwest Texas — Guthrie Common School District, Turkey-Quitaque ISD and Meadow ISD — rates are below 60% on average among kindergartners. In Seminole ISD and Loop ISD, which are between Odessa and Lubbock, coverage rates are around 80%. Elsewhere, coverage rates are low in the central Texas hill country and in east Texas north of Beaumont.
This is awful for the kids of their brain damaged and clearly genetically inferior parents, awful for the kids of non-completely stupid parents, and society.
The kids should not be our modern care studies for natural selection. But their anti-vax parents sure make a good case for eugenics.
If they’re going to Public schools then these are a bunch of self righteous a holes. “But my precious beliefs” they will whine. F em, shun them and let them die in whatever way they see best in the desert
“The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated. It’s all personal choice and you can do whatever you want. It’s just that the community doesn’t go and get regular health care,” Anton, of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the Associated Press.
Mennonites generally leaves it up to an individual to decide whether they want to get vaccinated.
So I’ll stick with the general term science deniers as it encompasses this religious
sect that doesn’t believe in putting “things” in the human body and other types of
anti vaccine nitwits too.
