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In rural West Texas, a measles outbreak grows with no end in sight
NBC News ^ | Updated Feb. 17, 2025, 9:01 AM EST | rika Edwards, Sara G. Miller and Jason Kane

Posted on 02/17/2025 9:56:31 AM PST by JSM_Liberty

When Aganetha Unger pulled up her large, white van to the emergency measles testing site, several of her eight children were coughing.

“We had some sickness in the house, not very bad, but some fever, some cough,” said Unger, who is Mennonite. One child, she said, had a fever of 103 degrees.

Her youngest getting tested was a 2-month-old, wrapped tightly in a pink blanket on her mom’s lap. When the EMS team swabbed her nose, she didn’t cry.

It was Thursday, eight days after the Texas Department of State Health Services first reported a measles outbreak on the rural, western edge of the state.

On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 49, up from 24 earlier in the week, the state health department said. The majority of those cases are in Gaines County, which borders New Mexico.

Most cases are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. All are unvaccinated against measles, which is one of the most contagious viruses in the world.

The latest measles case count likely represents a fraction of the true number of infections. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people in West Texas are infected but untested, and therefore not part of the state’s official tally so far.

The fast-moving outbreak comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long sown distrust about childhood vaccines, and in particular, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, falsely linking it to autism.

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy said he was not anti-vaccine. “I am pro-safety,” he said. “All of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in health care.”...

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: measels; measles; vaccines
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To: JSM_Liberty

Well, since the democRATS refuse to use real science, perhaps the afflicted, and unaffected in this group can be part of the new control group.

Because the democRATS have destroyed the application of real science, no one trusts the current ‘vaccines.’ Before the advent of Fauci and company, the USA had eradicated several diseases with real vaccines. I remember lining up on the school yard playground for the polio vaccine sugar cube.


21 posted on 02/17/2025 11:03:52 AM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Actually some folks did others were left blind or deaf

Nasty illness causes lots of bad things


22 posted on 02/17/2025 11:05:30 AM PST by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: JSM_Liberty

Thanks to the uncontrolled influx of illegals these past four years no doubt.


23 posted on 02/17/2025 11:12:40 AM PST by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I had chicken pox and mumps at the same time.
I remember the playing with the boy upstairs who also had the mumps.
He was a couple of years older than me and occasionally teased and annoyed me.
Well, apparently I was more irritable than sick because I hit him with a chair and bloodied his nose.
My Mom and his mom were shocked, but my Dad got a chuckle out of it.


24 posted on 02/17/2025 11:20:15 AM PST by Blueway
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I had 30% mortality Smallpox at age 10, and now I am still healthy soon to burn 85 candles. I think having been vaccinated at age 5 was the reason I survived. Those antibodies present from vaccine helped subdue smallpox virus.


25 posted on 02/17/2025 11:22:18 AM PST by Bobbyvotes (I am in mid-80's and I am not gonna change my opinions.)
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To: Bobbyvotes

Smallpox is not in the same class as measles, mumps and chicken pox.


26 posted on 02/17/2025 11:23:58 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

the lethality rate for measeles is 3.3%.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7188204/


27 posted on 02/17/2025 11:28:57 AM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Ditto, I had chicken pox, both kinds of measles and mumps on both sides at the same time. Now I’m vaccinated.

My best friend was an only child so when I caught something her Mom would send her over to sit with me and play checkers. she got every I got. 😏


28 posted on 02/17/2025 11:53:34 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Sequoyah101

That sounds like a modern Louis L’Amour novel.


29 posted on 02/17/2025 11:59:51 AM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: metmom

They certainly are in their right to not vaccinate. But then they should shut up and take the consequences instead of crying to the media.


30 posted on 02/17/2025 12:06:32 PM PST by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: crusty old prospector

stupid spell check. COW chips. not chow chips. guess the programmers never heard of burning cow chips.

The only wood out there is in the world’s largest single specie oak forest that you can’t see until you are walking in it and scrawny Mesquite.


31 posted on 02/17/2025 12:11:57 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
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To: JSM_Liberty

Kennedy has been in office less than a week and they are trying to blame him for this.

How are we supposed to take these clowns seriously when they continue to act like clowns?


32 posted on 02/17/2025 12:12:47 PM PST by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: Sequoyah101

The Havard Oak. It loves the dry sand.


33 posted on 02/17/2025 12:18:18 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: napscoordinator

I did not read that they were crying to the media


34 posted on 02/17/2025 12:26:41 PM PST by Chickensoup
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To: napscoordinator

THEY went to the media?

Or did someone else?


35 posted on 02/17/2025 12:57:11 PM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: Chickensoup

I don’t see Mennonites doing that.

Just not in character for them or other Christians.


36 posted on 02/17/2025 12:57:53 PM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: metmom; napscoordinator

Looks like the press was there when mom arrived. I imagine the clinic called.


37 posted on 02/17/2025 1:25:30 PM PST by Chickensoup
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To: metmom

49 cases

13 hospitalized?

Makes no sense.

Unless all these years of NOT letting the population get measles has weakened the herd immunity?

That or these are Mexican measles a stronger strain.


38 posted on 02/17/2025 1:28:28 PM PST by Chickensoup
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To: Nifster

20% of children with measles develop secondary pneumonia.

The same thing happens with flu. The initial infection of flu or measles makes the patient vulnerable to pneumonia which is dangerous and can be fatal.

There’s a 1 in 1000 chance of developing a serious form of encephalitis from a measles infection, which can result in hearing loss, vision loss or death. It’s a progressive neurological decline so the effects aren’t immediate.


39 posted on 02/17/2025 1:29:22 PM PST by Pelham (President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback 1953-54)
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To: metmom

Third option is that tbe ptb are making this into a public health drama.


40 posted on 02/17/2025 1:29:37 PM PST by Chickensoup
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