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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: E. Pluribus Unum

To reiterate the point, we had our first measles death in the current outbreak here in Texas. Unvaccinated, school age child.

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/texas-announces-first-death-measles-outbreak


61 posted on 02/26/2025 11:28:14 AM PST by Wayne07
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To: Wayne07
To reiterate the point, we had our first measles death in the current outbreak here in Texas. Unvaccinated, school age child.

One death! OMG! Mandatory vaccination$$$ for everyone. Lock down everything!

I wonder if it would be happening if FJB hadn't told umpteen million illegals to "surge the border?"

You want to treat the symptom instead of the cause.

Figures.

62 posted on 02/26/2025 11:32:07 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: Wayne07
To reiterate the point, we had our first measles death in the current outbreak here in Texas. Unvaccinated, school age child.


63 posted on 02/26/2025 12:08:46 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
94% white county, not particularly close to the border.

Texas health officials reported that measles was spreading among an insular religious community in Gaines County, Texas, where nearly 14 percent of schoolchildren have an exemption (granted in some states for reasons of conscience, including for religious beliefs) from the required childhood vaccinations. There will be more cases in Texas in this outbreak than the last 5 years combined for the whole country. The cause is lack of vaccination.

64 posted on 02/26/2025 2:29:04 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: Wayne07
94% white county, not particularly close to the border.

You must be so excited to have a measles outbreak to demagogue!

I am so happy for you!


65 posted on 02/26/2025 2:50:20 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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