For you youths, there used to be a regularly updated website called the Jenny McCarthy Body Count that kept a running total of the number of people killed and injured by the anti-vax nonsense she spewed in the early aughts. It still exists, but I have no idea if it is updated. Regardless, there is another corpse to add to her tally and more on the way:
A school-age child has died of measles in West Texas, the first death from the disease in a decade in the United States. The child had not been vaccinated against measles, according to the city of Lubbock’s health department.
The death, confirmed by Katherine Wells, the Lubbock health department’s director of public health, is part of a fast-moving outbreak that’s infected at least 124 people — mostly children — in rural West Texas.
The official tally of people who have been hospitalized is 18, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
That number isn’t up to date, said Dr. Lara Johnson, a pediatrician and the chief medical officer at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock.
Johnson said in an email that her team has cared for “around 20” kids with measles so far.
As with everything, this is going to get worse, both in this outbreak and in future ones.
Baud
Parents can decide whether they love their children or they love owning the libs.
I feel sorry for the children who have no choice.
Baud
Weird. This post doesn’t appear on the front page.
ETA: Oh, the Eolirin post is pinned.
VFX Lurker
I feel for the kids caught up in this, too.
I wondered if doctors today have any experience treating measles…then I remembered that the only “treatment” that ever worked was the vaccine.
If you’re GenX like me, consider getting a third MMR booster. I flunked a measles titer test in 2019 because my childhood MMR vaccinations wore off. I got a third MMR that same year, and I passed a titer test in 2020.
VFX Lurker
@Baud: I suspect the Eolirin post will be pinned to the top for a while. It is a good post.
gene108
@VFX Lurker:
Getting another MMR vaccine shot is definitely on my to do list.
Old School
@VFX Lurker:
Until sometime tonight:
Old School
The numbers don’t seem to have been updated since 2015.
kindness
Man, I so wish karma was more instant.
Belafon
@Baud: The other day, a woman on the facebook group for my town put up a post about wanting to find a doctor that respected “parent’s rights”, ie, the right to not vaccinate her kids. There were plenty of doctor recommendations, but plenty of us who called her out. For my part, I said that what she wanted was the right to let her kid get sick, and have them get other kids sick, without any responsibility to her.
New Deal democrat
I will repeat something I said last week.
There is going to be a nationwide measles outbreak. It is only a question of whether it is in several years, several months, or several weeks.
Free riding on others’ vaccinations only works until you fall below a critical level, and with measles the nation is well below that critical level.
Older people should make sure they are up to date on their booster shots.
Paul W.
@Baud: Yes, if there were a way to make the parents feel this pain without the cost to the children who have done nothing I would push that button instantly. In general, it seems that the American public will only learn by having pain inflicted upon them… repeatedly if the two Trump terms prove anything.
Starfish (she/her)
Anti-vaccine beliefs are not necessarily politically aligned. Most anti-vaccine folks are not the hardcore anti-vaccine folks.
The pediatricians who support “parental rights” eventually have to kick out these patients because having a patient with a vaccine-preventable disease expose all your other unvaccinated patients who have flocked to you because you will put up with their nonsense is not good for the business of keeping kids healthy. Do you want to take your newborn to a doctor whose going to have a patient come in with a disease that your kid is too young to get vaccinated for or naah?
The west Texas outbreak was at 124 people yesterday according to CNN.
There are states that should not be repealing their vaccination laws (because there is poor medical access in these states) doing so.
Some states have public vaccination databases for schools and childcare facilities
If funding for health departments that give vaccines to families that could not otherwise afford them is reduced, this is going to get very very bad.
Sure Lurkalot
@New Deal democrat:
My libertarian D governor also believes vaccines should be a personal choice, example number infinity that billions of dollars and brains do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Born before the vaccine, my siblings and I had all the vaccine targeted diseases and did survive but only after weeks of illness and suffering.
John Cole
@Belafon: I saw someone who had seen a similar post by a parent and they responded with “Find the doctor associated with the most childhood deaths and complications and that is your guy.”
glc
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5304458/measles-vaccine-booster-health
NotMax
15 minutes on current politics well spent. Take the time to watch these two ladies.
WendyBinFL
One of my grandfather’s sisters contracted measles, long before vaccines were available. She died, at two. If he were alive today, I wonder what he’d think about the increasing number of parents who spurn vaccines. The childhood diseases are not child’s play.
satby
@New Deal democrat: specifically, I believe we’re at 24 states now that have fallen under the threshold of 95% immunization for herd immunity. So it will be sooner, unfortunately. And more children will die or end up with lifelong damage.
satby
@John Cole: perfect response, but it will fall on deaf ears (eyes). Her poor kids.
Jackie
@VFX Lurker:
I’m a young Baby Boomer, and when my son and DIL were expecting their first daughter, their OB highly advised us future grandparents get a MMR vaccination. When I was a child, the MMR vaccination didn’t exist; you either got the diseases or didn’t.
I remember having the measles, but not the others. I, for my grandchildren’s sake got the vaccination.
Kirk
@WendyBinFL: My father had three siblings die before the age of 6. (He would have been the second youngest, born in 1935.)
Bill Arnold
@New Deal democrat:
Does this mean [a dose of] MMR? I don’t recall getting that any time as an adult (maybe before travel abroad?), and records are fragmented.
Measles sucks for many reasons; one big one is that it causes immune amnesia, making the body’s adaptive immune system forget about how to respond to other diseases.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: There is a large Mennonite community in Gaines County, Texas. This outbreak is terrible on so many levels.
Elizabelle
Holy $hit. A directive on high from Jeff Bezos. You know, the former “Democracy Dies in Darkness” owner who is now into telling stories?
(Also, an open thread would be helpful, with a pinned thread at top. No idea who will see this.)
Byline on this one is “Washington Post staff.” That in itself is instructive.
Crystal.
Jackie
O/T, but for those still hanging onto their Bezos birdcage liner:
A response from a former WaPo editor:
ETA: Elizabelle got there first.
Trollhattan
@Jackie:
I had both goddamn versions as a wee lad, and remember them both rather specifically. Dark curtains on the windows because even your eyes hurt like hell.
It’s hell, maybe not polio hell but hell. And classic measles “resets” your immune system so all those colds you’ve already had? You’re catching the bastards all over again.
But vaccines are the real criminals.
Kirk
@Elizabelle: Right.
It ain’t a free market when everyone has to buy or sell what the respective Big Fish wants.
Pure personal liberty is just another word for anarchy.
I’m betting he defends the former and parses the latter toward a particular flavor dominated by white wealthy patriarchy. But that’s just my bet.
Starfish (she/her)
@Jackie: Was it MMR or DTaP? I thought they were typically concerned with whooping cough/pertussis in that case.
Alce _e_ardillo
@New Deal democrat:Given measles high contagiousness, the level for so-called “herd” immunity is above 90%. Add that to plane travel, and resistance to masking and a severe national epidemic is near certain. The icing on the cake is our underestimation of the severity of rubeola.
Ohio Mom
There were three of us kids in my family and we had every childhood disease except polio, we escaped that and then the vaccine arrived.
My mother once told the story of me having whooping cough as a baby and how frightening that was. It was an unusual story because my mother was a stoic and not very forthcoming about feelings in general.
Sometimes I think about how many childhood diseases: mumps, measles, rubella, whooping cough, chicken pox, what am I leaving out? times three kids, I’m up to 15 scary illnesses my mother saw us through.
How did mothers not have nervous breakdowns, knowing each time their kids could die? All I had to deal with as a mom of a young child was an occasional ear infection and step throat or two, for which there was effective medicine.
Jackie
@Starfish (she/her):
Oh, you might be right… I’m going to have to call and check…
Alce _e_ardillo
@Bill Arnold: I know of no real downside to immunization. There is the very rare allergic reaction but that can be managed. When in doubt take the shot.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Alce _e_ardillo: Sometimes when they stick you, they hit a nerve which can cause problems and require PT. That happened to a coworker. It is also really rare.
Elizabelle
@Jackie: Bezos announced this on Twitter. Free market being what it is, I cannot see the 11,400 responses and counting, since I don’t have a Twitter account and don’t trust Musk.
A good WaPost reader comment:
Locals will get that one immediately.
Ohio Mom
@Jackie: Doesn’t the Wall Street Journal editorial pages already have the free enterprise m/unfettered capitalism beat wrapped up?
Belafon
@Elizabelle: Free markets with a paper owned by an oligarch.
Elizabelle
@Belafon: Democracy died in darkness.
What a chump Bezos is. I love that he always has to take someone beloved to the public with him whenever he rides on his rocket. Cuz otherwise we would all be wishing for it to blow up.
This is comically craven, and very instructive.
Elizabelle
WaPost reader comment:
Just ask Google Gemini “What are the downsides of personal liberties and free markets?”
The concepts of personal liberties and free markets, while often lauded for promoting individual freedom and economic prosperity, also present potential downsides. Here’s a breakdown of some key concerns:
Downsides of Personal Liberties:
* Potential for Social Harm:
* Unfettered personal liberties can sometimes lead to actions that harm others, even if indirectly. For example, certain forms of speech can incite violence or discrimination.
* The “freedom” to engage in harmful behaviors, such as excessive substance use, can have significant negative consequences for both the individual and society.
* Erosion of Social Cohesion:
* An extreme emphasis on individual liberty can sometimes weaken social bonds and a sense of collective responsibility.
* It can lead to increased social fragmentation and a decline in civic engagement.
* Inequality and Exploitation:
* In some cases, personal liberties can be used to justify actions that perpetuate inequality or exploit vulnerable populations.
Elizabelle
WaPost reader comment:
Belafon
@Elizabelle: Someone with a Moron Label sticker had “Secession is a human right” sticker below it.
Professor Bigfoot
Welp… my yearly PCP visit is next week, and I will surely be asking her about measles and polio boosters.
Jeebus.
Whilst anti-vax folk fall across lots of demographics, they all have one thing in common— they are idiots.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Aren’t both of those things anti-Trumpism?
eclare
@VFX Lurker:
Gen X-er here, I got a booster around 2008. I also got a chicken pox vaccine booster (never had chicken pox, proved through bloodwork).
karen gail
I was “blessed” to have had measles before vaccinations; I spent three months confined to my bedroom and use of bathroom. As near as doctor could tell I kept getting reinfected (this was back in days when doctors came to house rather than allow sick people to visit his office); he could never figure out what was causing it. The only other contact I had was with father since mother was pregnant and he changed and washed my bedding daily. Strangely, once grandmother came I finally stopped getting reinfected.
One thing that has caused measles outbreaks is college students getting vaccinations just before starting college and coming into contact with low immunity people; getting a vaccination can cause you to be a carrier even when you don’t become ill yourself.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Roald Dahl’s daughter died of complications from measles in 1962. He was active in trying to overcome vaccine hesitance in the UK. Here’s an account, including the letter he wrote describing her illness.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: ouch! Also hitting a blood vessel causing a hematoma. Good times.
Jackie
@Ohio Mom: I don’t know. I don’t subscribe to the WSJ and quit my WaPo subscription.
Professor Bigfoot
Deleted, on accounta this ain’t s’poseta be an open thread. Sorry, y’all.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Why yes they are. But words are words. Greed is forever.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you. Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal’s loss was tragic. Especially that it occurred just a year before the measles vaccine was developed and distributed. His letter saved lives. I hope it does anew.
Elizabelle
@Professor Bigfoot: We are using it as an open thread. There is not another to comment in, save for the morning thread most people won’t see.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
We have hijacked this thread for our own purposes.
KRK
I’m scheduled to get an MMR booster on Friday. I asked the pharmacist about it when I got my flu vaccine shortly after the election in November. Neither of us mentioned the election but it was clear he understood why I was asking. He said if I had doubts about my immunity it was fine to get a booster.
I’ve been dithering about it since then, but the outbreak in Texas has given me clarity. Info on CDC and NIH sites suggests that middle-aged and older folks are more likely to be susceptible to mumps than measles, but we can be nonsymptomatic carriers of measles to vulnerable populations. Which explains why healthcare workers and others in close contact with vulnerable populations get MMR boosters as adults. And of course once there’s an outbreak things go haywire fast.
I don’t know if my insurance will cover the vaccine, but I think it will be about $125 if I have to pay out of pocket.
ETtheLibrarian
I feel bad for the child. Not for the parents. They ultimately killed their child.
dc
@VFX Lurker: I had measles and mumps as a child and as an adult whatever version of the MMR vaccine they were giving in NY in the late ’80s. Should I get a booster?
Professor Bigfoot
Okay, since this is an ersatz open thread… we discussed at some point how an autocratic regime would defend its cronies from the law and we see that already with the Trump regime.
The next step is using the law to attack one’s opponents.
I think we’re getting closer.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Fasten your seatbelts!
karen gail
Nearly 20 years ago I started having health issues; ex had good insurance, it took specialist and medical professionals 2 years of tests to find out; I was slightly deaf (I could have told them that), that I had skin cancer (again) but no clue why one side of body was numb or I had balance problems. Every new doctor required paperwork and each time they asked if I had had chickenpox. I kept checking that box; my eye doctor noticed I wasn’t able to always focus with one eye. She asked if I had had chickenpox; when the answer was yes, she said, “you have shingles!” One doctor pushed for vaccination, but I was in pharmacy and made comment and pharmacist said, “No! you make things worse.”
The doctors only knew to look for knew to look for blisters like chickenpox; none of the other symptoms even registered. Now if you look up shingles symptoms in women you get the whole list of things that I had without the blisters. Even the surgeon that removed skin cancer wouldn’t accept that I had active shingles that might be contagious.
I told DIL and she made sure that the children had their chickenpox vaccination; since no one had a clue just how contagious I might be.
Burrowing Owl
@dc: I talked with my PCP about immunity and she ordered bloodwork to see if I needed a booster. Turned out my childhood MMR vaccine was still protecting me so no booster needed. So you could ask your doctor.
Martin
@Bill Arnold: So, at some point the recommendation changed from a single MMR shot to two, and a lot of older Americans never got that 2nd shot because the immunization system hangs off of educational systems, so if you were out of school by the time that recommendation came around you probably missed it.
So yeah, a lot of older Americans will be advised to get an MMR. Worth asking your GP about it.
Josie
When I was in the third grade, my best friend died when the measles went to her brain. After about 70 years, I can still remember my friend and what she looked and acted like. Her name was Susan.
H-Bob
The exemptions should be conditioned on the parents watching a 20 minute video showing the effects of the disease on a child, the care that the parents must give a child with that disease and the permanent after-effects of the disease.
Baud
The free market!
Trivia Man
@New Deal democrat: I am of the age that probably got the dead vaccine and should get an update. But i am in close contact with someone immunocompromised- their doctor advises against a live vax for me. Fingers crossed my old shot is effective ENOUGH and that enough bystanders get theirs updated.
Elizabelle
@Josie: Heartbreaking. Poor Susan.
VFX Lurker
Good question. Check with your doctor. I asked mine for a titer test, flunked it, then got an MMR.
However, you might be able to get an extra MMR regardless of a titer test.
Do whatever gives you peace of mind.
EDIT – Burrowing Owl beat me to it.
Alce _e_ardillo
@VFX Lurker: When I started PA school in the late 80’s the rule was if you were born before 1955 or could prove you had measles you could opt out, otherwise no. I was born in ‘56 so there.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Baud: I’m glad to be an American where at least I know I’m “free”
Nelson
RFK Jr, our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, must be pleased that all these folks are getting the benefits of measles exposure.
gratuitous
I’m confident Secretary Kennedy will spring into action following this news. First, quit reporting on measles deaths. Second, problem solved so shut up. Third, I said problem solved! You want a free trip to Guantanamo?
Booger
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Can we refer to this outbreak as Viral Mennonitis?
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@VFX Lurker:
How old are you? I’m thinking of having a titer ordered next week – I’m 62.
Citizen Alan
@VFX Lurker: I get the results of my titter test tomorrow, actually. My doctor advised me to wait until spring to get a pneumonia shot, but I can take care of everything else I’m weak on tomorrow.
Martin
@Baud: So, the first market the iPhone really won was people with disabilities. They were critical to iPhone getting to that initial 1% share that they had set as a goal, and the reason they won that market was because of a team of engineers inside the company with disabilities that saw the potential for the iPhone for that market and convinced leadership to make that commitment, with the development lead by that team. Apple knows the degree to which contributions by diverse communities within the company have in some cases, literally saved the company. And Tim Cook has always been a reliable defender of that.
Emily B.
@VFX Lurker: Fellow Gen Xer here. I was able to get an MMR booster last week at Walgreen’s without a prescription. I probably should have checked with my doctor first, but what I understand, it’s a pretty safe vaccine—no matter what Robert Kennedy Jr. thinks.
taumaturgo
We as a society have relegated the well-being of children as rhetorical argument with zero substance. Gun violence is the number one cause of deaths of children* and all we mustered to offer is thought and prayers. Children poverty** is endemic, yet we cast those born in the wrong zip code to a life of want and misery. Children of asylum seekers suffer the unspeakable cruelty of being separated from their parents and placed in cages, all plan and executed by god fearing folks.
*https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens
**https://www.statista.com/chart/32303/share-of-children-who-are-categorized-as-poor-in-the-us/
“How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity.”
Statement by Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, UK
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
FYI one of the people from Gaines county with exposure to measles/positive for measles went on 2 college tours and to many tourist venues in San Antonio and San Marcos February 14-16. I wonder how many people they infected…
Timill
@Citizen Alan:
If it’s positive, does that make you Frankie Howerd?
mrmoshpotato
I remember getting the MMR vaccine as a kid.
These parents should be bitchslapped with murder.
NeenerNeener
My aunt was pregnant when she was exposed to measles, years before the vaccines existed. My cousin was born with a hole in his heart, compromised lungs and thumbs up by the index fingers. He lived into his thirties, but had two heart and lung transplants before he died. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to subject their child to birth defects, but anti-vaxxers are a different breed, I guess.
Ksmiami
@VFX Lurker: got tdap and mmr again. If bad stuff happens to Republicans, fuck if I care
ArchTeryx
@VFX Lurker: Kids are a very, very low priority among the Right. They’re seen and treated as property and nothing more important than that. It’s been shown a near infinite number of times that they’ll let their kids die if it means owning the libs. That’s all that matters to these hollow ghouls that dare to call themselves parents.
ColoradoGuy
@ArchTeryx: They are deep into the slave-master mentality. Children and wives are property to be shown, admired, and disciplined. Like beef cattle but with more cruelty.
That is what underlies MAGA, Putinism, and all the rest. People are property, to be mastered, dominated, and disposed of, if disobedient.
All the sweet words about libertarianism, freedom of speech, Ayn Rand, Curtis Yarvin, etc. is a cover for the slave-master mentality. What matters is not speech, but control. That’s why the whole “Gulf of America” thing is a test of compliance, at the corporate level. Comply, or else.
A Ghost to Most
The magically-impaired will be the death of many. Same as it ever was.
Captain C
@gratuitous: Fourth: Oh, god, what are all these spots on my body!!! Better check on Goop to see what the natural remedy for this is, obviously it’s not measles, though! Fifth: RIP RFKjr
Elizabelle
@Captain C: Forsooth! To the horse dewormer!
FDRLincoln
I’m 57, got an MMR booster (plus Tdap and shingles vax) in 2021. Why? Just seemed like a good plan. Glad I did.
Got pneumonia vaccine two weeks ago. I’m thinking about getting the HepA and B vaxxes too since I work at a jail and we have lots of people with weird sicknesses come through
prostratedragon
@ColoradoGuy:
This mentality and ways it plays out are key themes of Twin Peaks original series.
Kayla Rudbek
@VFX Lurker: GenX here, and I had to get a booster in 2018 before I visited my godson as a baby. I forget whether it was for MMR or DPT. So we GenXers need to get ourselves titered and boosted if we’re low for MMR.