Since the end of January, there has been a measles outbreak in West Texas and now New Mexico. This week, an unvaccinated child in Texas died of measles. According to news reports, the school-age child is from a largely Mennonite area of the state. Mennonites usually favor religious exemptions for vaccinations. While measles outbreaks are not new, this is the largest one in Texas in the last 30 years. Combine that with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary, and it’s more concerning than usual.
The sad fact is that this child’s death was a preventable one. The measles vaccine has been around since 1963. Before that time, there were approximately 2.6 million deaths worldwide each year from the disease. That number has dramatically decreased. Now, affected areas are those with low vaccination rates. The vaccine itself is highly effective.
