On Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as head of Well being and Human Providers, simply in time to expertise the fruits of his many years of anti-vaxxer labor. A measles outbreak that started within the South Plains area of Texas, has exploded, with 48 confirmed instances of unvaccinated individuals or whose vaccination standing is unknown. 13 individuals have been hospitalized.
Texas Well being and Human Providers launched an alert concerning the outbreak on Jan. 23, however the numbers have continued to balloon. Six confirmed instances jumped to 14 between Wednesday and Friday of final week. On Thursday, HHS officers had confirmed 24 instances, which throughout the final 24 hours has jumped to 48.
Many of the instances which have been confirmed reside in Gaines County, which runs alongside the western New Mexico border of Texas. Gaines is among the lowest-vaccinated counties in Texas. Round 82% of Gaines’ kindergarteners are updated with routine childhood vaccinations, with greater than 13% claiming “conscientious exemptions” to highschool vaccination necessities.
Well being officers imagine {that a} 94% vaccination fee is required to offer a neighborhood with herd immunity, which is the purpose when it’s laborious for a illness to unfold by way of a inhabitants. With out herd immunity, youngsters who’re immunocompromised and can’t get vaccines, are at a far greater danger of an infection than they’d in any other case be with a neighborhood.
Trump’s new head of the Division of Well being has a protracted historical past of selling lethal flawed public well being misinformation, particularly across the measles vaccine. The GOP’s transfer away from vaccine science through the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally led to declines in vaccination charges throughout the nation. Based on the CDC, vaccination charges within the U.S. have declined since 2019, and are all the way down to 93% from 95% for kindergarten-age youngsters.
Anti-vaxxers just like the one now main our nation’s public well being coverage have prayed on communities like these in Gaines County, creating skepticism by way of concern. And whereas Democratic senators righteously attacked Kennedy’s work sowing concern and doubt across the security and efficacy of vaccines, it was not sufficient to sway greater than a single Republican to vote to guard our nation’s youngsters.
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