At least 49 cases have been confirmed. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people may be infected.

Summary

A measles outbreak in rural West Texas has surged to 49 confirmed cases, mostly among unvaccinated school-age children, with officials suspecting hundreds more unreported infections.

The outbreak is centered in Gaines County, home to a large Mennonite population with low vaccination rates. Despite CDC support, Texas has not requested federal intervention.

The outbreak has now spread to Lubbock, raising wider public health concerns.

Experts warn it could persist for months without increased vaccination efforts, but skepticism toward vaccines remains a significant barrier.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      0·
      8 months ago

      Vaccines aren’t 100% effective, the way they work is mostly through herd immunity, where an epidemic effectively peters out due to lack of viable hosts. Depending on the infectiousness of the pathogen, a +90% vaccination rate is usually enough to keep an infection from breaking through.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        herd immunity

        What is especially irritating is that the conspiracy theorists latch onto this terminology as “proof” that the “globalists” view you as a herd animal…

        Another unfortunate thing is how the term “theory” in a scientific sense is very different from the layperson’s use of that word…

      • normalexit@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        Two doses of the measles vaccine are approximately 97% effective at preventing measles. Certainly not 100%, but not too shabby.

      • Professorozone@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        Well for crying out loud… That’s me. I don’t live in Texas but I live in the next worst state, Florida. Is there a booster?

        • threshold_dweller@lemmy.todayEnglish
          0·
          8 months ago

          Ask your doctor for the MMR vaccine. Iirc you are more likely to get side-effects as an adult, but that beats getting measles.

          • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
            0·
            8 months ago

            I redid my entire childhood vaccinations at age 40 because my small home town had no records and I needed proof - to like, look after sick people. No problems, no side effects.

            You can get MMR at travel clinics around here. So it cost me like $15 to avoid even needing to ask a doctor.

            Sigh.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    I hope some day we can invent some sort of treatment that could prevent kids from ever getting this disease.

    • Joeffect@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      Like why don’t they just make something that makes the disease not hurt us and then put it in our bodies… Why do they have to have all this lab processed shit that they don’t actually know what it does and try to put it in our bodies…

      • Red_October@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        I had this idea, like what if we used our own cells to make some of the identifying surface proteins of viruses and stuff, and use that to train our immune system on what to look for. We wouldn’t even need to cultivate the pathogen itself at all.

        • Joeffect@lemmy.world
          0·
          8 months ago

          Your using big words… You must be one of them folks we have to stab with our pitchforks… Get the hell out of here

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        8 months ago

        You know what’s interesting is that the first real anti-vaxxers started because old vaccines would use pus from an infected cow. Something about it being unholy worship of cow or some nonsense.

        Now the anti-vaxx crowd is all crying about synthetics… Can’t make anyone happy.

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
      0·
      8 months ago

      My greatest fear is that we will never find the cure for being an idiot. I know for some people that the disease is fatal.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    Hahaha, that is really funny. People in red states dieing because of a disease we wiped out almost entirely. I really gotta open a “child coffin” plant in Texas.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      Well, their god is maybe the problem:

      https://newrepublic.com/article/121000/puritanical-roots-anti-vaxxer-movement-go-back-300-years

      The anti-vaccine movement today is not solely religious in character, but much of its rhetoric is identical to theological arguments made against inoculation more than three hundred years ago. As the Florida-based organization KNOW (“Kids Need Options Without Vaccines”), puts it, “All vaccines are made in violation of God’s Word.” Such thinking is partly responsible for the worst measles epidemic in twenty years.

      If you think your god wants you and/or your kids to die from preventable diseases, maybe it’s time for a new one?

      • Prehensile_cloaca @lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        So they’re saying God is either impotent, or callously cruel? Yeah, definitely dedicate your life to worshipping that. Brilliant logic.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    I guess they are going to need to get a consultation from Brainworms about how to eat right, work out, make sure they have proper septic systems, and get their chakras aligned…

    The anti-intellectuals strike again. Working very hard to turn America into a shithole country.

  • 🇨🇦 tunetardis@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    So from what lemmy is reporting, we know West Texas has a measles outbreak and some giant fracking earthquake to contend with. Maybe toss in some radioactive exposure from a now-unmonitored nuclear facility and we’ve got the makings of a superhero origin story.

    • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      Careful.

      Sec. 2.  Establishing a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.  (a)  There is hereby established within the Department of Justice the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias (Task Force).\
     (b)  The Attorney General shall serve as Chair of the Task Force.\
     (c)  In addition to the Chair, the Task Force shall consist of the following other members:\
          (i)     the Secretary of State;\
          (ii)    the Secretary of the Treasury;\
          (iii)   the Secretary of Defense;\
          (iv)    the Secretary of Labor;\
          (v)     the Secretary of Health and Human Services;\
          (vi)    the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;\
          (vii)   the Secretary of Education;\
          (viii)  the Secretary of Veterans Affairs;\
          (ix)    the Secretary of Homeland Security;\
          (x)     the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;\
          (xi)    Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations;\
          (xii)   the Administrator of the Small Business Administration;\
          (xiii)  the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation;\
          (xiv)   the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy;\
          (xv)    the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency;\
          (xvi)   the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and\
          (xvii)  the heads of such other executive departments, agencies, and offices that the Chair may, from time to time, invite to participate.

      https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/

      Kinda worried posting myself and I’m not american owned yet. Which is my way of saying that I don’t insinuate you’re American, just it’s that absurd.

      Everybody expects this inquisition.