Child Dies of Measles During Recent Outbreak in Texas and New Mexico
The press asserts Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak; yet, there was little such drama over the many measles cases during the Biden term.
A school-aged child has died from measles in West Texas, marking the first measles-related death in the United States in a decade. The child, who was not vaccinated against the disease, was hospitalized in Lubbock last week and tested positive for measles.
The Texas Department of State Health Services and Lubbock health officials confirmed the death to The Associated Press. The child wasn’t identified but was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility noted the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.
“This is a big deal,” Dr. Amy Thompson, a pediatrician and chief executive officer of Covenant Health, said Wednesday at a news conference. “We have known that we have measles in our community, and we are now seeing a very serious consequence.”
The Texas outbreak is believed to have started in a rural Mennonite community with low vaccination rates.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported on Tuesday that it was aware of 124 cases diagnosed since the outbreak began in early January, up from 90 cases on Friday. Almost all cases – 101 – were in patients 17 and younger.
The US declared measles “eliminated” in 2000, but the country has seen outbreaks in recent years amid a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment. The last US measles death was in 2015, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The current outbreak is centred in north-western Texas, with measles also recently found across the state’s border in New Mexico, as well as Alaska, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New York City and Rhode Island, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Currently, there are nine cases reported in New Mexico, four of whom are children.
The press has been quick to proclaim that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy is not taking the outbreak seriously. This was the leade to an NBC piece on the subject.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday appeared to downplay the seriousness of the West Texas measles outbreak that has killed a school-age child.
Perhaps the press is unhappy that Kennedy brought up that measles outbreaks have occurred in recent history.
We are following the measles epidemic every day…
Last year, there were 16 outbreaks.
So, it’s not unusual.
We have measles outbreaks every year. pic.twitter.com/Ik70oRu0PY— Secretary Kennedy Jr. (@SecKennedyJr) February 26, 2025
Let’s examine the numbers during the Biden years. The number of measles cases in the United States has varied significantly since 2020: From 2020 to 2024, 338 confirmed measles cases were reported.
I don’t recall the press harping on Biden’s HHS head, Xavier Beccera, about these cases.
It is also important to note that the case fatality rate in developed countries is around 0.1% to 0.3%. In countries with less advanced and robust healthcare systems and a malnourished population, that rate can be as high as 28%.
Therefore, as sad as it is, death is a potential consequence of an infection…though most people do recover and enjoy natural immunity. Death from measles is usually the result of pneumonia.
There are no specific details about the child who succumbed to the disease. There are a number of individual factors that do not include Secretary Kennedy. Risk factors include:
- Poor nutrition.
- Children under 9 months and those between 9 months to 5 years have higher odds of mortality.
- Co-infection with other diseases.
- Hospital-acquired infection.
- Comorbidities
The resurgence of measles coincides with growing vaccine hesitancy, particularly concerning the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine. The consequence of COVID vaccine mandates means people are reconsidering the safety of all vaccines…and that isn’t Kennedy’s fault either.
Parents can decide what is best for their children while appreciating the risk factors and realizing that 99.7-99.9% of people recover within 2-3 weeks of infection.
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Comments
“The US declared measles “eliminated” in 2000, but the country has seen outbreaks in recent years amid a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment. “
Let’s not mention the 40million unvaccinated illegals in this country and that area of Texas and New Mexico are flooded with illegals
What is the point of declaring any disease “eliminated” in the US when it’s not “eliminated” everywhere and international travel is so commonplace?
Even when it is eliminated everywhere, what is the point of it? We declared smallpox “eliminated” (at least twice, I think) even though we KNOW for a fact that national governments, including the US, keep samples stockpiled for strategic purposes. We’re all just one Wuhan away from extinction.
So for the last four or so years, why isn’t big pharma set up on the southern border to vax away at all the illegals coming in? They could pump them full of all kinds of good stuff before they come in to receive all the freebies.
And what about doctor stations to give exams to all the new arrivals? Oh, they don’t do that either.
Huh…wonder why America’s health is declining and our medical systems are so costly and overwhelmed…I just don’t understand.
Gee, I don’t know where you might get diseases that have been declared eradicated in the US when they’ve allowed over 10 million illegals to come into the country over the last 4 years and they don’t test them for jack.
No vaccine when I was a kid and nobody thought twice about getting measles. It was just one of the diseases everybody got once.
Same here. All the kids in my grade or kindergarten (don’t remember which) got measles at one time or another and nobody thought much of it. So, I’m surprised when I hear of children dying from it.
As I am continually reminded, children DID die of it, but it was so rare that there’s a good chance nobody you actually knew did. And back in those days, children died of a lot of stuff that doesn’t kill them today, so such things didn’t really spawn the media panics you see today.
Without the details of the case (co-morbidities, etc), it’s a meaningless anecdote.
And if it had been a perfectly healthy kid, struck down, we’d already have these details in the press, because it fits the Mainstream Narrative.
So…I’m betting that kid was in pretty bad shape to begin with.
My brother was one of the very few who didn’t get it in childhood. He finally did at age 27. His face looked like an exploded fruitcake.
Nobody thought much of it, and once in a while someone died. It was just one of those things, there was nothing that could be done about it, so people just accepted it. That’s why you didn’t hear about the deaths.
My mother had an older brother who was born “blue”. In the 1930s such babies did not live. There was nothing that could be done, the doctors would simply inform the parents that the baby was going to die. And that was just how life was. Nobody made a big deal about it, because there was no point.
Now we know that there are two different conditions that cause “blue babies”, both of which are curable. I think one requires surgery, the other is treatable with drugs. So when such a baby is born the first thing they do is test to find out which of the two things it is, and then they apply the appropriate treatment and the child lives.
Hey, but Trump has deported 299 of those 10 million illegals to Panama, so this is a HUUUUGE success!
Yes, but not as big of success as you and your buddies protesting at Bernard College.
You’re not funny.
You’re not clever.
The only reason you get out of bed is because of Donald Trump.
Enjoy the next four years, I guess. Rest of your sad life is gonna suck.
Every little bit helps. You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Quit upvoting yourself, ya big TDS-infected chucklehead.
Every outbreak I’ve heard of, whose source has been traced, did not come from illegal immigrants.
The one I came closest to was caused by a tourist on a legal visa, who was horrified when he found out what he’d caused, and reported himself to the authorities.
Every outbreak I’ve heard of
Not dissing you, Milhouse, but if you mean from the mainstream media, then I have to say there might be a reason for that.
Vaccines kill a certain number, the disease kills another number, they require the vaccine when one number is much bigger than the other. Immunity to vaccine makers is so that they make the vaccine without risk from punitive damages from the ones they kill, which otherwise would keep them from participating.
Measles is only an issue if Republicans are in the Whitehouse. If Democrats are in the Whitehouse the press won’t notice such outbreaks.
It’s like “kids in cages.” During the Biden admin, dead kids were just “families enjoying vibrancy.”
In 1960, before measles vaccinations but when virtually everyone had been naturally exposed to measles, about 400 died
This was about 1/3 of the numbers who died from flu in that same year.
This isn’t a vaccination problem. This is an immigration problem. As others have commented, in 2000, measles was eradicated in the US. It’s not like Tetanus that is ubiquitous in nature and can therefore never be eradicated and will always pose a threat to someone who isn’t vaccinated. If we had a sensibly enforced immigration policy and standards in the US the last 4-years, this child would CERTAINLY still be alive irrespective of his family’s cultural relationship w/childhood vaccines.
Since we aren’t told this child’s immigration status, it is just as likely that he would have died of the disease had he stayed home in Mexico or Venezuela.
We are told that the family was Mennonite, which makes them culturally Teutonic and quite unlikely to be recent immigrants.
No we aren’t told that.
We are told it is in an area where Mennonites populate and that they don’t vaccinate.
Exactly; it says there was an outbreak involving Mennos; not that this child was a member.
I guess anything is possible. But, if the child isn’t Mennonite, the local media is horrible beyond description, even worse than anyone thinks they are. I say that because if you read the many local press reports on the subject, some of them have gone as far as to specifically mention a Mennonite school where there were almost 20 kids sick with Measles. While they didn’t explicitly state that is this kid’s school, that certainly was the heavy implication. They also blamed ‘home schoolers’ and a ‘very conservative sect’ of Mennonites who are largely responsible. If this kid turns out to be an illegal alien, all those people should sue.
That is just not true. I have not yet heard of an outbreak traced to an illegal immigrant, but I have heard of many that were traced to legal immigrants, legal tourists, or to Americans returning from abroad.
Apparently, this kid was a Mennonite, who went to a Mennonite school that has many unvaccinated kids and 20 cases of measles. American Mennonites have several generations born in the USA. He didn’t catch measles from recent immigrants.
OTOH, how did a disease that was once eliminated in the 48 states get into that school? It seems likely that if they could trace it back far enough, they’d find an unvaccinated immigrant. Closely knit groups of people who avoid most vaccinations make fertile ground for viruses such as measles, but the virus doesn’t spontaneously generate or fly across borders on its own.
Folks entering the Nation without permission, not vetted, not checked for basic vaccination, many under the thumb of transnational criminal/terrorist orgs or hostile foreign powers. Until that gets fixed we will continue to have imported criminals, infectious diseases, illegal drugs among other problems.
My best friends sister was born with both legs horribly twisted and they had to be amputated
Her mother was exposed to Measles when she was pregnant
It was horrible for the girls I’ll never forget
https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-the-difference-between-rubella-and-rubeola
Respectfully that may have been German measles, rubella. We vaccinate kids so few pregnant women are exposed to it. Measles rarely causes birth defects. However measles does reduce the immune system for about 3 months and on rare occasions literally rots the brain, sspe
I’m pro-vax. Our entire family has had the MMR vax along with all of the ‘normal’ vaccines for kids, along with a number of the ‘optional’ ones since my wife and the girls are immune-compromised. The Covid shots…not so much. Both the wife and I had to have heart treatments in the last year or two, hers was serious, mine was really minor. (well, as minor as something that affects your heart can be, I suppose) I’m stopping there before I rant.
I am vaccinated for everything my doctor has recommended, except for Wuhan. I told her I didn’t want that one, and she put up no resistance at all. Almost as if she agreed with me, though I have no idea whether that’st he case.
We do now. We didn’t 25 years ago. Measles was eradicated. And then it came back, thanks to people influenced by that evil monster Andrew Wakefield’s lies.
Lies that Kennedy has had a hand in promoting. That’s why it’s different with him in charge. Previous secretaries have fought against this dangerous ignorance and tried to convince people to have their children given the MMR jab. Kennedy spent years giving those lies credence. Nothing he’s done at HHS is responsible for this outbreak; but things he did many years earlier are likely to share responsibility for it.
I wonder how many air-related / ATC issues there were between November 2020 and today, and what the multiple of coverage is since January 20, 2025.
When I was young the old fashion “vaccination” was when you heard neighbors or friends had the measles your mom would take you over so you could get it while young and not suffer as much getting it when older. It was a more common practice with chicken pox.
Measles vaccine is relatively safe.
There is really no excuse not to get it given the last four years of unvetted illegals.