Texas measles outbreak may have spread to New Mexico; total cases near 100

The Texas cases are largely in children. Sixteen cases have been hospitalized.

See full article...

 

[norton_I]

It's primarily going to be children that suffer because the idiot parents were vaccinated.

Sadly, probably 100,000 children will needlessly die from this idiocracy before the masses wake up and demand (?!) the politicians do something (

240,000 people in the US died from COVID in 2022. Most of them were unvaccinated but eligible to be vaccinated. 70,000 Americans died from COVID in 2023,. The dramatic reduction reflecting that most people now have some resistance to serious sickness and death, but it was still the 10th most common cause of death.

It's true that most COVID generally isnt as deadly for children, compared to the typical "childhood" diseases. But if you are counting on dead children to convince people check out our gun laws. 60 million Americans voted for "children dying, lets have more of that."

 

[ktmglen]

RIP USA. It was a good +/- 200 years experience right? We here in the EU are next... King musk is already trying to buy the German elections.

Speaking of buying elections, my personal opinion is that the way around Citizens United here in the US is confiscatory tax rates on wealth over $100 million. No one should have $290 million in their couch cushions to spend on an election.

 

[ranthog]

Did you know that those who were vaccinated against Measles between 1968 and 1989 only had one dose instead of the two that are standard today. An additional dose will provide more protection for those people. This is generally for those who are high risk, such as in college settings, healthcare occupations, international travel, or have contact with an immunocompromised person. Those who were vaccinated between 1957 and 1968 should considered getting revaccinated, as the inactivated virus used during those years wasn't particularly effective.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html
(Use archive.org if this page has been removed already by the time you see this)

When I was in elementary school they had a mass immunization for measles with the second shot because of a major outbreak in the high school. They even had those big guns to shoot vaccine in without a needle. In Jr High we were prompted to get doctor's sign off that I had had a second shot in order to to go to school. So I would guess most people born in the 80's probably got their second dose due to the changing requirements at schools.

 

[ranthog]

If we pretend to ignore your overt racism, you're starting from a premise that there were no cases in the US. That's false. There have been cases every single year. Since 2000, the number of cases has been in the 10's to 100's, with a max of 1274 in 2019. There has never been a point where it made sense to skip MMR, and there won't be unless the relevant diseases are eradicated not just in the US but worldwide.

As for "illegal aliens" bringing it in, far more people travel in and out of this country legally than cross the border illegally. About 90 million trips by Americans out of the country each year, and about 80 million visitors from other countries. Illegal entries are maybe 5% of those numbers. We could shut off all illegal entries into the country and it would make no difference for measles cases.

Besides being overtly racist, its also patently false for anyone in the Americas to likely be a carrier. Measles is not currently endemic in North, Central, or South America. So anyone crossing the land boarders is unlikely to be a carrier of measles.

It doesn't seem likely that someone would catch measles from an outbreak there and then bring them across into the US.

It is endemic in most of the rest of the world, though, so travel to and from Europe, Asia, and Africa is probably where the cases came from. It is also likely to be legal entry form Americans or those with Visas. Its much harder to make an illegal entry into the US when you're traveling by plane.

 

[Uncivil Servant]

If you can imagine Hannibal Lector reacting like Madeline Kahn's character in Clue, that's basically my reaction to this entirely predictable and preventable catastrophe.

"Clariiiiise, clearly you weren't thinking...at all, and the....what the hell....how? For fuck's sake?!?!?!"

 

[koolraap]

I reckon they should dump the bodies in The Gulf of Stupidity.

It's going to be a very long 4 years for the entire world, assuming the USA has another election.

 

[ranthog]

Well, I hope more people get infected so that later on if they recover, the anti-vax parents can look at their kids and know they did this to them.

Fuck no. The kids didn't do anything wrong. I'd say fuck the parents but they're probably vaccinated.

 

[artvandelayIIII]

The quicker the stupid get sick and die, the better. Yeah yeah "what about heard immunity and the people who get sick easier from the unvaccinated"? I don't care anymore. If a small percentage of people die to ensure that all the MAGAts die, I thank you and your family for your sacrifice.

You're aware that babies under 1 year can't be vaccinated against measles, yeah?
Because not that long ago my kid (who has been given every single scheduled vaccine, as have both her parents) could easily become collatorateral damage with this dangerous shit. You know who else fantasizes about cleansing plagues? Religious nuts, and you're no better than them. Get fucked.

 

[ranthog]

You're aware that babies under 1 year can't be vaccinated against measles, yeah?
Are they included in your MAGAt death toll, you fucking creep?

I've also talked to people who just turned 18 and are currently getting all their vaccines up to date. The kids often escape these situations and get things straightened out eventually.

It is sociopathic to wish harm to innocent kids who don't get a choice in the matter. The OP really needs to think about what they're wishing and get a grip.

 

[A_Very_Tired_Geek]

Well, golly! I’d swear there’s a vaccine for measles? That covers an entire lifetime?

The MMR doesn't always last a lifetime. As the article stated, it's not always proof against contracting the diseases. Sometimes the immunity granted by the initial round of jabs will fade given time (everyone is different). Older adults actually concerned about outbreaks thanks to concerted anti-vax sentiment and propaganda in their area might want to consider a booster shot, especially if you live in or near areas of disease outbreaks.

 

[Tom Brokaw]

Texas and poor vaccinations? You don’t say.

Hellhole of a state that would rather buy assault rifles at Walmart to use on kids than believe in the most basic of scientific facts.

Let nature run its course now, and whatever happens to those infected, happens. We, as society, should not care about said outcome.

We should very much care, from both practical and moral perspectives. But we can do that and still hold those responsible, accountable.

 

[Uncivil Servant]

I would like to remind people that many drugs, including those used in cancer chemotherapy and to treat autoimmune disease, can suppress the immune system and weaken one's previous protection via vaccination.

Those people can be vaccinated, but if they have trouble producing the right types of white blood cells or antibodies, they can be almost as vulnerable as someone who is unvaccinated, and they depend on everyone else getting vaccinated.

But it sure is enlightening to see the eugenecists come out of the woodwork.

 

[Dano40]

Where is Abbott without Costello? That heartless governor of Texas……

 

[A_Very_Tired_Geek]

I've also talked to people who just turned 18 and are currently getting all their vaccines up to date. The kids often escape these situations and get things straightened out eventually.

It is sociopathic to wish harm to innocent kids who don't get a choice in the matter. The OP really needs to think about what they're wishing and get a grip.

I consider the OP to be just as misanthropic as the people they're insulting. Pot. Kettle. Charcoal black.

There are plenty of reasons people in West Texas (and elsewhere) don't get vaccinations other than falling for anti-vax propaganda. Some don't speak English is the biggest problem. Spanish speaking residents often don't know what services are available because the Powers-That-Be don't know how to reach them even if they aren't being racist. Immigrant communities tend to be insular. You need someone part of the group to communicate with them effectively. They (rightfully) don't trust the government to tell them the truth. This is the case regardless of who is in power in Austin. They come from dictatorships and heavily corrupted republics. They reach the US where the ICE and deportation is always on their minds, so they keep their heads down.

Then there are the actual US Powers-That-Be that are doing everything they can to bury medical information they don't agree with. Non-white people have reason to distrust vaccination efforts because of the mishandling of such efforts by both state and federal governments. Beyond the cases where vaccines offered to non-whites like the Tuskeegee syphilis study were actually harmful, access to proper medical care is a problem too. You can't get a vaccination even if you want one if you have to drive an hour or two just to see a doctor. If you've ever lived in, or even driven through west Texas, it's a whole lot of nothing outside the bigger towns. Medical care is spotty in small towns. Public health units are underfunded because the general population is... unsympathetic till they end up on the streets, and by then it's too late to get your voice heard.

 

[ranthog]

I consider the OP to be just as misanthropic as the people they're insulting. Pot. Kettle. Charcoal black.

There are plenty of reasons people in West Texas (and elsewhere) don't get vaccinations other than falling for anti-vax propaganda. Some don't speak English is the biggest problem. Spanish speaking residents often don't know what services are available because the Powers-That-Be don't know how to reach them even if they aren't being racist. Immigrant communities tend to be insular. You need someone part of the group to communicate with them effectively. They (rightfully) don't trust the government to tell them the truth. This is the case regardless of who is in power in Austin. They come from dictatorships and heavily corrupted republics. They reach the US where the ICE and deportation is always on their minds, so they keep their heads down.

Then there are the actual US Powers-That-Be that are doing everything they can to bury medical information they don't agree with. Non-white people have reason to distrust vaccination efforts because of the mishandling of such efforts by both state and federal governments. Beyond the cases where vaccines offered to non-whites like the Tuskeegee syphilis study were actually harmful, access to proper medical care is a problem too. You can't get a vaccination even if you want one if you have to drive an hour or two just to see a doctor. If you've ever lived in, or even driven through west Texas, it's a whole lot of nothing outside the bigger towns. Medical care is spotty in small towns. Public health units are underfunded because the general population is... unsympathetic till they end up on the streets, and by then it's too late to get your voice heard.

Absolutely. There is a reason why you need public health campaigns, and why there are people whose jobs are to figure out how to communicate this stuff to people. This is also an area where public schools may be one of the few possibly trusted contact points for this stuff, and they're fighting a war against public education as well.

I just meant to illustrate a worst case scenario (antivaxers) and how the kids often do come around when they can make their own decisions.

 

[Bernardo Verda]

I reckon they should dump the bodies in The Gulf of Stupidity.

"The Gulf of Stupidity".

I think we have finally seen an acceptable compromise to the naming debate; it'll just take a few years before it becomes the obvious choice to everybody inside and outside the USofA.

 

[terrydactyl]

Where is Abbott without Costello? That heartless governor of Texas……

It seems modern conservatives (if you can even call them conservatives) want to sweep any inconvenient facts under the rug.

Hospitalized Children? Where? I don't see them.

 

[Lorentz of Suburbia]

Are they re-inventing witches and then blaming witches ... yet?

Bubbacletus likes his steak, like his Ages, like his coal rolled, dark.

None of that rainbow crap.

Except the colors that don't run.

Cain't run. Because of the diabetus.

Diabetus being a curse Rachel Maddow invented.

< right when you think your hyperbole can't capture reality you stop editi

 

[NicoleC]

When I was in elementary school they had a mass immunization for measles with the second shot because of a major outbreak in the high school. They even had those big guns to shoot vaccine in without a needle. In Jr High we were prompted to get doctor's sign off that I had had a second shot in order to to go to school. So I would guess most people born in the 80's probably got their second dose due to the changing requirements at schools.

Something similar when I was in college in the late 80's. There was an outbreak and your choices were line up and get the vax or leave school. 25k people, and I don't think anyone blinked at a vaccine.

How quickly people forget epidemics like polio ravaging a generation.

My doc said not to bother getting an updated MMR, but I don't think Walgreens will say no.

 

[Marakai]

People 45 and older need not apply, apparently.

Yes, that has pretty much always been the case. Though it's not a matter of not needing to apply: it affects your point score. If you can reach the threshold without the age points, you can still make it. But I am most certainly not a professional immigration lawyer, so this is NOT legal advice, which should be needless to say.

Though refugees and asylum seekers are treated separately. At the rate things are going, will we see convoys of boats making the journey southwest-ward, like the Vietnamese boat people in the 70s?

 

[MedicalGeek]

I am concerned that a new variant could develop. Is this a valid concern?

Measles does not seem to exhibit antigenic changes leading to new variants. Long before measles vaccine was developed, it was well understood that having measles conveyed lifetime immunity to the measles. The same vaccine has maintained its efficacy since it was introduced (1968). Measles is not able to undergo reassortment like influenza viruses. Overall it seems very unlikely.

 

[marsilies]

Besides being overtly racist, its also patently false for anyone in the Americas to likely be a carrier. Measles is not currently endemic in North, Central, or South America. So anyone crossing the land boarders is unlikely to be a carrier of measles.

It doesn't seem likely that someone would catch measles from an outbreak there and then bring them across into the US.

It is endemic in most of the rest of the world, though, so travel to and from Europe, Asia, and Africa is probably where the cases came from. It is also likely to be legal entry form Americans or those with Visas. Its much harder to make an illegal entry into the US when you're traveling by plane.

To wit, info on the sources for some of the 2019 outbreaks
https://vaxopedia.org/2019/05/29/who-is-patient-zero-in-the-2019-measles-outbreaks/

The 2019 measles outbreaks include the:

• Rockland Outbreak – an unvaccinated teenager brought measles to Rockland County in September 2018 from Israel.
• Brooklyn Outbreak – the initial case in Brooklyn was unvaccinated and got measles in October 2018 on a visit to Israel. Measles was reintroduced into the community at least six other times though, four cases were also acquired on visits to Israel, while two people got measles from the U.K., and one from Ukraine.
• Pacific Northwest Outbreak – a child who had traveled from Ukraine to Washington was the first confirmed case and likely source of the Pacific Northwest measles outbreak.
• Michigan Outbreak – a traveler from Brooklyn started the Michigan measles outbreak.
• Northern California Outbreak – a “cluster” of cases in Butte, Tehama, and Shasta counties that was started by a traveler who had recently been to the Philippines.
• Puget Sound Outbreak – triggered by a Canadian resident who traveled to Seattle, after completing a trip to Japan and New York, where he likely became infected.

 

[Bernardo Verda]

Something similar when I was in college in the late 80's. There was an outbreak and your choices were line up and get the vax or leave school. 25k people, and I don't think anyone blinked at a vaccine.

How quickly people forget epidemics like polio ravaging a generation.

My doc said not to bother getting an updated MMR, but I don't think Walgreens will say no.

My university wouldn't confirm enrollment without proof of vaccination (later 1970s).
I couldn't get hold of my documentation, so I had to take my shots again. (IIRC, that could be arranged to be done on campus just before the semester started.)

 

[Strandwolf]

I don't think in anyone's wildest imagination that anyone thought how prescient Idiocracy was... it's literally the Trump administration

Don't insult President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho. He honestly tried to help his people. Trump? Not so much.

 

[Mardaneus]

Children whom the majority of which would go on to be just as stupid and hateful and evil as their parents. Hitler was a child once. So was Trump and everyone in his cabinet. I’m sure there are plenty of people here who wouldn’t have any issues with them being offed as a kid to save the future. This is just preventing a possible worse person in the future at best and at worst a boring, everyday person. Get off your high horse.

Fuck no, we don't do pre-crime here. Especially since we don't have three precogs that can actually see who is going be stupid, hateful and evil. Even more so since the definitions for those words are all subjective and could just as well apply to people who do what you'd consider doing good in the present as fitting those categories by the people in the future.

 

[gnasher729]

Infection rate is literally doubling with every article I read on Ars. I feel bad for the kids unlucky enough to be born to a bunch of selfish, hateful, ignorant dumbasses.

Obviously we need to convince Beth to write fewer articles.

 

[gnasher729]

I am concerned that a new variant could develop. Is this a valid concern?

Not at this point. It took 100s of millions of Covid cases to have mutations that were worse than the original, so with 90 cases the risk is minimal. Now what you should look at is the time until the number of cases doubles.

 

[gnasher729]

240,000 people in the US died from COVID in 2022. Most of them were unvaccinated but eligible to be vaccinated. 70,000 Americans died from COVID in 2023,. The dramatic reduction reflecting that most people now have some resistance to serious sickness and death, but it was still the 10th most common cause of death.

Your numbers are wrong. About 1.2 million US Covid deaths.

 

[Mossy]

If you have any worries, just book a bunch of boosters at any major pharmacy. If you have health coverage, it should be free. If you don't, it still should be pretty cheap -- especially compared to catching the real thing. None of the pharmacies will deny you extra shots.

I did a MMR booster last year because the whooping cough was circulating wildly in the countries I planned to visit. Why take the risk of losing 1/3rd of your vacation being sick in your hotel room?

Learned my lesson from getting sick on vacation the year before that so I got boosters for covid + flu + MMR + etc. a month before my trip. Pharmacist was happy to give me 4 shots in 1 sitting.

 

[PunMaster]

Nope. Listen, I've met Mennonites, and they generally seem like some of the nicest religious fanatics in the world. Damn pleasant people. But they are, figuratively speaking, shitting in our well water with this vaccine resistance, and that has to stop.

I am a Mennonite who believes in vaccines, who is part of a Mennonite church that also believes in vaccines. Having said that, I can understand from a historical perspective why some Mennonites would be suspicious of government programs such as vaccination.

The Mennonites began as part of the Radical Reformation in the 1500s. They were persecuted by Catholics and Lutherans and Calvinists for several centuries. Therefore, they moved from one country to another in order to avoid government control, persecution, and military service, and many became suspicious of higher learning because they associated it with the rationalization of the state church that was persecuting them. The Mennonite psyche acquired such a persecution complex that a 1500 page book about Mennonite martyrs used to be given as a wedding present within some Amish and Mennonite circles. This suspicion of government policy and higher learning is still present within some conservative Mennonite groups.

I am not trying to excuse the anti-vaccine behavior but rather trying to explain where it comes from. Going further, I think that the best approach would be to present vaccination in a way that does not feel to conservative Mennonites like outside secular government attempting to control them.

 

[AlexIL]

At this rate next pandemic starts in USA. Soviets required vaccination or get shot. Dealt with all kinds of curable stuff in no time. That was a hundred years ago. USA with all the advancements deals with measels? You got to be kidding me.

 

[Random Toxicity]

I did a MMR booster last year because the whooping cough was circulating wildly in the countries I planned to visit.

Why did you get an MMR for pertussis?

 

[MKD]

I don't think in anyone's wildest imagination that anyone thought how prescient Idiocracy was... it's literally the Trump administration

Nope, it's actually the opposite of the Trump administration: when President Camacho learned that there was someone smarter than himself, he FUCKING MADE HIM SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR (and Joe subsequently saved the crops).

 

[PhaseB]

I am not trying to excuse the anti-vaccine behavior but rather trying to explain where it comes from. Going further, I think that the best approach would be to present vaccination in a way that does not feel to conservative Mennonites like outside secular government attempting to control them.

Would it then be best for that to come from inside your larger community? So Mennonites starting up their own vaccination campaigns for other Mennonite groups?

 

[SimonW]

In related news, head disease advocate RFK could not be reached for comment, as he was busy shutting down vaccine programs.

At first I misread your post to mean "RFK, advocate of head disease" and tbh I think my misreading makes more sense.