As west Texas fights measles, worries grow over federal support

In her hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Leah, a pregnant mother, has been avoiding shops and other public spaces for the past two weeks.

On Wednesday, the city saw a six-year-old who was not vaccinated for the death of the virus. This was the first US death from measles in nearly a decade.

The baby is halfway through, Leah may be putting the fetus at risk of health complications if he gets caught with the virus despite her own vaccination. Her pediatrician also advised her to raise the second shot of her older son’s vaccine (full course for vaccinations) as the risks to his health increased.

“Mentally, I’m thinking about not only myself and my children, but also the people I have to be,” said Leah, who refused to share her last name for privacy reasons.

The US declared measles had been “excluded” from the country in 2000, but in recent years the country has seen several outbreaks of the virus as anti-vaccine sentiment has risen.

The Texas outbreak began in a small Mennonite community near Lubbock, home to 260,000 people, and then spread. To date, there have been more than 130 cases in Texas and New Mexico, with 18 patients hospitalized, local health officials said.

On Wednesday, the nation’s newly confirmed and best health officer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called the Texas outbreak “Not Andal,” a claim that doctors and local residents fought, “unusual.”

Public health experts and Lubbock residents said the health secretary’s past childhood vaccine statements and actions taken in connection with them since he took office could encourage an outbreak that bothers them in concern for parents in Texas and nearby states.

“We want people to be healthy. When there’s a voice in our ears from leadership who doesn’t share the same factual opinion, it’s definitely hard to do that,” Leah said.

The Ministry of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

Since the outbreak began, Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health, has not taken a break.

She hosted a vaccine clinic to encourage people to get shots, contacted people whose children may have been exposed, and worked to educate the community about the virus.

“It’s more stressful, if not more stressful than the beginning of the Covid pandemic,” she told the BBC.

Ms Wells is most concerned about people who are unable to receive vaccines for highly contagious diseases. A highly contagious disease spreads easily to air or surfaces, and when an infected person breathes, it coughs and sneezes. Viruses that can cause fever, red rash, cough and other symptoms are also linked to many complications, including pneumonia, swelling of the brain, and death.

People with immunocompromised, children under one age, or pregnant people cannot be vaccinated against measles.

That includes the new baby that new Lubbock resident Kyle Levre is looking forward to. His wife is nine months pregnant and is scheduled to give birth at the same hospital where the patient died of measles.

Mr. Rable is terrifying in the first year of his son’s life.

“We don’t leave the house for a year because it’s essentially spreading like a wildfire here? We can’t do that,” he said.

To achieve immunity in the herd – sufficient groups are immune to the disease, limit their spread and protect non-vaccinations – approximately 95% of the population need to have shots, said Arefiya Malbari, chief of the Department of Walking Pediatrics at Texas Dell Medical College in Austin.

But some Texas communities are well below that figure, including only 82% of Gaines County, where the outbreak began, and kindergarteners, who are only vaccinated.

“When you have a lot of children who have not been vaccinated, measles can really easily spread within the community,” said Jill Weatherhead, an infectious disease professor at Baylor School of Medicine.

Now, doctors say parents, far from western Texas, are beginning to worry too. Dr. Malbari is receiving more calls from parents who are worried about protecting their children when not everyone gets the vaccine.

“I share that concern with them,” Dr. Malbari said.

Before Kennedy confirmed as America’s top official, public health experts were wary of his ability to manage the outbreak of vaccine skeptics, as the US now sees.

He repeated widely denied claims about the vaccine, including an unfounded theory that shots could cause autism.

During a Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy said he supported the measles vaccination. He pledged not to block people from being vaccinated, as HHS secretary, which makes it difficult to get the vaccine.

However, since taking office a few weeks ago, he has announced many plans related to the vaccine. This includes examining whether childhood vaccination schedules, including measles vaccinations, contribute to an increase in chronic disease.

He also delayed the initial meeting of the CDC Advisory Panel. This helped insurers recommend vaccines to cover (vaccines that include childhood vaccinations).

Kennedy told the CDC to stop promoting several vaccinations, including seasonal flu vaccine campaigns. It has been reported last week.

The move could disrupt the way the federal government allows Americans to access safe vaccines, including childhood vaccinations, said Dr. Peter Luley, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official.

But Dr. Lurie added that the most troublesome thing about Kennedy’s reaction to the outbreak of measles is “what he wasn’t saying – the way he can curb this outbreak is through vaccinations.”

On Wednesday, during his first public release as health secretary, Kennedy allegedly claimed the outbreak of measles that local health officials had contested.

In addition to calling the Texas outbreak “not unusual,” he claimed that the measles children went to hospital just to be quarantined. Hospital officials said they were taken there due to the severity of their illness.

Ron Cook, a family doctor who helps doctors respond to the outbreak and Lubbock health official, said the community hasn’t seen cases of measles in decades.

“It’s a catastrophic illness,” he said. “And that’s completely preventable.”

Minimizing Kennedy’s outbreak is difficult to watch for Lubbock’s pregnant parents.

Leah said he knows many local parents who don’t vaccinate their children due to false information about safety. She said the news of death has not changed their minds.

“If anything, it just doubled their beliefs,” she said.

But Ms Wells has seen at least some indications of encouragement. About 18 people came to the vaccination clinic multiple times after the deaths were announced on Wednesday.

Still, when parents said their child could have been exposed, they still don’t want to be vaccinated, including a shot dose that could be protected after potential exposure.

“In Texas, vaccines are a huge option,” she said.

Local health officials are working overtime to build trust and show that the vaccine is safe and effective, Dr. Cook said.

“We’re seeing some success, but we want to see a lot more,” he said. “It would be good to have some confidence from the power at the national level to show that this is a good vaccine.”