this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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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.

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[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

“Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

“I feel all sleepy,” she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

Roald Dahl, pleading with people to vaccinate their children against measles.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

According to the doctors from the DoYourOwnResearch University - like donvict, Joe Rogan, and Brainworms - it's probably because she didn't eat properly, get enough sunshine, and work out. Maybe a dose of HCQ or horse dewormer to top it off and she's be in top-top shape. And getting those chakras aligned...

Obviously, /s

Anti-vaxxers and the bullshit artists calling themselves "skeptics" (they are NOT FUCKING SKEPTICS, by the way - the abuse of that term is maddening) drive me crazy. They can all go fuck themselves. They are fine with killing people, even children, rather than admit they have no fucking clue what they are talking about. It's all about them and their goddamn ego.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And much like a novel of his works, a bunch of kids are going to have to die for us to figure this out.

[–] Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago

Maybe we can call them late term abortions to get Republicans to actually give a fuck about all the kids harmed by anti vaccination

[–] HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago

They will continue to die and let their children die to spite the rest of us.

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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.

[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 68 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Luckily for you we'll soon be able to test your fear "Trump’s education secretary may be asked to dismantle the Education Department. Here’s what it does" https://apnews.com/article/education-department-trump-linda-mcmahon-9fc4fcef00e11b842063235798119cfc AP February 2025

[–] Joeffect@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (5 children)

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...

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[–] mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 23 points 3 days ago
[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 123 points 4 days ago (5 children)

The part that sucks in all of this: the children who died didn't choose to not get the vaccine. Their parents did.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 65 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They might not die. They might just go blind or dead or have brain damage.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 33 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But no autism! Cause that's wOrSt PoSsIbLe thing!

[–] TaiCrunch@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As the parent of an autistic child, I'd much rather him be alive and autistic than killed by a completely preventative means.

Of course, that doesn't even matter because vaccines don't fucking cause autism.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 days ago

As an autist who is also vaxxed against many many things, I got autism ^2

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Man... That's a good point. These people are so fucked up.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

Correct.

Not vaccinating your children should be cited as child abuse. Because, it is.

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[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 95 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 24 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Roadkill RFK will be harvesting their dead for food. Allegedly.

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[–] Norgoroth@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

It stops when all the unvaxxed kids die

[–] HowAbt2morrow@futurology.today 98 points 4 days ago (16 children)

How bad are the measles, really? Asking because I was born in the 1st fucking world and never met anyone under a 100 that met someone with it.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 99 points 4 days ago (10 children)

We think of measles as a minor viral infection of kids that causes fever, rash, and a runny nose, and goes away without major complications. Unfortunately, that is not always so. Nervous system disease is a particular problem. SSPE occurs as a late, fatal measles complication in one out of 1,367 cases of measles in children younger than 5. One out of 1,000 children with measles gets an infection of the brain (encephalitis) early in the course of measles. About 15% of children with measles encephalitis die. Measles encephalitis led to the death of the writer Roald Dahl's daughter Olivia.

Children's brains can also develop an allergic reaction to the measles virus several weeks after infection. This is called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). Children seem to recover, then get fever, confusion, headaches, and neck stiffness. Like SSPE and measles encephalitis, ADEM occurs in about one out of 1,000 cases of measles. It is fatal in 10% to 20% of patients. Survivors of measles encephalitis and ADEM often have epilepsy, brain damage, or developmental delay.

Measles has other serious complications. During pregnancy, it causes miscarriages. Measles can infect the cornea, and was once a common cause of blindness. Ear infections and hearing loss are frequent. Measles virus also infects the lungs, causing pneumonia in 3% to 4% of cases. Measles weakens the immune system for at least two months. Sometimes patients die of other infections immediately after they recover from measles. In a measles epidemic that killed more than 3,000 soldiers in the US Army in 1917–18, bacterial pneumonia was the major cause of death.

Measles: The forgotten killer - John Ross, MD, FIDSA, Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

[–] minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world 65 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Essentially, when you're infected with measles, your immune system abruptly forgets every pathogen it's ever encountered before – every cold, every bout of flu, every exposure to bacteria or viruses in the environment, every vaccination. The loss is near-total and permanent. Once the measles infection is over, current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what's good and what's bad almost from scratch. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia

[–] Kitathalla@lemy.lol 18 points 4 days ago

current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what’s good and what’s bad almost from scratch

While that's horrifying, I wonder if it could offer a glimpse into ways to get rid of allergies.

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[–] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 45 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I have no first-hand experience with it either, but understand that in addition to its direct shitty flu-like symptoms and the telltale rash, it has this strange ability to factory reset your immune system so you get to go through all those other diseases your body fought off in the past again.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 4 days ago

REALLY fucking bad

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[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago
[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

RFK will recommend drinking water, take a vitamin and suck it up. Nothing to see here, move along. I feel sorry for the children who are led by their dumb fucked up parents.

Next up, Polio.

[–] FolknForage@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I would totally gloat on the FO, but it sucks for the non-idiotic Texans and those that can’t get vaxed. :-/

[–] Majorllama@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My God. If only there was some sort of preventative measure they could have taken!

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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?

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

Might have to start building walls around the areas where idiots are giving each other preventable diseases.

[–] blueamigafan@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

Lost my uncle at the height of covid because he wouldn't get vaccinated, apparently because he thought it was population control not sure how many more kids he was going to have at 70 but there we go. He basically spent too long on nonsense Facebook pages and the inevitable happened, all because some random people online convinced him and they will never be held to account.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

remember who did this. it's not over.

[–] lorski@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

And it will never end til everyone who can contract measles, contracts it. TX does not care, and neither does RFK Jr. Shrug.

[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Measles? Isn't there a vaccine for tha...oh...whoops...

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 17 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Good thing everyone I know is vaccinated.

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[–] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 33 points 4 days ago (11 children)

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.

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