Prepare dinner, together with Lubbock’s director of public well being, Katherine Wells, mentioned they see no finish in sight for the outbreak, which now spans 9 counties in Texas, a lot of which have low vaccination charges. “This outbreak goes to proceed to develop,” Wells mentioned, declining to forecast how excessive the ultimate case depend might go after a reporter raised the potential of a number of hundred.

To this point, 116 of the 146 circumstances are below the age of 18, with 46 being between the ages of 0 and 4. Solely 5 of the 146 had been vaccinated with at the very least one dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Messaging

On a extra optimistic observe, Wells reported that the outbreak has appeared to sway some vaccine-hesitant dad and mom to get their kids vaccinated. Simply yesterday in Lubbock, over 50 kids got here into town’s clinic for measles vaccines. Eleven of these kids had vaccine exemptions, which means their dad and mom had beforehand gone by the state course of to exempt their baby from having to obtain routine childhood vaccines to attend faculty. “Which is a very good signal; meaning our message is getting on the market,” Wells mentioned.

To this point within the outbreak, which erupted in late January, messaging in regards to the illness and the significance of vaccination has completely come from state and native authorities. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention solely launched a brief statement late Thursday, which was not despatched by the company’s press distribution listing. It did, nonetheless, observe that “vaccination stays the most effective protection in opposition to measles an infection.”

Throughout a cupboard assembly Wednesday, US Well being Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to a query in regards to the outbreak, providing a wide range of inaccurate info. Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, falsely claiming that “it is common.” However, that is an uncommon 12 months for measles within the US. As epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina famous on Bluesky, the variety of US measles circumstances this 12 months has already surpassed the total case counts from eight of the previous 15 years. And it is just February.