The onset of measles in Western Texas due to vaccine skepticism

On a crispy day in a rural village in the countryside of Texas, dozens of Menonite community members gathered together with Robert F Kennedy JR in the nation’s top health officials to mourn the eight -year -old death.

DAISY HILDEBRAND is the second -most not vaccinated girl in the community and dies in measles in two months.

Zach Holbrooks, Director of Public Health, South Plain, said that Seminole Town officials also joined the reception to support their families after the funeral. This time, since the beginning of the onset, there was no story about the vaccine that prevented measles from death.

Holbrooks said, “We focused on their healing.” You don’t want to see a young child in any kind of disease because no one has a prevention of MMR vaccines. “

Like other seminole indigenous people, Holbrooks did not have vaccination of measles as a child. He was shot at university in February when his hometown became one of the worst measles in his hometown in 10 years.

The United States has seen more than 700 cases this year. 285 rapid increase reported in 2024. As of Friday, 541 (541) occurred in the western Texas and 56 patients were sent to the hospital.

Examples of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas are also related to the occurrence. Two children, including Daisy, are dead The first death to die from measles in the United States since 2015.

Public health experts say. They try to reach the vaccine guided residents, but struggle with the people who continue their daily lives as usual, along with the mixed messages of federal officials, including Kennedy who approved the theory of vaccination in the past.

Holbrooks said, “I want to come in more to get the vaccine.” “We can make a message, but it is up to them to meet us.”

Seminole Village in West Texas -7,000 people have several miles of farming and heredity.

Digital codes for the crisis of grabbing communities in a restaurant, total rich and tractor’s billboards: a complication, including a warning, pneumonia, brain swelling and death for the risks of measles.

It quickly spread between Mennonites, a religious community living near Seminole. Holbrooks estimates that the population can be up to 40,000 people in multiple counties. In this field, the public school vaccination rate is low at 82%.

About 95%of the community must be vaccinated against measles to achieve immunity. When sufficient groups of the group are limited to spread and immunity to unpopular diseases.

Holbrooks remembers when Lower German Mennonite Group began to move mainly in the 1970s. Religion has no specific doctrine of vaccination, but tends to avoid many modern life, including health care systems.

Their community is not alone. According to Terri Burke, director of the Texas vaccine advocacy group The Immunization Partnership, at least 118,000 kindergartens in Texas are exempted from rural areas. Parents can be exempted to exempt their children from school vaccines for various reasons, including religion.

Savannah Knelsen, an 18 -year -old server of Seminole Barbecue Restaurant, has not been vaccinated against measles or others.

In recent weeks, many families and friends (a friend who has not been vaccinated) have taken measles. One relative developed 104.5f (40.2C) heat, but still decided not to go to the hospital.

She has not been convinced of being vaccinated due to the death of her two children recently, she added that she wants to “fight and” in a healthy and healthy body. Experts agree that the vaccine is the best way to prevent infection, including severe infections.

Jessica Giesbrecht, a 19 -year -old colleague of Knelsen, was vaccinated with his family for measles.

Giesbrecht said, “I’m worried about my baby’s nephew.”

Nevertheless, the two said that the outbreak has no weight in everyday life. Others in Seminole agree.

The cashier of a local pharmacy said that no one has stopped for measles vaccination since the beginning of the onset. “People are just going on their lives,” she said.

On Sunday, Kennedy first traveled to this area since he broke out to attend an eight -year -old girl’s funeral.

The best health authorities in the United States are unlikely to lead the fight against measles that support the conspiracy theory of vaccination, including arguments of controversy over autism. He initially dismissed the outbreak in Western Texas and called it “not abnormal.”

Trump said last weekend that only the BBC was influenced by the “quite small number of people” on the Air Force 1. “It wasn’t new,” he added.

On Wednesday, Kennedy told the BBC’s US partner CBS news, “My position as a federal government is that people should get measles vaccines.”

This remarks met with social media backlash from some anti -barsin supporters. But Kennedy added that the government should not “mandatory” the vaccine.

Some of his early remarks remain.

In one of the natural health shops owned by several Menonite in Seminole, dozens of Daegu liver milk, which is a supplement containing vitamin A, exhibits. Kennedy, along with the vaccine, promoted vitamin A by alternative measles, and doctors say they should not be given without a doctor’s guidance and cannot replace the vaccine.

Treatment has sometimes turned out to be dangerous. Covenant Children’s Hospital in nearby LubBock said he treated some non -bearded children with measles against vitamin A toxicity in the BBC. Some tried to use it as a preventive measure.

Gordon Mattimoe, director of Andrews County’s Health Bureau, said the community should provide a more powerful message for federal officials to persuade federal officials to be vaccinated and slow down.

“People look at leaders to lead,” he said.

Jeff Hutt and Kennedy’s former field field field manager, the former spokesman for Make American Health’s Political Action Committee, insisted that the minister of health should provide a “political” appropriate “statement, providing a skeptical position on the vaccine.

Hutt said, “When you cover the intermediate zone, you don’t have to be convinced that you can reassure people that he had a handle, or that you can reassure people that you are insisting on the gun.”

The Trump administration’s health policy can have different results in Texas, officials said. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health, is at risk of losing important resources due to attempts to reduce $ 11.4 billion (£ 8.8 billion) with public health subsidies. The director was temporarily blocked by a judge last week.

Mattimoe said that a $ 250,000 subsidy fund for the health department cannot hire a new nurse for vaccination due to potential cuts.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement on the BBC that it has deployed “necessary” resources to outbreak the “necessary” resources of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The CDC has a need to communicate close to local and state health authorities,” he said, “officials said.

The Texas Health Service Bureau can lose $ 550 million in subsidies. Chris van deusen spokesman told the BBC.

Mattimoe contacted the lawmakers and the Lord to ask for help, but it is not hope.

“I don’t think they have funds,” he said.

Two days after Daisy’s death, he was quiet in the Health Vacation Clinic near Texas.

Katherine Wells, director of the city’s public health manager who receives children with serious measles in more rural counties, said he was busy on another day when 20 people were coming in for the vaccine.

Holbrooks said that since the outbreak in January, Semi -Nol said that 103 adults and 143 children were vaccinated against measles. The three neighboring rural counties decided to close the less unused vaccine clinic and send more employees to the hit hit seminar.

“There is always a story. What can we do, are we doing enough?” Hol Brooks said. “We want to build trust and not tear.”

Sometimes, local health authorities have made progress.

Mattimoe said that Andrews County’s Mennonite doctor has gained the trust of the community and encouraged vaccination.

“I think the reliable messenger of the community is very important,” he said.

MS WELLS hopes to start vaccination after the new instructions of the city to vaccinate the latest measles and one year instead of one year.

The larger city has seen the onset in the day childhood. Among the young children to be vaccinated among children, she believes that she will help her as an early gun.

But Wells said, “There will always be people that we can’t reach.”

This means that people may be likely to circulate for a while in the western Texas western part of Texas, where people are not vaccinated.

Mattimoe said, “We are at the beginning.” It will have to pass through the community. We will continue until they get a natural exemption. “