At least 49 cases have been confirmed. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people may be infected.

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.

  • @Joeffect
    14•5 days ago

    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…

    • @[email protected]
      8•5 days ago

      You know what’s interesting is that the first real anti-vaxxers started because old vaccines would use pus from an infected cow. Something about it being unholy worship of cow or some nonsense.

      Now the anti-vaxx crowd is all crying about synthetics… Can’t make anyone happy.

      • @CharlesDarwinEnglish
        13•5 days ago

        The truly OG anti-vaxxers had some among them that thought it was against their god’s will to combat disease, if you can fucking believe it (people are stupid and horrible, it turns out):

        https://newrepublic.com/article/121000/puritanical-roots-anti-vaxxer-movement-go-back-300-years

        To treat small pox was seen as a form of blasphemy—a moral evil that refused to recognize that epidemics were acts of God.

        I just don’t understand how such a “god” could be worthy of worship, then. Imagine losing 9 children before they reached adulthood. I’d flip this “god” of theirs the bird, and try the cure, thankyouveryfuckingmuch.

      • @Joeffect
        5•5 days ago

        Well puss is gross man…

    • @Red_October
      4•5 days ago

      I had this idea, like what if we used our own cells to make some of the identifying surface proteins of viruses and stuff, and use that to train our immune system on what to look for. We wouldn’t even need to cultivate the pathogen itself at all.

      • @Joeffect
        2•4 days ago

        Your using big words… You must be one of them folks we have to stab with our pitchforks… Get the hell out of here