Cook 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, lots of which have low vaccination charges. “This outbreak goes to proceed to develop,” Wells mentioned, declining to forecast how excessive the ultimate case rely may go after a reporter raised the opportunity of a number of hundred.

To date, 116 of the 146 instances 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 a minimum of one dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Messaging

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

To date within the outbreak, which erupted in late January, messaging concerning 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 quick assertion late Thursday, which was not despatched by means of the company’s press distribution record. It did, nonetheless, be aware that “vaccination stays the very best protection towards measles an infection.”

Throughout a cupboard assembly Wednesday, US Well being Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to a query concerning the outbreak, providing a wide range of inaccurate data. Kennedy downplayed the outbreak, falsely claiming that “it is common.” However, that is an uncommon yr for measles within the US. As epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina famous on Bluesky, the variety of US measles instances this yr has already surpassed the full case counts from eight of the earlier 15 years. And it’s only February.