BORDERLANDS
Measles USA: From Patient Zero to Zero Patience
Vol. 25. Issue 02.27-Exclusive
Introduction
With the news of an infected child who died in Texas recently, a new concern is rising nationwide involving a number of issues, Medicare, retreat from the World Health Organization, medical qualifications of the new Health and Human Services secretary, an outspoken anti-vaccination advocate, cutting back funding for the National Institute of Health, to mention those directly on the radar. Much of that, although directly related to the outbreak, will be addressed only when context is needed to clarify the roots of the surge in measles case, beginning with background, the cure, much-touted “eradication,” a look at a previous similar spread, and ending with a focus on the Texas situation.
Methodology
The format will be:
a.) Introduction; b.) Methodology; c.) Capsules- containing artificial intelligence, AI, query results enclosed in parenthesis (Begin Perplexity-AI) and (End Perplexity-AI). The queries will have in-line links to where the information was recovered along with the generic link of the query; d.) Newspaper Archives; e.) Congressional Records; f.) Notes; g.) Afterword.
Capsules
(Begin Perplexity-AI)
measles
Measles is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the measles virus, a member of the Morbillivirus genus within the Paramyxoviridae family2. It is an airborne disease that spreads easily through coughs and sneezes of infected individuals, with a reproductive number ranging from 3.7 to 203.32.
Symptoms and Progression
Symptoms typically appear 10-14 days after exposure and include:
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High fever (often exceeding 40°C or 104°F)
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Cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis)
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Koplik’s spots (small white spots inside the cheeks)
The rash usually begins on the face and neck, spreading to the rest of the body over several days. It lasts for about 5-6 days before fading4.
Complications
Measles can lead to severe complications, particularly in young children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals. These may include:
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Pneumonia
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Encephalitis (brain inflammation)
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Blindness
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Severe diarrhea and dehydration
Prevention and Vaccination
The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing the disease3. Despite being declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, recent outbreaks have occurred due to decreasing vaccination rates and increased global measles activity3.
Recent Developments
As of February 27, 2025, there have been concerning developments regarding measles:
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A spike in measles cases has prompted county health officials to urge vaccination6.
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The first measles case in the San Antonio area has been confirmed in a first-grade classroom7.
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Tragically, an unvaccinated child in Texas has died from measles, marking the first such death in the United States in a decade8.
These recent events underscore the importance of maintaining high vaccination rates to protect individuals and communities from this potentially severe disease.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/measles-G_FJg42tTiu.CmNKbwn6.w
measles texas outbreak
A measles outbreak in West Texas has resulted in the first measles-related death in the United States in a decade. An unvaccinated school-aged child succumbed to the illness in Lubbock, Texas, marking a tragic milestone in the ongoing outbreak145.
Outbreak Details
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As of February 26, 2025, there are 124 confirmed measles cases across nine counties in rural West Texas14.
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The majority of cases (101) are among individuals aged 17 and younger3.
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18 people have been hospitalized due to the outbreak4.
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Almost all cases are in unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status4.
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The outbreak has spread to eastern New Mexico, with nine additional cases reported there1.
Affected Communities
The outbreak is primarily affecting the Mennonite community in an area characterized by small towns separated by expansive, oil-rig-strewn landscapes1. These communities are interconnected through travel for work, religious activities, and daily necessities, facilitating the spread of the virus.
Public Health Response
Health officials emphasize that the most effective method for preventing measles is through two doses of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine, which can prevent over 97% of measles infections5. The outbreak highlights the importance of vaccination, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that up to 90% of unvaccinated individuals exposed to the virus will contract it1.
Additional Cases
While the West Texas outbreak is the most severe, measles cases have also been reported in other states, including Alaska, Georgia, New Jersey, New York City, and Rhode Island3. A separate case was also confirmed in an unvaccinated adult in Rockwall County, North Texas, though it is not believed to be connected to the West Texas outbreak6.
This outbreak serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of declining vaccination rates and the continued importance of public health measures to prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases like measles.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/measles-texas-outbreak-UDGo1X2UTTa_raXsKW.EkQ
budget cuts affecting measles outbreak
Recent budget cuts and policy changes have significantly impacted the response to measles outbreaks in the United States and globally. The current measles outbreak in Texas, which has infected at least 124 people and hospitalized 18, highlights the consequences of these cuts23.
Global Impact
The World Health Organization’s Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network (Gremlin) is at risk of collapse due to the loss of US funding. This network, which receives about $8 million annually from the US, is crucial for tracking and controlling infectious threats worldwide2. The potential collapse of Gremlin threatens measles elimination efforts and could impact the detection of other diseases like SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus, and rare infections such as bird flu and Ebola2.
Domestic Consequences
In the United States, budget cuts and policy changes have affected the response to the current measles outbreak:
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Reduced vaccination rates: Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation have led to a decline in measles vaccination among schoolchildren, increasing the risk of outbreaks4.
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Staffing issues: Thousands of job cuts in health agencies have left public health departments understaffed, potentially hampering outbreak response efforts6.
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Policy changes: The new administration’s approach to public health, including the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, has raised concerns about the government’s response to vaccine-preventable diseases3.
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Funding cuts: The DOGE cuts and executive orders pausing some government operations have complicated the administration’s response to both the measles outbreak and other health threats like avian flu3.
These budget cuts and policy changes could have significant political implications, especially for Republican lawmakers in the upcoming midterm elections if diseases like measles continue to spread3. The situation underscores the importance of maintaining robust public health infrastructure and funding to prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks effectively.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/budget-cuts-affecting-measles-dryOtwFPTxme8r5HbPLoHA
social media blames illegal immigrants for texas measles outbreak
Social media posts blaming illegal immigrants for the recent measles outbreak in Texas are inaccurate and misleading. The current outbreak is primarily linked to low vaccination rates among certain communities, not immigration12.
The measles outbreak in West Texas has resulted in 124 confirmed cases as of February 2025, with the majority occurring among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated individuals, particularly children14. The first death from measles in the United States in a decade was reported in an unvaccinated school-aged child in Lubbock, Texas24.
Historically, similar misinformation has circulated during previous outbreaks. For instance, during a 2019 measles outbreak, a Facebook meme incorrectly blamed immigrants from South America, despite the virus being eliminated in that region in 20163.
The current outbreak is more likely due to:
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Declining vaccination rates: MMR vaccine coverage has dropped in Texas following the COVID-19 pandemic4.
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Travel-related cases: Recent outbreaks are often linked to travelers returning from countries with ongoing measles transmission3.
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Pockets of unvaccinated communities: The outbreak is largely occurring among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated members of certain communities5.
Health officials emphasize that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles, with two doses of the MMR vaccine being over 97% effective in preventing infection7. The spread of misinformation on social media platforms can contribute to vaccine hesitancy and hinder efforts to control the outbreak6.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/social-media-blames-illegal-im-IC.Q3shQRhydI00hKJmESA
(End Perplexity-AI)
Newspaper Archive
The outbreak of 2015:
Because there was a death in Texas related to the current situation, the news has glossed over most of the details on what happened in 2015, ignoring the events leading up to the single death in Washington state. The reason appears to be sensational, an effort to dethrone the new, unpopular HHS secretary, and an opportunity to drive a wedge in the new administration’s policy of “take no prisoners.” Much can be learned in the quest for a “patient zero” to determine who and where it began; in fact, it wasn’t Washington, but Disneyland in Southern California.
(Begin Newspaper Archive)
Disneyland measles outbreak spreads
ANAHEIM, Calif — The measles out-break that began at Disneyland during the holiday season is now spreading beyond people who contracted the disease at the theme park, with those patients now exposing others after returning to their hometowns, health officials said Saturday. There are now 51 confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus across California, three other states and Mexico, and the Orange County Health Care Agency said the reports of new cases “indicate the measles outbreak will continue to spread. – Daily News wire services.
(Longview, WA Daily News, 18 January 2015, page A2)
5 Disneyland workers diagnosed with measles
LOS ANGELES — Several employees at Disneyland have been diagnosed with measles, health officials confirmed Tuesday, as the total number of measles cases in the California-centered outbreak rose to 53. Two of those employees had been vaccinated, the Orange County Health Care Agency said. Health officials are investigating whether the other workers have proof of measles immunization.
(The Spokane Spokesman-Review, 21 January 2015, page A3)
(End Newspaper Archive)
Headlines on the Disneyland link didn’t start appearing in newspapers until the first week in January. By then, cases were beginning to be reported across the West. The actual victim was from Washington state and not until June.
(Begin Newspaper Archive)
19 measles cases tied to Disney theme parks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTA ANA – Nineteen people from three states who visited Disney theme parks in California last month have now fallen ill with measles, health officials said Friday. The patients all visited Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, the California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Health Agency said. Sixteen of the cases were in California, two in Utah, and one is in Colorado, officials said. Officials in California said that of the 16 cases in the state they have only verified that two were fully vaccinated against the disease. Some were partially vaccinated and at least two were too young to be vaccinated. More people may have been exposed when measles patients were treated at two local hospitals.
(Barstow Desert Dispatch, 10 January 2015, page A3)
Measles death is first in decade
Callam woman exposed in winter
BY ROB OLLIKAJNEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County woman who died of measles in the spring was the first confirmed measles death in the U.S. since 2003 and the first in Washington state since 1990. . -The state Department of Health officials announced the death Thursday. “Our deepest sympathy goes out to the fam-ily,” said Iva Burks, Clallam County health and human services director. The woman, who was not identified, was likely exposed to measles at Olympic Medical Center during a winter outbreak in Clallam County, health officials said. Underlying disorder She was at the medical facility at the same time as a person who later developed a rash and was contagious for measles, state Health spokesman Donn Moyer said. “She had an underlying disorder, an autoimmune disorder, and she was taking a number of different drugs to modulate the immune system,” said Dr. Jeanette Stehr-Green, interim Clallam County health officer, in a Thursday interview. “Some of those medications would prevent her from mounting a good response to any infection.”
(Peninsula Daily News, 03 July 2015, page 1)
(End Newspaper Archive)
The Washington case was not without complications. The fact that the victim had an autoimmune system defect and was on medication at the time contributed to contracting the disease. During the week of 04 July, a dispute erupted as to where the victim had been exposed to the disease. She had been transferred to the Olympic Medical Center (Port Angeles) from a clinic, unidentified, before her death at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. The discovery of measles was made after her death. Other reports indicated the woman had been immunized as a child, but her symptoms showed lack of a rash. (Peninsula Daily News, 05 July 2015, page A4)
In January 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 277 requiring schoolchildren to be vaccinated against measles.
“Likely which is most controversial is SB277, which eliminated all exemptions to vaccine requirements for enrolling in public or private elementary and secondary elementary school. With adoption of the bill, parents must homeschool their children if they want to avoid vaccinations for nonmedical reasons.” (Marin Independent Journal, 01 January 2016, page A1)
Congressional Record
News of the outbreak had spread almost as fast as the disease itself, infecting the public at large and eventually reaching the halls of Congress, with the issue of vaccination at the forefront. The record shows 21 references to “measles” for legislative search results for the 116th Congress (2015-16).
(Begin Congressional Record)
THE MEASLES OUTBREAK (H686-87) 02 February 2015.
CREC-2015-02-02-pt1-PgH686-6.pdf
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. (D-TX) Today, Mr. Speaker, I sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control requesting an alert to the public that highlights the importance of our children becoming vaccinated for this outbreak of measles, particularly the MMR.
The United States is experiencing a large multistate measles outbreak that started in California in December of 2014 and has spread to six additional States and Mexico. From December 28, Mr. Speaker, through January 21, 2015, 51 confirmed cases linked to this outbreak have been reported to the CDC: 42 from California and nine from six other States—three in Utah, two in Washington, one in Oregon, one in Colorado, one in Nebraska, and one in Arizona.
But the spread of this is enormous. The most disturbing aspect of this outbreak is that 86 percent of the patients who have contracted the disease had either been unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. The outbreak is aggravated by the large number of children whose parents have chosen not to get the MMR vaccine.
What I want to focus on, Mr. Speaker, is for us to be cautious and for us to be able to do the right thing. The saddest case was an 8-month-old baby in Arizona—innocent—who was exposed to the measles.
I ask that we take this seriously, as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, and find a way to alert parents to make the right decision for their children. I will be continuing to work on this and have asked my own community to send out an alert to help save those children and the others who are vulnerable to the measles outbreak. (Image credit: Longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas has died at age 74)
RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY (H5602) 29 July 2015.
CREC-2015-07-29-pt1-PgH5602.pdf
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. POSEY) for 5 minutes.
Mr. (Bill) POSEY. (R-FL) Mr. Speaker, I rise today on matters of research and scientific integrity. To begin with, I am absolutely, resolutely provaccine. Advancements in medical immunization have saved countless lives and greatly benefited public health. That being said, it is troubling to me that, in a recent Senate hearing on childhood vaccinations, it was never mentioned that our government has paid out over $3 billion through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for children who have been injured by vaccinations…
For these reasons, I bring the following matter to the House floor. In August 2014, Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, worked with a whistleblower attorney to provide my office with documents related to a 2004 CDC study that examined the possibility of a relationship between the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine and autism.
HIRE MORE HEROES ACT OF 2015 (S6673-74) 16 September 2015
CREC-2015-09-16-pt1-PgS6669-3.pdf
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mrs. BOXER. (D-CA) Thank you very much, Mr. President.
The Centers for Disease Control, we know how important they are when we have an epidemic looming. It would be slashed by the Republican budget by $245 million, hurting our efforts to protect communities from diseases such as Ebola and the measles. We all thought the measles were gone. It came back in California and thank God for the CDC for helping us when we needed them.
(End Congressional Record)
The degree of alarm over the spread of infectious disease such as measles gradually lost its appeal in Congress following the Disneyland outbreak of 2014-15. Curiously enough, if anything came of it was the growing grass roots movement against vaccinations, due in part to an effort to link them to autism. With the 2015 outbreak background in mind, congressional hearings surrounding the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought the subject of measles back into focus.
(Begin Congressional Record)
NOMINATION OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.; (S947-48 ) 12 February 2025.
CREC-2025-02-12-pt1-PgS947.pdf
Mr. (Chris) VAN HOLLEN (D-MD). Madam President, I want to start by commending my colleague, the Senator from Vermont, Mr. WELCH, for his strong argument as to why we should all vote no on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, and I come to the floor tonight to voice my strong opposition to this nomination…
But when you look at that wide range of important subjects that HHS covers, Mr. Kennedy has no experience, no qualifications, in the vast majority of that work. Now, I don’t think any of us expect that one Secretary of HHS can know everything. But if you monitored the hearings and listened to Mr. Kennedy’s answers, you can see that Mr. Kennedy knows virtually nothing about all those important subjects. In fact, he was stunningly unprepared to discuss even the most basic programs at his confirmation hearing.
Unfortunately, his nephew, RFK, Jr., has spent decades unraveling that hard-won legacy by spreading lies and conspiracy theories about vaccines. It wasn’t that long ago that he spread vaccine conspiracy theories in Samoa, where his misinformation contributed to a measles outbreak that got 83 people killed, mostly infants and children…
And, right now, there is a measles outbreak in West Texas that is threatening our children. And it is not the first one we have seen in recent months, and it will not be the last if these conspiracy theories continue to spread.
(End Congressional Record)
Gathered from the nomination hearings in the senate, the Texas outbreak was already news.
(Begin Congressional Record)
NOMINATION OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.; (12 February 2025) (S952-53)
CREC-2025-02-12-pt1-PgS952.pdf
Mr. (Jeff) MERKLEY (D-OR). Mr. President, my colleague from Connecticut is here past midnight. Why is he here past midnight? Because the health and welfare of our children and our families are at stake…
In the middle of a 2017 measles outbreak in Minnesota’s Somali-American community, he falsely told parents the following: Africans and African Americans may be particularly vulnerable to vaccine injuries including autism.
He also falsely claimed that the global decline in measles was caused by ‘‘nutrition and clean water,’’ not the measles vaccine, and that children in California were getting measles ‘‘from the vaccine or . . . from somebody who got the vaccine.’’ …
Mr. Kennedy has spent years undermining one of the greatest public health achievements in history: vaccines. His rhetoric directly contributed to the tragic 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa, which infected thousands and killed 83 people, primarily children.
(End Congressional Record)
Notes
From the above, it is clear that not only are the measles not always detectable by the telltale rash, but any autoimmune deficiency, reliance on medication for particular health related issues, the fact that it takes a while for the symptoms to develop, leaves no assurance whatsoever that a source can be traced; compounded by the fact that social media used it as another opportunity to demonize a marginalized community, immigrants.
Afterword
Before any conclusions can be drawn, it is clear the new White House administration needs to become more proactive in addressing even the slightest hint of another epidemic on the doorstep of the United States. Do not assume it was brought in by grubby illegal aliens from south of the border when it could have been by a millionaire from South Africa. Do not repeat the tired, stale argument that autism is anchored in vaccinations. Do not expect an HHS secretary with no experience not just in the medical field but settling down a terrified public with kids about to come home from school with red dots all over them, to have any answers at all. Do not cut the budget for health-related care and research. This, of course, is the short list.