STORY BY DEVI SHASTRI, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AND CARLOS NOGUERAS RAMOS, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
A measles outbreak in rural West Texas has sickened nearly 150 people and killed a school-age child, with most cases occurring among unvaccinated individuals.
The virus is spreading through Gaines County's Mennonite community, where government mandates are not trusted and family leaders are considered the top decision-making authority. Alongside measles, there's another outbreak in this region: mistrust in vaccines and public health.
Katherine Wells, Lubbock’s public health director, said West Texas' rural landscape is a major challenge, not just in getting to patients and transporting test samples, but also in getting the word out.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused 'a lot of distrust in public health' and government requirements, with some people accusing Wells on Facebook of making up the outbreak. Gaines County has an 82% kindergarten vaccination rate against measles, below the 95% needed to prevent measles from spreading, with rates for homeschooled or private school students potentially much lower.
At hospitals in Lubbock, 80 miles north of Seminole and on the front lines of the outbreak, babies with measles are struggling to breathe. Dr. Summer Davies, a Texas Tech Physicians pediatrician who has treated about half of the outbreak’s sickest patients, said children have had to be intubated, including one younger than 6 months old.
'It's hard as a pediatrician, knowing that we have a way to prevent this and prevent kids from suffering and even death,' she said. 'But I do agree that the herd immunity that we have established in the past isn't the same now. And I think kids are suffering because of that.'
