admin The measles outbreak that swept through West Texas was far from a random event.
The highly preventable disease, once declared eliminated in the United States back in 2000, tore through more than 20 counties in the state — and a significant factor, according to health officials, was the chronic underfunding of immunisation programmes.
“We haven’t had a strong immunisation programme that can really do a lot of boots-on-the-ground work for years,” said Katherine Wells, Director of Public Health in Lubbock, around 90 minutes from the heart of the outbreak.
Across the country, immunisation efforts have been weakened by years of stagnant or insufficient funding from federal, state and local governments. In Texas and beyond, this laid the groundwork for the resurgence of measles and accelerated its spread. Now, additional cuts to federal support threaten the capacity to contain future cases and outbreaks.
Although health departments received a temporary financial boost during the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t enough to compensate for decades of neglect. On top of that, public trust in vaccines has taken a significant hit. Officials are warning that the situation is only likely to deteriorate further.
Recent budget reductions by the Trump administration have slashed billions in COVID-19-related funding — including roughly $2 billion earmarked for disease immunisation programmes. Leading these cutbacks is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who previously gained notoriety for championing the anti-vaccine movement. While Kennedy has publicly stated that his department is committed to preventing future outbreaks, he has so far stopped short of delivering a clear and consistent message encouraging parents to vaccinate their children against measles and reaffirming the safety of vaccines.
At the same time, lawmakers in Texas — along with those in nearly two-thirds of U.S. states — have introduced legislation this year aimed at making it easier to opt out of vaccines or otherwise introduce barriers to immunisation. According to an analysis by The Associated Press, this trend further undermines efforts to contain infectious diseases, health experts have said.
Already this year, over 700 cases of measles have been reported across the United States, surpassing the total for the whole of last year. The majority — over 540 cases — have been in Texas, though outbreaks have also occurred in 23 other states. Two children in Texas have died. One was a six-year-old girl from Gaines County, the epicentre of the outbreak, who died in February — the first U.S. measles fatality in a decade. An eight-year-old girl from the same town, Seminole, died earlier this month.
Historically, children in the United States have been required to receive routine vaccinations to attend school, which helped maintain high immunisation rates and kept diseases like measles at bay. However, an increasing number of parents are now choosing not to vaccinate their children. The proportion of children exempted from vaccine requirements is at a record high, and just 92.7 percent of kindergartners received their required vaccinations in 2023. This figure falls below the 95 percent threshold needed to prevent the spread of measles and similar infectious diseases.
Sustaining high vaccination rates demands constant attention, strong commitment, and adequate funding.
Although the outbreak initially spread among Mennonite communities — which have long harboured scepticism towards vaccines and governmental intervention — the disease quickly reached other under-vaccinated populations. Similar pockets of vulnerability exist throughout the country, acting as potential ignition points for future outbreaks.
“It’s like a hurricane over warm water in the Caribbean,” said Dr Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Centre for Vaccine Development in Houston. “As long as there’s warm water, the hurricane will continue to accelerate. In this case, the warm water is the unvaccinated kids.”
Magazine 
