admin The measles outbreak in West Texas didn’t occur by chance.
This highly preventable illness, declared eliminated in the United States back in 2000, tore through communities spanning over 20 Texas counties — a situation health officials partly attribute to chronic underfunding of vaccination programmes.
“We haven’t had a strong immunisation programme capable of proper grassroots work for years,” said Katherine Wells, Health Director in Lubbock, around 90 minutes from the outbreak’s epicentre.
Across the country, immunisation efforts have grown fragile following years of stagnant funding from federal, state, and local governments. In Texas and beyond, this has created the conditions for outbreaks and allowed measles to spread with alarming ease. Further reductions in federal support now threaten the ability to prevent future cases.
Health departments did receive a surge of funding to combat COVID-19, but that short-term relief could not compensate for years of neglect. Meanwhile, public trust in vaccines has waned significantly. Experts now warn that the situation could deteriorate further.
Recent budget cuts under the Trump administration have slashed billions in COVID-related funding, including around $2 billion earmarked for immunisation initiatives targeting multiple diseases. These cuts are being overseen by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a figure known for his involvement in the anti-vaccine movement. Although Kennedy has expressed a desire to prevent future outbreaks, he has failed to deliver a clear and consistent message encouraging parents to vaccinate their children against measles or reassuring them about the safety of these vaccines.
At the same time, legislators in Texas and approximately two-thirds of other states have introduced bills this year aimed at making it easier to opt out of vaccinations or placing further obstacles in the path of immunisation. Health experts say such measures further undermine efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases.
Already, the United States has reported more than 700 cases of measles this year — surpassing the total for all of last year. The overwhelming majority, over 540, are in Texas, but cases have emerged in 23 other states. Two young children in Texas have died. One was a six-year-old girl from Gaines County, the centre of the outbreak, who passed away in February — the first measles fatality in the U.S. in a decade. An eight-year-old girl from the same town, Seminole, died earlier this month.
In the U.S., children are generally required to be vaccinated in order to attend school — a policy that has historically helped maintain high levels of immunisation and kept diseases such as measles at bay. However, more and more parents are now choosing to forgo vaccinations for their children. The exemption rate for school-required vaccines is at an all-time high, and only 92.7 per cent of kindergartners received the required immunisations in 2023 — well below the 95 per cent threshold needed to prevent outbreaks.
Maintaining strong vaccination coverage demands vigilance, dedication, and sustained investment.
Although the Texas outbreak began in Mennonite communities known for vaccine hesitancy and mistrust of government authorities, it quickly spread to other areas with similarly low immunisation rates. There are numerous such under-vaccinated regions across the country, each with the potential to ignite the next outbreak.
“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.”
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