Texas Outbreak:
Is Measles Coming Back to the U.S.?

Mar 3, 2025

A young child tragically died of measles at a Lubbock, Texas hospital at the end of February. A measles outbreak has hit at least 124 children in one month in rural Texas. It has been spreading fast in areas with low vaccination rates. This is the worst outbreak in Texas in 30 years.

In addition to Texas, nine other states have now reported measles cases: Alaska, California, Kentucky, Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.

These numbers may not sound that large, but new research by Dr. Michael Mina and others has revealed that measles destroys immune cells. Even people who recover from measles lose much of their immune memory. Protections from prior illnesses and vaccinations get wiped out. The immune system takes years to recover.

Measles is highly contagious and can cause serious harm. Before an effective vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) was developed, about four million people came down with measles in the U.S. each year, of whom 400 to 500 died and about 1,000 suffered permanent brain damage.

Some medical researchers now suspect that before the measles vaccine, as many as half of all childhood deaths from disease were related to measles.

Once mass MMR vaccination of children began in the early 1970s, measles cases quickly diminished. By 2000, the World Health Organization declared measles eliminated from the U.S.

Doctors say a 95% vaccination rate is needed to prevent the spread of measles. But in recent years, vaccination rates in the U.S., as well as the world, have stayed significantly below that level.

Yes, there are parents who choose not to get their children vaccinated. Social media is inundated with false claims, especially the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism. But the fundamental reason for low vaccination rates is the lack of well-funded public health services.

Huge cutbacks in funding for public health services have gone on for decades. At the same time, public funding has increased to for-profit healthcare corporations. Both are symptoms of the fundamental disease that has infected human society in our age: capitalism.