Measle Cases Surge earlier in the month continues to

By Stephen Kennedyproof of immunity via blood titers

In early April Measles cases surged in Texas where currently the state's Department of State Health Services reported (April 15) 561 confirmed cases since.

with those counties accounting for 95% of the state's cas

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world. It was declared eradicated

25 years ago and the vaccine is one of the three vaccines children receive in the first 12 months of life, which are for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

Measles is the more deadly of the three, where 2 million people died per year before the vaccine was introduced and there were millions of cases worldwide, and by the 2000s there were less than 1,000 cases per year. But due to the rise of anti-vaccine movements, viruses like measles are becoming more prevalent.

The anti-vaccine movement is not a new phenomenon.

In 1902 the Supreme Court case upheld a Massachusetts law that made the smallpox vaccine mandatory in the city of Cambridge.If residents refused the vaccine, they were fined $5. The defendant, Henry Jacobson argued that such law was a “violation of personal liberty.” But the Court saw the law as self defense and upheld the law 7-2.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people started to become more vaccine hesitant after

president Donald Trump downplayed the severity of the virus. After Trump won the 2025 election, he nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kennedy has been reported to have a strong anti vaccination stance, believing that vaccines are the cause of autism and dismissed evidence of the safeness of vaccines. Kennedy in his Senate hearings televised live (here on YouTube) however said in his opening statement that he was not "anti-vaccine" but supports more testing and safety studies.

“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety … All of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” he stated.

“He ignores science…sometimes he takes

well-done studies and takes little pieces of them out of context.” said said Dr. Sean O’Leary of

the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Peter Marks, top vaccine official for the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) resigned, writing that the current administration has allowed

“misinformation and lies to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccines.”“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the [HHS] Secretary, but rather he wishes

subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” wrote Marks.

When the measles outbreak in West Texas was surging, Kennedy claimed that measles

outbreaks are common. While a small number of cases are reported each year, the rise in cases

in Texas is something out of the ordinary. The number of cases In Texas well over 500, and two children have died. It has also spread to Oklahoma and New Mexico. The two children that died were unvaccinated. After months of cases and two child deaths later, Kennedy emphasized the importance of getting the vaccine.

“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” he wrote on X.