Commonsense best shot at avoiding measles epidemic
Catastrophes frequently arise from a collision of events and circumstances. The phrase is overused but describes that pileup of multiple occurrences that feed off each other and create a “perfect storm.”
That storm may be brewing now. A measles outbreak continues to grow in the United States at the same time as vaccine hesitancy and misinformation — itself an outgrowth of the cultural turmoil that arose during the covid pandemic — are increasing, vaccination rates are dipping, and a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy band leader, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been elevated to prominence.
Kennedy’s influence — including more than two decades of fear-mongering and misinformation around vaccines — would be harmful enough were he limited to his usual post as health and nutrition gadfly, but since his mandate from President Trump to “go wild on health,” Kennedy now has the reins of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which in the past could be counted on for careful leadership and trustworthy information.
As of mid-April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 800 cases of measles in 25 states, including Washington state, where five cases have been reported, including one in Snohomish County in March. That number stands against recent occurrences of the disease that in past years have numbered far lower, including 285 in 2024, 59 in 2023, 121 in 2022, 49 in 2021, and 13 in 2020.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-commonsense-best-shot-at-avoiding-measles-epidemic/