With a second child dead from measles and plummeting funding for healthcare, we are on track for another sweeping epidemic.
Diagnosed at University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, the school-aged girl died after receiving treatment for complications arising from measles, NBC reports. She was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions, highlighting the importance of vaccination.
Previously, on February 26, Texas Health and Human Services announced its first measles-related death in the past ten years. The child was also unvaccinated in this case.
The death came amidst an outbreak that continues to ravage Texas, with 481 cases identified since late January. Of the recorded cases, according to Health and Human Services, 471 patients are unvaccinated. The death toll is likely to increase, especially with Texas’ lessened investment in citizens’ health.
According to the Texas Tribune, spending on public health in the state has reduced by around $4 per person since 2020. Additionally, Dr. John Hellerstedt, who led the Texas Department of State Health Services during COVID, stated in 2019 that Texas’ outdated disease tracking system was at risk of failing.
“You’re struggling to do contact tracing on outbreaks of HIV. You’re struggling to reduce maternal mortality. You’re struggling to carry out the ordinary functions of public health,” Hellerstedt told the Tribune. “It was impossible to think as a government agency you’d have the time or ability to truly model something like a global pandemic response.”
The outdated system eventually led to officials scrambling to create an entirely new system. Gov. Greg Abbott used the argument early on for stay at home orders that they were rooted in “data and doctors.” But due to the new system being hastily compiled, the numbers were not always accurate. When the state would make corrections, it only solidified the existing mistrust. People felt that they were complying, and yet it fostered no results.
Mark Owens, a political science professor who authored the study, “An examination of racial and ethnic disparities in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US South,” has spoken regarding the pandemic fatigue faced by Americans of all backgrounds in 2020. Likewise, these negative effects could be largely consistent with oncoming potential outbreaks.
These paired factors of poor public health funding and the resulting distrust from the public (which quickly grow out of control) have left Texas vulnerable to harm in a way that may prove more catastrophic than the results of the 2020 pandemic. According to experts, a key factor in the dip in vaccines is rooted in people’s views of the governmental figures promoting them. Subsequently, large swaths of the public become increasingly disillusioned with the expertise of medical professionals.
In 2020, Brookings Institute published an article outlining the role of the Trump administration in declining public trust. Additionally, the piece reported divisions largely along party lines regarding concern during COVID-19, as 25% of Republicans showed serious concerns that loved ones may contract coronavirus compared to 60% of Democrats.
The effects of the carelessness by Republicans is evident in their sheer lack of response to the ongoing outbreak. While Democratic leaders and medical officials scramble to find a solution to the largest measles outbreak the state has seen in 30 years, Republican leaders have declined to speak at all, despite the outbreak affecting Republican run areas much more. Democrats on the other hand are demanding transparency by current CDC director Susan Monarez; weekly.
“These delays and discrepancies are not merely technical failures; they reflect a broader problem of insufficient transparency,” the representatives told FOX news. “Timely reporting is critical for controlling outbreaks, and the inability to respond in real time to the urgent needs of communities only delays crucial interventions.”
The consensus among Republicans may be exhibited in Robert F. Kennedy’s further response to the epidemic so far. When asked about the measles outbreak in Texas, Kennedy stated that those who are hospitalized are only being kept “mainly for quarantine.” Kennedy also stated that there are measles outbreaks every year.
“There have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So it’s not unusual,” Kennedy told Reuters. “We have measles outbreaks every year.”
Kennedy visited Gaines County, Texas to “comfort the families” of the two children who have died, as reported by PBS. While Kennedy seems to have attended the most recent burial, he did not attend a press conference held by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Texas hospital officials and the numbers collected by Texas’ Health and Human Services tell a different story. Aside from the 471 unvaccinated people who have caught measles, officials state themselves that all of the children that have come into their hospital with measles were unvaccinated.
While the measles outbreak is expected to only get worse, the impact of the outbreak offers a chance to stress the value of getting vaccinated. According to the former director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Ali S. Khan, measles deaths may offer a grim reminder of the consequences of promoting anti-vaccine messages.
“Measles death is a reminder that there are deadly consequences from broadcasting anti-vaccine messages,” Khan told Reuters. “There should be zero cases of this preventable childhood disease among Americans, let alone deaths.”
