Lubbock doctors gathered this week to remind everyone that measles isn’t just some itchy inconvenience from the history books—it can kill you now and come back years later to wreck your brain. The condition is called SSPE (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), and it’s incurable, degenerative, and almost always fatal. But hey, at least you got to “exercise your freedom,” right?
Public Health Director Katherine Wells warned the outbreak will likely drag on for months, since Lubbock’s vaccination rate sits around 92%—just shy of the 95% needed for herd immunity. Doctors hammered home the obvious: measles is ridiculously contagious, there’s no cure, and vaccines remain the safest, most effective option. Meanwhile, Texas continues leading the charge in pretending this is all up for debate.
Three people in Texas, including two children, have already died in this outbreak—all unvaccinated. Yet we’re still somehow arguing whether shots are worth it. Local guidelines now encourage an early dose for babies as young as 6 months because maternal antibodies wear off fast, and measles doesn’t care that your kid is still in diapers.
So to recap: the vaccine has zero deaths on record, measles has three in Texas this year alone, and a side of brain rot waiting years down the road. But sure, tell us again how your Facebook group “did the research.”
