A school-aged child in Texas has died from measles, the first U.S. death from the disease since 2015. The child was unvaccinated and had been hospitalized in Lubbock. Eighteen others in Texas are hospitalized, and cases have already spread to New Mexico. Experts say the death was entirely preventable.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shrugged at the news, assuring everyone this kind of thing happens “every year” and citing “two deaths” that even his own agency couldn’t confirm. Nothing like your top health official turning a kid’s death into a statistical footnote.
Doctors, of course, were horrified. Infectious disease specialists called the death needless and preventable, a grim reminder of what happens when vaccination rates fall below safe levels. But Kennedy’s leadership so far has been to cancel CDC vaccine campaigns, delay advisory meetings, and double down on long-debunked vaccine-autism claims.
So yeah, measles is back, killing kids again in America. But hey—at least we’ve got “informed consent,” right?
When your health secretary treats measles deaths like weather reports, maybe it’s time to ask: is “medical freedom” really worth a child’s life?
https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/26/texas-measles-outbreak-death/
