Nearly 150 West Texans — mostly unvaccinated — have caught measles, and at least one child has died. The outbreak is hitting Gaines County’s Mennonite community hardest, where government health mandates get about as much trust as a rattlesnake in a sandbox.
At a packed church service in Seminole, Pastor Dave Klassen admitted one little girl in his congregation had measles, but shrugged it off. No health officials have come knocking, no vaccine conversations happening — it’s “up to the mothers,” apparently. Because who needs decades of public health science when you’ve got Facebook, Fox News, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. telling you vaccines are a “personal choice”?
Meanwhile, in Lubbock, doctors are intubating babies who can’t breathe, treating kids too sick to eat, and quietly wondering how we went from eradicating measles in 2000 to praying people don’t bring their unvaccinated toddlers to daycare. The county vaccination rate is hovering at 92% (below the needed 95%), but in Gaines County, it’s a bleak 82%. And that’s just for kids actually in school — private and homeschooled kids are a whole different gamble.
Still, some locals insist they’re “pro-Trump but not anti-vaxxers.” Others say Mennonite families have the right to choose, even if it means their neighbors’ kids end up in the ICU. Doctors are left to clean up the mess while watching social media “research” beat out actual medicine in real time.
“Medical freedom” sounds noble until it lands your newborn in the hospital. But hey, at least nobody made you get a shot, right?
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/04/west-texas-measles-outbreak-mennonite-seminole
