Measles: Kennedy’s big disease test

“Thanks to successful vaccination campaigns, most Americans today have never experienced a measles outbreak,” said Leana S. Wen in The Washington Post. So when they see that Texas has reported more than 120 cases of the disease in a month—mostly among children—“they might not understand why it’s so alarming.”

Here’s why: The disease is wildly contagious and dangerous. Nine in 10 unvaccinated children who have contact with an infected person will get ill. Of those sickened children, 1 in 20 will develop pneumonia; 1 in 1,000 will suffer brain swelling that can cause deafness and permanent disability; and 1 to 3 in 1,000 will die. In Texas, at least 18 patients have been hospitalized so far. Two shots of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine are 97 percent effective at preventing measles, and that lifesaving vaccine allowed the U.S. to declare measles eliminated 25 years ago. But vaccination coverage has been dropping nationwide as anti-vax sentiment has spread, and in Gaines County, Texas, where the measles outbreak began, nearly 14 percent of K-12 students are exempt from one or more shots.

“In a normal presidency, this would be a time for action,” said Dr. Kavita Patel in MSNBC.com. Texas’ worst measles outbreak in 30 years has already crossed the border to New Mexico, and President Trump could help slow the spread by publicly encouraging people to get their kids vaccinated. Instead, he’s making things worse, firing 1,300 Centers for Disease Control employees—including 50 outbreak investigators—as part of his cost-­slashing campaign. Then there’s our new secretary of Health and Human Services, said Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims in Popular Information. In his first address to agency staff, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t mention “the burgeoning measles crisis.” But the ardent anti-vaxxer did backtrack on his promise to Senate Republicans that he wouldn’t touch the nation’s current childhood vaccine regimen, announcing plans to investigate that shot schedule and “other ‘formally taboo’ issues.”

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Can this “conspiracy-minded opportunist” rise to the moment? asked the Houston Chronicle in an editorial. Having made millions of dollars peddling debunked claims that childhood shots cause autism, Kennedy must now encourage vaccine use. If he doesn’t, “lives will be lost.” And he will face other, more serious health crises over the next four years. Experts fear that bird flu, which has gone from infecting chickens to cows to people, could become the next pandemic. We can only hope Kennedy makes the right choices, because we’re stuck with him for now. “In health, and in sickness.”