Measles fears in Texas cause flood of parents to seek vaccine causing vaccination rates to skyrocket
As the deadly measles outbreak in West Texas has continued to grow, parents have reportedly been racing to get their kids vaccinated.
New data from the Electronic Health Record data analysis company Truveta has documented the surge, finding that the percentage of six-month-old children in Texas who got their shots in April increased by more than 30 times over last year's average. For 10-month-olds, the percentage increased by more than 10 times. The preliminary research findings have not been peer-reviewed.
'Our data show that starting in February 2025 and accelerating in March and April with the issuance of CDC's Health Alert Network about measles transmission on March 7, 2025, Texas parents are taking advantage of the early vaccine recommendation,' the company said in a news release alongside their findings. 'These results highlight that the outbreak is causing real concern for parents and changing vaccination behavior.'
'This is a huge increase,' Nina Masters, a senior scientist at Truveta and part of the research team, told NBC News. 'Just a really striking signal that vaccination behavior is changing.'
In the months leading up to the outbreak fewer than 2 percent of Texas babies under a year old were vaccinated. Now, that figure has jumped to around 10 percent by the time the child reaches 10 months old.
The analysis found that in more than 20 percent of all first measles vaccines in March and April were given to children between the ages of six and 11 months old: 11.5-times higher percentage than in 2019 during domestic outbreaks.
The Texas Department of State Health Services told The Independent that it had data from the state's immunization registry showing a similar trend year over year.
Lubbock's Kaia Hunter was one of the parents who took her child to get the shot. She told NBC News that she did not hesitate to get her 2-year-old son, Brady, fully vaccinated in March.
'Being in the hotbed of the measles outbreak,' said Hunter, 47, 'it was a no-brainer. If it was safe to get him vaccinated early, we were going to protect him.'
The news comes amid falling child vaccination rates across the U.S., which have been tied to increasing vaccine hesitancy, the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety, and partisan divisions following the Covid pandemic.
In the Lone Star State specifically, vaccine exemptions have been linked to the county with the largest number of infections. Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience. That includes religious beliefs.
Still, the safety and efficacy of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine has been established. The two-dose series is 97 percent effective against measles, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's the way to prevent infection, experts say. In Texas, the two children who died in the outbreak were unvaccinated.
An unvaccinated adult also died in New Mexico, and there have been more than 1,000 cases and 14 outbreaks reported across the country this year. As of last week, the U.S. was just short of the century's high mark of 1,274 in 2019, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The group said U.S. cases are likely undercounted. Although, the number of new cases reported in Texas each week has fallen since the beginning of the month.
Across the U.S., about 96 percent of measles cases this year have been among people who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to the CDC.
But, efforts to get people vaccinated have also hurdles from the nation's top health officials. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has said he supports getting vaccinated – but also pushed worrying treatments for measles. Recently, he has falsely claimed that the measles vaccine contains 'aborted fetus debris' and said the mumps vaccination does not work.
Remarks from the administration have frustrated physicians who recently said that the nation is 'reaching a breaking point' in its ability to control the measles outbreak.
'It is critical that Congress ensure that the federal government provides the resources necessary for state and local governments and non-governmental organizations to prevent measles infections through access to vaccines, and that these entities have the tools they need to effectively respond to the outbreak,' AAP President Dr. Susan J. Kressly wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders.
'Even one child dying from measles is one too many,' Dr. Kressly wrote. 'What makes these deaths so tragic is that immunization could have prevented these deaths.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lots of COVID booster appointments available, says pharmacy manager, with 3 weeks left in spring campaign
It's been slow going for some Victoria-area pharmacies offering COVID boosters these past few months, as the Ministry of Health is reporting a steady increase in the latest variant of the virus. Linda Gutenberg, who is in charge of pharmacy operations for Heart Pharmacy Group, which operates seven locations in the Greater Victoria Area, said the current vaccine campaign has been particularly slow since it started on April 8. "We were kind of like all ramped up and ready to go and nobody really showed up," she said during an interview on CBC's On The Island. She said last week, pharmacists administered about half the booster shots they did compared to one year ago. However, as of June 1, the province said 287,294 people in B.C. have been vaccinated for COVID-19, up slightly from 282,911 at a similar time last year. Gutenberg isn't entirely sure why there's a dip in interest, but she has a hunch. "I think there's a little bit of vaccine fatigue, where people are just kind of tired of just coming in and getting vaccines all the time." With only a few weeks left in the campaign, which ends June 30, she said there are lots of appointments available. The latest variant of COVID-19, called NB.1.8.1, may be more transmissible than previous mutations, according to the World Health Organization. The organization's latest risk assessment, which covered July to December of last year, found the health risk from COVID-19 is still high, but suggests the impact is decreasing. The Ministry of Health said COVID-19 has been increasing globally since February. PCR and wastewater testing have shown low levels of the virus in B.C., but it has been rising since March. It said the best way to prevent severe illness from the virus is to stay up to date on vaccines. The ministry recommends anyone over 65, Indigenous adults aged 55 and older, long-term care home and assisted living residents and anyone over six months who has been diagnosed as extremely vulnerable, get a COVID-19 booster this spring. Anyone who doesn't fall into one of those categories but would still like to be immunized is asked to speak to a health-care provider.
Medscape
2 hours ago
- Medscape
Canadian Women's Access to Mental Health Care Uneven
Just over half of adolescent girls and young women aged 15-29 years with mental health or substance use disorder accessed formal healthcare support in 2022, according to a study by Statistics Canada. Some sociodemographic groups within this population were more likely to seek support than others, and some derived more benefit from the support than others. Cost and lack of awareness about where to seek information were among the barriers that prevented many patients from seeking care. 'In recent years, the prevalence of mental health disorders has increased among youth in Canada, and this is particularly true of girls and young women,' study author Kristyn Frank, PhD, a senior researcher at Statistics Canada in Ottawa, told Medscape Medical News. Kristyn Frank, PhD The study was published on May 21 in Statistics Canada's Health Reports . Sociodemographic Differences 'Previous research has shown that girls and women have been more likely to report worsened mental health, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, as compared with boys and men. This piqued our interest in examining their experiences accessing and receiving mental health services, as well their reasons for not accessing this type of care,' Frank said. The investigators used data collected from March to July 2022 during the Mental Health and Access to Care Survey. The survey was conducted online via an electronic questionnaire, and a trained interviewer guided each respondent over the telephone. Of the 1254 girls and young women aged 15-29 years, about 4 in 10 (38.5%) met the criteria for at least one mental health or substance use disorder (ie, major depressive episode, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, social phobia, and alcohol or substance use disorder). 'This [prevalence] is higher than for the general Canadian population during the same period,' noted Frank. Of the participants who met criteria for at least one mental health or substance use disorder, 54.6% reported that they had accessed formal health services, which included talking to a psychiatrist, family doctor, psychologist, nurse, or social worker, as well as being hospitalized or accessing online therapy. Most who sought support consulted with a family doctor or general practitioner (63.2%), a social worker or counselor (41.1%), a psychologist (33.4%), a psychiatrist (26.8%), or a nurse (13.2%). Lesbian and bisexual girls and young women who met the criteria for a mental health disorder were more likely to access healthcare services (69.6%) than their heterosexual peers (46.7%). They were also more likely to receive counseling or therapy (odds ratio, 2.19) or medication (odds ratio, 3.65) because of problems with their emotions, mental health, or substance use. The main reasons for not accessing information on mental health services among those who needed it were unawareness of how or where to seek information (46.3%), being too busy (33.9%), affordability (31.6%), and preference for self-management (29.4%). Slightly more than one quarter (26.7%) said that help was not readily available, and 24% said that they had no confidence in the healthcare system. Cost was another factor: About 2 in 10 respondents said they did not seek information because their insurance wouldn't cover it (although access to information is generally free). The most common reasons for not accessing counseling or therapy were a preference for self-management (39.2%), therapy being unaffordable (37.2%), unawareness of where to get help (36.2%), and being too busy (33.9%). 'We hope these results can contribute to a better understanding of the use of mental health and substance use health supports among this group in Canada and of where improvements could be made,' Frank said. Many Barriers to Care There are many barriers to care, especially in the younger population, Srividya Iyer, MD, professor of psychiatry at McGill University and researcher at Douglas Research Centre in Montreal, told Medscape Medical News. Srividya Iyer, MD 'There are the individual barriers, like knowing when to seek help, or thinking you can rely on yourself, or fear of stigma about seeking help, or even having had a previous negative experience in the past around seeking help,' Iyer said. 'We tend to think the awareness and stigma barriers are the predominant ones, but there are also many systemic barriers,' she said. These barriers include long waitlists, complicated referral procedures, the costs involved with accessing services, and geographic distances (because many services are in urban areas). 'When it comes to young people, we have set up our services in a way that does not mirror the realities they face. They are very siloed. For example, a service might treat depression, but not if the person is also using cannabis. This becomes problematic because we are organizing services according to diagnoses, but, particularly among young people, it is often unclear what they are. We really need to have a much more holistic way of organizing services,' Iyer said. In 2014, Iyer started ACCESS Open Minds to address gaps in the mental health care system, especially for Indigenous, remote, and underserved communities. 'We need services catering to a range of mental health presentations, instead of filing them by diagnoses that can often change for young people.' She also called for services that help patients with work, school, and housing: 'Services that we could offer under the same roof that might make it a bit more engaging for young people.' Shortening wait times, educating more mental health counselors, and creating youth-friendly walk-in facilities in community settings can make accessing supportive care more accessible for younger people, Iyer advised. She also stressed that the first point of contact for evaluation for mental health support does not need to be a psychiatrist. Requiring the first point of contact to be a psychiatrist 'causes a bottleneck because we don't have as many specialists. We have shown it is possible to train a range of mental health workers, including social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, and counselors. We need to see young people right away and in a friendly way, meeting them at home or in a coffee shop, providing a safe, engaging, and rapid evaluation of their needs,' Iyer said. 'The goal is to increase young people's awareness of when to seek help, where to go, and how to get help, but you also want to give them a friendly face. Make it simple for them. They don't need to fill out forms. They can call or walk in. We need the message to be simple.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Funding Gavi is the simplest financial decision facing Keir Starmer. He must get it right
When he announced he was cutting international cooperation and aid to its lowest level on record, Keir Starmer promised he would protect global health. He is now about to take a decision that will show how serious he was. Will he maintain the UK's support for the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, which has prevented an estimated 18 million deaths since its inception in 2000? In the view of Save the Children and more than 150 other organisations around the world, it is critical that he does. Gavi has been one of the most effective investments in public health in modern history. In the last 25 years, the alliance has helped immunise more than a billion children. Gavi supports the rollout of vaccines for everything from measles to polio to Ebola. In doing so, it not only saves lives but builds up national health systems, strengthens pandemic preparedness and helps protect us all – everywhere including Britain – from the spread of infectious disease. Five years ago, through the Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed that when it comes to health, nobody is safe until everyone is safe. Gavi's purpose is to shield us from the re-emergence of pandemics and lethal but preventable diseases. The fact that it is struggling to secure enough money to continue its critical mission tells us a lot about the geo-political climate today and the false instinct to draw back from international cooperation to solve global problems. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective health interventions known to mankind. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the return on routine vaccinations at $54 for every $1 invested. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more attractive investment proposition; and that's before you take account of the human factor. Anyone who has met a mother mourning a child who could have been saved by a routine jab or seen toddlers gasping for breath because their measles has turned into pneumonia, will know what I mean. I understand it can feel difficult to back aid in times of economic crisis, budget deficits and a struggling NHS here at home. When it comes to Gavi and global health security, however, the benefits so outweigh the costs that any vacillation seems incomprehensible. Infectious diseases know no borders, and the cost comes home to Britain. In 2023-24, more than 20 per cent of secondary care bed days in the NHS were attributable to infectious disease or infections. The cost to the NHS was £5.9 billion. Gavi's role in supporting routine vaccination and its stockpiles of vaccines against killers such as Ebola, cholera and yellow fever represent our first line of defence against future pandemics and the terrible costs counted in ruined lives and devastating economic damage. Some say governments in the Global South could, and maybe should, buy their own vaccines. They ask why British taxpayers should pay for jabs for African arms. This misses an important point: vaccine markets, like many essential commodities, are global. If every country did its own procurement, the poorest – those with the lowest bargaining power – would immediately be priced out of essential, life saving vaccines. Perhaps the most important thing Gavi has done in the last 30 years is to shape this market. By guaranteeing the purchase of hundreds of millions of vaccines over many years, Gavi has enabled pharma companies to manufacture many more doses and, through economies of scale, do it much more cheaply than would otherwise be the case. It has also enticed other firms to enter the fray and compete. Witness the Serum Institute of India, which played a major role in supplying Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic and has now become a vaccine manufacturing giant. And Gavi works with countries to 'graduate' so that they pay for an increasingly large share of their own vaccines as they become richer, thereby ensuring that aid-funded doses go to the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The UK, as a founding member, has helped Gavi become the world-changing alliance it is today. Our partnership has put British scientific leadership in the global spotlight. From 18 million doses of ground-breaking malaria vaccines that are already saving lives in Africa to digital biometric identification and record-keeping that are transforming health systems in Ghana, Gavi links UK scientists and innovators with partner governments in the global South. At Save the Children, we're working with national governments and local communities – for example in Malawi where a recent cholera outbreak killed more than 1,700 people – to make sure children are protected from deadly and debilitating illness. With our private sector partner GSK, we are targeting millions of 'zero-dose' children who are completely unvaccinated in Nigeria and Ethiopia. In war-torn Sudan, we are transporting vials into a country whose health services are shattered. All this would be immeasurably harder to do without Gavi ensuring that vaccines are made affordably in large enough quantities for the most vulnerable populations. To keep up UK funding of Gavi is one of the most straightforward decisions this government must make. I know a bargain when I see one. I hope Keir Starmer will too. Moazzam Malik is chief executive of Save the Children UK Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
