Texas health authorities today announced the death of a child who tested positive for measles, setting off a spate of media reports blaming the measles outbreaks in Texas in New Mexico on declining vaccination rates.
Some doctors and scientists pushed back, saying too little information about the child’s health has been released so far to assume that a measles vaccine would have prevented the death.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (Texas DSHS) reported what it called “the first death from measles in the ongoing outbreak in the South Plains and Panhandle regions.”
The health department said the child was “school-aged,” unvaccinated, had been hospitalized in Lubbock last week and “tested positive for measles.”
Texas DSHS did not disclose the child’s sex, age, general health status or medical history. The agency also did not say what course of treatment the child received after being diagnosed with measles, or what strain of measles the child had.
The Associated Press (AP), under the headline, “An unvaccinated child has died in the Texas measles outbreak,” reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the child’s death is the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015.
Other media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, reposted the AP’s report, which noted that vaccination rates have declined since the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are now below “the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks.”
But Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) chief scientific officer, said it’s too early to assume that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which targets measles, would have prevented the child’s death.
“It is very easy and almost by design that we would jump to the conclusion that the vaccine would have saved this child. But we have no real information at this point.”
For instance, a medical doctor in the Lubbock, Texas area told The Defender he received a text message that suggested the child may have died from pneumonia, which can be a complication from measles.
However, that information has yet to be formally released and confirmed.
An additional text message received by the same medical doctor revealed the medical staff in the child’s area were instructed to give the MMR vaccine to children who were already infected with measles — even though Merck, maker of the most common MMR vaccine, states the vaccine should not be given to anyone experiencing a moderate to high fever, one of the most common symptoms of measles.
It has yet to be confirmed that the child who was reported unvaccinated against measles was not given an MMR vaccine as an acute treatment for the child’s measles infection.
Dr. Liz Mumper, a pediatrician, said it is “very uncommon” for a child to die from a measles infection in developed countries such as the U.S. that have access to clean water and good sanitation systems.
“I eagerly await details about age, prior state of health and circumstances of the reported death before jumping to conclusions. My condolences to the family who must be devastated,” she said.
In an earlier interview with The Defender, Mumper explained that effective treatments for measles include vitamin A in high doses and attention to hydration status.
“Many natural methods to help the body fight viruses, like extra vitamin D and vitamin C are effective but not widely recommended by mainstream medicine,” she added.
Physicians for Informed Consent recently released a new collection of documents showing there’s no proof the MMR vaccine is safer than a measles, mumps or rubella infection.
CHD Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski said the reports of the death provide little information and raise important questions. “Now is the time for transparency.”
Jablonowski said:
“Did the child die with measles or from measles? How many measles strains are circulating in Texas, and are any of them from the vaccine itself?
“These are questions that need to be answered now. Now is when fear and panic lead to hasty actions. Do parents get their children vaccinated and boosted, or do they give their children an appropriate dose of vitamin A?”
The Defender repeatedly reached out to Texas DSHS to obtain information about the child and the circumstances surrounding the child’s death but did not receive a response by the deadline.
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‘People typically don’t just die from measles’
This isn’t the first time mainstream media has been quick to blame low vaccination rates for measles cases.
In January 2024, several U.S. measles outbreaks were in the news. Media blamed international travel and declining vaccination rates among children as “probably” behind the outbreaks.
Hooker said the lack of useful information about the current measles outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, has been “extremely frustrating.” The West Texas county has been home to a Mennonite community since 1977, according to the Seminole Chamber of Commerce.
“People typically don’t just die from measles,” Hooker said. “We know it was a child in the Lubbock, Texas, hospital — that’s it. No idea of comorbidities, complications, course of disease, nothing.”
He said:
“Right now, we know that there were two measles cases in adults who traveled overseas and those individuals were near Houston. This evidently led to a massive MMR vaccination campaign across the state.
“Then a case (a child) pops up way over in Gaines County on Jan. 28, as reported by DSHS. There has been no indication as to where that case came from — how was this person exposed to measles?
“Then this mystery case goes to six cases by Jan 30, and is now up to roughly 125 cases, coincidentally in one of the least vaccinated counties in Texas.”
The current outbreak in rural West Texas has infected at least 124 people, mostly children, according to NBC News.
Speaking this morning during President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the press, “We are following the measles epidemic every day.”
Kennedy said there have been four measles outbreaks so far this year, compared to 16 outbreaks this time last year. “It’s not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year.”
The CDC reports that up to 3 of every 1,000 children infected with measles will die. However, a CDC study published last year reported that although there are measles outbreaks annually, there had been no deaths from measles in the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2020, and March 28, 2024, the study period.
The last measles death reported in the U.S., in 2015, was a young woman with underlying health issues that required her to take immunosuppressive drugs, according to the Seattle Times.
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‘We don’t have the facts’ yet, people should ‘let the family grieve’
Dr. Ben Edwards, a family practitioner in the Lubbock area who was not directly involved in the child’s case, told The Defender he received text messages today about the case.
One forwarded message originated with someone who ostensibly was a friend of the housekeeper of the child’s family. The message said that the child was a 6-year-old girl who died from pneumonia.
Edwards was quick to note that the text message does not constitute a fact. “This is hearsay,” he said. The information lacks confirmation at this time. “We need the facts,” he added, “I don’t have the facts.”
However, Edwards also received another text that he did not consider to be hearsay.
A nurse practitioner in West Texas told Edwards in a text message that she is concerned that the child may have been “treated” with a measles vaccine while exhibiting symptoms of measles because practitioners in the area were directed to give a measles vaccine to children who have a measles infection.
“Apparently, they are telling people to do that, even when symptomatic,” Edwards said.
Vaccinating a sick child could have negative results, he said.
“The mitochondria is already struggling when you’re ill,” Edwards said. “It’s even harder to mount that defense against an acute toxic load that the vaccine brings in.”
Edwards was inclined to take Texas DSHS at their word when they said the child was unvaccinated against measles.
Nonetheless, he said, it would be important to find out if the child who died — who may have been unvaccinated before getting measles — was given a measles vaccine as a treatment for the infection.
Edwards added, “At this point, my main message to people is this is a horrible situation — anytime a child dies. Let’s let the family grieve and not jump to some conclusions that we shouldn’t be trying to jump to.”
