Wired Measles is known for its characteristic rash, but it can have serious respiratory and neurologic complications. Declining vaccination rates are fueling a growing measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico that has so far been linked to two deaths. In late February, an unvaccinated child in Texas with no underlying health conditions became the first mortality. Then, on March 6, health officials in New Mexico confirmed that a deceased adult resident, who was also unvaccinated, tested positive for measles after death.
Amid the outbreak, misinformation about measles is spreading on social media, with many conservative and anti-vaccine accounts downplaying the severity of the virus and promoting claims that the child in Texas died of other causes. On X, US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, suggested that “measles parties” can build up children’s immunity to the virus. Health officials have warned against measles parties, calling them “foolish.” In fact, measles can cause severe complications, including secondary infections, and can sometimes be deadly. Most people alive today have never experienced measles, thanks to vaccines that were first rolled out in 1963. In the decade before the vaccine’s introduction, an estimated 3 to 4 million people a year were infected with measles in the United States. Of those, an estimated 48,000 people were hospitalized and 400 to 500 people died each year.