# First Measles death in Texas - Feb, 2025, and now in other parts of the US **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 26, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834 "2025-02-26T16:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/321 "2025-08-19T17:43:33Z")
The state of Kansas has also reported no new cases of measles for 41 consecutive days. 42 days in a row (today) means the outbreak is over. It was never as bad or as widespread as in the one-star state, but there were several counties affected. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/322 "2025-08-19T17:49:56Z")
Does Measles have a seasonal aspect? I’m cold asking, I have no clue. When I’m at my computer I can look it up. At the moment it’s not possible… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/323 "2025-08-19T17:56:48Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > There was a South Park in the late 90’s about the mother’s all having a “Chicken Pox Party” so all the kids could get it at the same time and not have 50% in school for a couple months. I don’t recall the episode being anti-vax, It’s not. Before the chicken-pox vaccine, that was how you vaccinated your kid against it - let them get it early in life because apparently it is worse much later in life. I had a blood transfusion from my sister after she had the Pox so I am apparently immune to it … this was early 970s so I may have been one of the first people vaccinated against it. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/324 "2025-08-19T18:02:08Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Does Measles have a seasonal aspect? According to the [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html#cdc_data_surveillance_section_2-what-to-know-about-measles): > Measles is not a seasonal virus. However, measles is often spread over times of high travel (like spring break) or in situations where unvaccinated persons are in close quarters (like summer camp). I’m surprised (actually, I’m not) that they didn’t mention school as a place where the unvaxed are in close quarters. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/325 "2025-08-19T18:42:31Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > It’s not. Before the chicken-pox vaccine, that was how you vaccinated your kid against it - let them get it early in life because apparently it is worse much later in life Well, when was the episode relative to the chicken pox vaccine becoming available (and widely known about, of course)? I never watched the show, but I know a chickenpox vaccine (no idea if the same as currently used) has been available in the US since 1995. Don’t know when it took off, though. I was too old/exposed to need it by 1995, and too young for most of my friends to have kids (I never did) so wasn’t familiar with that vaccine until years later. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/326 "2025-08-19T20:20:00Z")
That’s cromulent. Thanks. But, yeah, the school would’ve been my first idea about proximity. My grandkids have been in school a little over a week. The twins both have had tummy upset over last weekend. Two others have cold/allergy symptoms. No fevers yet. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/327 "2025-08-19T20:32:51Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Well, when was the episode relative to the chicken pox vaccine becoming available I think it was more about “This is what our parents did with us.” rather than the state of the CP vaccine. At least that’s how I interpreted the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/328 "2025-08-19T20:37:13Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > let them get it early in life because apparently it is worse much later in life. It is certainty worse to have first exposure to it later in life. Yet exposure as a child does not protect you from its mainly painful return (“the Shingles”) sometime after 50 years old, usually. My mother had it and to me it sounds like 20 days of plentiful Vicodin isn’t enough. And the doctor’s just going to tell you Paracetamol or Ibuprofen. I’ve no idea - and I suppose the data isn’t in yet - about it’s return for those vaccinated. The South Park episode aired in December 1998 when there were, at best, clinical trials as a thing you could do. AFAIK the episode doesn’t mention any vaccines. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/329 "2025-08-20T00:34:34Z")
As a kid in the 1960s I got each of CP, measles, and mumps the old-fashioned way: random infection at (probably) school. Had a minor shingles event 5-ish years ago, so my early 60s. No big deal, but I was fortunate. Got the 2- shot course of shingles vax later. No problems since 🤞. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/330 "2025-08-27T15:36:14Z")
The outbreak in West Texas is declared over but it is spreading outward. Interesting article on the bumbling efforts by the CDC and other agencies along with a lot of knuckleheads that decide vitamin A is a better option than a vaccine that works. Also note, not the CDCs fault. > **[As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under...](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/texas-measles-outbreak-cdc-vaccines-rfk-trump/)** > > Trump officials sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists, slowing their response to the measles outbreak in West Texas. Cases surged and sparked new outbreaks across the U.S. and Mexico. Together, these linked outbreaks have sickened more than... ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/331 "2025-08-27T19:13:03Z")
I don’t want to hijack, but I don’t want to start a new thread just for a yes-or-no question. This was on the radio yesterday: [The U.S. confirms its first human case of New World screwworm.](https://www.npr.org/2025/08/25/nx-s1-5515487/new-world-screwworm-us-human-case) > “Over a 50-year period, screwworm was pushed back from the United States through Mexico, through Central America, to the Panama-Colombia border. That was about 20 years ago,” Scott says. “It was stopped at the border and then was held for a long time until the barrier broke and screwworm came back.” Did I hear something in the last number of years that we used to have some sort of insect firewall that kept the pests out, and that it was defunded at some point? Or am I thinking of something else. Again: Just looking for a specific answer, and I won’t pursue it in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/332 "2025-08-27T19:37:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Did I hear something in the last number of years that we used to have some sort of insect firewall that kept the pests out, and that it was defunded at some point? Or am I thinking of something else. As far as I know, the firewall, i.e. release of sterile male insects in Panama, is still there. The problem is that that firewall can be bypassed by importing cattle from regions that still have screwworm flies. Inspections of imported cattle are supposed to block this, but they aren’t perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/333 "2025-08-27T19:41:24Z")
Thanks. [end hijack] ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/334 "2025-08-28T14:40:40Z")
> “CDC hasn’t reached out to us locally,” Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, wrote in a Feb. 5 email exchange with a colleague two weeks after children with measles were hospitalized in Lubbock. “My staff feels like we are out here all alone,” [she added](https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/170_4ea49e.pdf)…. In the chaos, CDC experts felt restrained from talking openly with local public health workers, according to interviews with seven CDC officials with direct knowledge of events, as well as local health department emails obtained by KFF Health News through public records requests. > **[As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under...](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/texas-measles-outbreak-cdc-vaccines-rfk-trump/)** > > Trump officials sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists, slowing their response to the measles outbreak in West Texas. Cases surged and sparked new outbreaks across the U.S. and Mexico. Together, these linked outbreaks have sickened more than... ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/335 "2025-08-28T15:15:48Z")
That was the article I posted yesterday right about the screwworm discussion. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/336 "2025-08-28T15:24:54Z")
Oops. You’re right. It used to be that Straight Dope would notify you if you reposted the same URL in a thread–has this changed? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/337 "2025-08-29T00:07:02Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > It used to be that Straight Dope would notify you if you reposted the same URL in a thread–has this changed? I did a quick check, if I copied your link @PastTense OR @wguy123’s , it did give me a pop up saying it had been linked previously by **PastTense** , but it DIDN’T mention the earlier link. 🤷‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2025, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/338 "2025-08-29T02:34:36Z")
I’m ignored around here a lot so that isn’t surprising. I guess I can blame Discourse! 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/339 "2025-09-12T01:25:57Z")
Kid dies a delayed death from measles. They were too young when they contracted it to have been vaccinated, but they caught it from someone, obviously. [L.A. child dies from complication of infant measles infection - Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2025-09-11/l-a-child-died-from-complication-of-measles-contracted-in-infancy) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834/340 "2025-10-11T18:31:39Z")
> A bubbling [measles outbreak in the upstate of South Carolina](https://dph.sc.gov/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/viruses-parasites-bacterial-infections/measles-rubeola/2025) has forced 153 unvaccinated children out of the classroom and into [quarantine for a minimum of 21 days](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/day-care-measles-exposure-forces-iowa-family-take-weeks-work-baby-only-rcna218899). > > In Minnesota, where a small outbreak has been growing for the last month, 118 students are also under quarantine in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area after being exposed to the highly contagious virus,[health officials](https://www.health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/2025/measles100125.html)said Friday. > **[Hundreds of U.S. students quarantined amid measles outbreaks](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/measles-students-quarantined-south-carolina-minnesota-rcna236844)** > > At least 270 unvaccinated kids are staying home from school as measles continues to spread nationwide. "Expect more," one expert said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-measles-death-in-texas-feb-2025-and-now-in-other-parts-of-the-us/1014834.md?page=18)