Measles Child Disease
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MERRI OK
SEE RFK2 3 maha AM SAMOA FAIL DISMANTLE CDC nIH
LADAPO FLORIDA DESANTIS
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8 26 YT
5 YRS AGO RFK TO PA SAID NO AUTISM, CHICKEN SOUP VIT A
2 KIA BABY SPLEEN BUT THAT IS STMP // COVID DIED W/ VS DIED OF BS
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MMA
On MAHA Media Hub, guest claims that if people “eat vitamin A foods, take daily cod liver oil, keep your kids well nourished, you will weather measles just fine”
MAHA Action President Tony Lyons: “We're trying to prevent a single measles death. So does that mean we should be willing to have autism rates that go from one in 10,000 to one in 30 or, you know, something like that?”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published 08/27/26 1
Video
From the August 26, 2026, edition of MAHA Action's MAHA Media Hub, streamed on YouTube
BOB SEARS (GUEST): I know people are concerned about measles and — because there's been a clear comeback over the last couple years. And I like to just maybe make sure everyone understands why there's been a comeback and what you can do about it and why you can be educated about it, but you don't have to live in fear of measles.
So first of all, why the comeback? The main reason why is that the vaccine we use wears off too soon. It might protect kids, some kids from catching measles while they're young, but it wears off by the time you're a teenager, and most adults are walking around without measles immunity. So we can actually never really get rid of measles from our country because it's just it's — you know, it's trying to regain a foothold, and we might be seeing more cases because people don't trust the measles MMR vaccine as much anymore. So that might be why some of these communities are having measles outbreaks.
But the truth is it's not spreading because people are not vaccinating. It's because we can't eliminate this infection from our society. We just don't have a vaccine that gives you lifelong immunity, like catching the disease, that gives you lifelong immunity.
So do you need to fear measles? My feeling is no. If you look at the fatality rate in healthy kids who are well nourished and who get enough vitamin A in their diet, the fatality rate of measles is about one for every 93,000 children. That's a very low fatality rate. Now when you look at all children in our country, you know, well nourished, undernourished, the fatality rate might be about one in 10,000. That's a number we've known about for a very long time.
Why does the CDC say the fatality rate is one in 500 or one in 1,000? That's what the old CDC used to say to scare people. That's only hospitalized kids. Kids who show up in the ER very sick from measles or if you're hospitalized, the fatality rate could be about one in 1,000 of those cases. But for everybody, the good news is if you have a healthy child and you're getting vitamin A in your diet, the fatality rate is about one in 93,000. So that's what I tell people to do. Eat vitamin A foods, take daily cod liver oil, keep your kids well nourished, you will weather measles just fine.
I think people don't trust the vaccine anymore, Tony. The MMR vaccine, which protects, or "protects" against measles, it's one of the vaccines with the most possible side effects and some of the most severe side effects. People just don't trust it anymore. So parents are now raising their kids without that vaccine. And you know what? Measles might be here to stay. It might become more a part of our society. We can be on the lookout for it. Stay home if you have a fever and a cough and red eyes. And then if you get the rash, stay home, you know? Maybe you don't want to spread it to everyone in your school. Now we're back to COVID days, right?
But recognize it, stay home if you catch it, but don't fear it and be well nourished so you're ready for it. And most importantly, if you catch measles, take high dose vitamin A. The CDC has always been very clear that high dose vitamin A reduces the risk of your measles infection. It reduces complications. The measles page on my website tells you all of this information, tells you how much vitamin A to take daily as a prevention, how to high dose vitamin A if you catch measles, what that protocol is.
So you know what? Education is important, knowledge, not fear, and, you know, we'll get through this. And if we have to accept measles as a sort of a regular part of a society now moving forward, then we have to be ready for it.
TONY LYONS (MAHA ACTION PRESIDENT): Yeah. Bob, those are great, great points. I mean, you know, with most of these things in in the last, you know, 30, 40 years, we've always been fed just one side of the story. So we're trying to prevent a single measles death. So does that mean we should be willing to have autism rates that go from one in 10,000 to one in 30 or, you know, something like that?
Or should we be able — you know, should we be fighting certain things while ignoring other things, while watching every child in the country have, you know, some kind of allergy now, versus 20, 30 years ago, where you could have a whole school where there was virtually no children who had an allergy to anything or virtually — you know, practically no obesity, no childhood cancers. So all of these kinds of things, they're a part of this story, right?
SEARS: Exactly. And I think the old CDC focused way too heavily on disease prevention. If we could prevent an infection no matter what the cost to everyone in society, let's prevent it. Whereas I think wise people today, they look more at long term health, healthy living, healthy outcomes. And if we have to catch some infections along the way, yet live a healthier, longer, happier life while we're doing that, that's what I think is an important or more important aspect of health. And that's what I would love the CDC to focus on is long term well-being, not infection prevention.
LYONS: Right. Great, great, great points.
//
06/23/26
01/23/26
RFK Jr., measles, and the dangerous legacy of Fox News’ COVID-19 coverage
03/12/25
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TIM EBOLA IS A SCAM ALSO POLIO MPOX
USAID KIA EST NOAH E
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06/23/26
Alex Clark guest: “People don't die from measles in modern countries where children are well fed and well nourished”
Bob Sears on TPUSA's Culture Apothecary: “The media portrays measles as a deadly infection that's going to kill everyone left and right. That's not played out in our country for many decades now. It's not a fatal infection in a well-nourished nation.”
Written by Media Matters Staff
:{Published 06/23/26
Video
Citation
From the June 22, 2026, edition of Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark,posted on Spotify
ALEX CLARK (HOST): So what else could come back besides chickenpox?
BOB SEARS (GUEST): Measles could come back.
CLARK: Is that concerning?
SEARS: People don't die from measles in modern countries where children are well fed and well nourished.
CLARK: But what about these recent stories? I thought there were kids that died of measles.
SEARS: That is up for debate.
CLARK: What do you mean?
SEARS: There's some interesting information that has come out, very recent. The families of the kids who died of measles in Texas recently, that was, like, last year. I mean, this is all, you know, second, third hand, so I'm not a firsthand, you know, privy to this information. But what was has been reported and published on online is some lawyers hired some hired some doctors to review the medical records of those children who tragically died, and those children died from other infectious complications from other bacteria after they are already done with measles. The measles had already come and gone. They were better from measles and they died from other things. And the hospitals apparently ignored that and then didn't provide them with the right care. I don't know firsthand what's true about this.
CLARK: OK.
SEARS: But what I know is the chance of a healthy child dying from measles who's well nourished is -- it's probably somewhere as high as one in eighty thousand or one in a hundred thousand. It's it's it's a very tiny number. When you look at published research, you'll see numbers as as high as one in ten thousand cases where kids will die of measles. If you include kids who are not well nourished, kids who maybe have like vitamin A deficiency or really slim, not growing well, a little undernourished, if you include them, it's maybe one in ten thousand rate of death. So that's a very small fatality rate for an infection.
The media portrays measles as a deadly infection that's going to kill everyone left and right. That's not played out in our country for many decades now. It's not a fatal infection in a well-nourished nation. So the answer, as measles continues to increase, is let's feed our children healthy. Let's feed our kids vitamin A foods. Let's give them cod liver oil so they get supplemented with vitamin A. If you have enough vitamin A in your system, you should sail through measles without problems. It's not a cure. It doesn't stop you from getting measles, but it should make your measles way less severe. And that's the answer.
And because, honestly, fewer and fewer people are comfortable with the measles vaccine because it's part of the MMR vaccine, the triple live virus MMR vaccine, because fewer people get that vaccine now, I think consequently, we're going to see more measles. And that doesn't mean that the vaccine is why we got rid of measles in the first place. I mean the reason we got rid of measles fatalities is because we all started eating better.
So, I mean, measles is a very complicated discussion. It probably deserves its own hour, you know, alone, and we don't have time for that. But bottom line is the vaccine is one of the riskier ones, so people don't trust it as much anymore. People aren't getting it as much anymore. I don't think we can ignore the likelihood that we're going to see more measles because of that. So we can prepare ourselves, like I mentioned, with good nutrition to kind of weather that increases in measles. Maybe we'll come out with a safer measles vaccine in the future, and people will feel comfortable with that with that again.
//
05/12/26 10:47 AM EDT
02/14/23 9:00 AM EST
02/19/25
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SUED FOR FIRING VAX EXPERTS
1K MEASLES N CARO? BRING IN EXPERT NOT CDC? 2 26
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an fla phoenix 5 26
“Convenient mythologies require neither evidence nor logic.” —*Edward S. Herman, “Manufactured Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media”
In a number of articles on its website, PEN America explains in striking detail the right-wing Trojan horse of “parental rights,” illuminating the threat caused by policymakers focused on this theater in the culture war.
PEN — which has gained a global reputation for standing “at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide” — argues that “parents’ rights” is not a source of freedom as claimed, but the crux of an ideological rigidity exercised by MAGA Republicans.
Replace the terms “books” and “literature” with “vaccinations” in the narratives, and the poisonous effects of “parents’ rights” and “medical freedom” on Florida’s public health system becomes clear.
Under the guise of “freedom,” the DeSantis administration including Surgeon General Joe Ladapo has established policies that have directly contributed to the measles outbreak that has spread across the state.
Yet, despite the proliferation of this disease, which has placed Florida fourth in the United States with 152 confirmed cases in 2025-26 and 145 confirmed cases so far this year, state officials have acted as if “there’s nothing to see here.”
Collier County is the center of an outbreak that began in January at Ave Maria University. The number of reported cases out of Collier has remained steady at 106, with most cases affecting those aged 15 to 24. According to the Florida Department of Health, Florida is up to 150 cases this year as of the week ending May 2. Officials note that there is “a continuing slowdown in infections after outbreaks earlier this year.”
Contagion
Measles is one of the most contagious communicable diseases on record. With the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, measles is easy to control. The MMR vaccine is credited with saving the lives of millions of people globally over the past 50 years.
Traditional medical experts warn that unvaccinated children need to stay home after measles exposure to stop transmission of this highly contagious disease. If not, chances of a prolonged outbreak increase significantly. Among unvaccinated people, nine of 10 who’re exposed will get infected.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican legislators, and some health officials might have avoided the outbreak had they treated it as a strictly health-related issue not a politically charged one. And if DeSantis and Ladapo weren’t so cavalier about tossing around inaccurate data, taking problems out of context, or selectively presenting information, Florida wouldn’t be in this situation.
Experts point to vaccine hesitancy and fear sown by MAGA Republicans as reasons why fewer parents are interested in vaccinating their children. According to Politico, vaccine hesitancy has “evolved into a central pillar of the MAGA movement’s health policy, often blending medical skepticism with a desire to dismantle public health regulations.”
Skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines, and a growing distrust of traditional childhood vaccines, are “closely tied to the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda led by figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Politico writes.
The publication cites a 2023 Morning Consult poll showing that “as the number of voters more doubtful of vaccines has risen — despite scientific evidence that they’re safe and effective — it has come almost exclusively from one political party. While opposition to more established vaccines is still far from a majority position among Republicans, significant numbers question their safety and say Americans shouldn’t be encouraged to get them.”
Hubris
Katelyn Jetelina and Kristen Panthagani capture perfectly the hubris surrounding Florida’s widening measles epidemic.
Jetelina, an epidemiologist, and Panthagani, an emergency physician at Yale University, have written that by ignoring common sense and medical advice, Florida’s health officials risk a mushrooming measles outbreak. Negligence by Lapado, DeSantis, and the MAHA crew has endangered citizens and inflamed the outbreak.
“This is happening in a state with a growing skepticism of vaccinations and an ongoing debate between individualism and the good of the larger population that came to a head during the COVID pandemic,” the authors write in a 2024 opinion piece in Scientific American.
“But containing measles, which can spread quickly, should not be up for debate. Yet this is what is happening in Florida, and it’s putting children’s health at risk.”
A 2025 study from the Cureus Journal of Science and Medicine, published in PubMed, examines how “declining vaccine uptake and growing vaccine hesitancy created pockets of susceptibility that enabled the outbreak.”
DeSantis and Lapado are vigorously pushing to make it easier for parents to opt their children out of mandatory school vaccines — a proposal the Florida House refused to pass in the 2026 regular session and the just-completed special session.
‘Parental rights’
“Since 2021, the Sunshine State has led the country in advancing the parental rights agenda. Contrary to its name, this agenda has used fuzzy, coded language to manufacture moral panic, and to deliver control over what students can read and learn in schools not into the hands of all parents but to a particular segment of citizens — some not even parents but community members,” PEN America officials and researchers said.
“The cumulative effect has been to privilege some parents’ ideological preferences above all others, tie the hands of educators, and limit students’ access to information through curricular prohibitions and book bans.”
The same dynamic applies to health care and vaccines.
In its report on “parental rights” legislation, PEN cautioned that despite the fact that encouraging greater parental involvement in schools can seem like common sense, “these bills have an ulterior motive driving them: to empower a vocal and censorship-minded minority with greater opportunity to scrutinize public education and intimidate educators with threats of punishment.”
In Florida, the DeSantis administration and Republicans in the Legislature have taken up the battle cry. Ladapo and DeSantis announced in a press conference their intention of eliminating childhood vaccine mandates. Medical experts note that all 50 states enforce childhood vaccine mandates, with all states allowing medical exemptions and more than half — including Florida — allowing religious exemptions
Lyndon Haviland of the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy blames the “perfect storm” of vaccine skepticism, failed leadership, and broken trust as the core reasons for the outbreak.
The eruption of measles in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere, she contends, aren’t isolated events.
Manufactured distrust
“Cases have also surfaced in Alaska, California, New Mexico, New York City, Georgia, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Concern that reports will continue to grow is rising,” she writes.
“It’s especially worrisome considering that the measles virus was completely eliminated in the U.S. as recently as the year 2000. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed this achievement to a “highly effective vaccine program in the United States, as well as better measles control in the Americas region.”
So, how did we get here?
“The answer: distrust. Distrust in health experts, who years ago were revered as national authorities on serious medical issues. Distrust in public health agencies, the CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration specifically, once respected as credible information resources. Distrust in the strength and rigor of vaccine testing protocols, the pharmaceutical industry itself and the broader politicization of public health.”
Haviland and other health experts fear ‘America, which was once considered a world leader in public health, has lost decades of progress in preventing the spread of a deadly disease with a provably safe therapy that has successfully saved millions of American lives.”
The focus on vaccine hesitancy “underplays the significant backlash against vaccines and the flood of anti-vaccine misinformation to which many Americans have been subjected,” Haviland continues.
“The reality is that Americans are increasingly adopting a more dismissive mindset in the way they view vaccine efficacy. Skepticism, rather than hesitancy, is a more accurate term to describe America’s perception of vaccines — and it shows no sign of slowing down.”
A certain arrogance
There is a certain arrogance the MAGA multitude carry. They act as though they have a direct line to God and the divine right to determine what’s best for the rest of us. Hence, the series of seemingly endless toxic, selfish crusades that former youth pastor and author John Pavlovitz argues “amplify baseless anti-science propaganda.”
This poisonous mindset has a human cost. Almost 90,000 people in the Sunshine State have died because of COVID; others have succumbed to preventable diseases like the flu.
There’s no telling when this measles outbreak will end but many in health circles and elsewhere will not stop fighting to protect America’s people against this destructive public health crisis.
Kevin Griffis, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s director for media relations and public affairs, in an April 22 opinion piece wrote, “Americans can handle hard truths. What they should not have to tolerate is selective concern dressed up as science. … Public health depends on trust. Trust depends on honesty.”
“When the nation’s top health official pretends otherwise — or claims ignorance when it is politically convenient, so as not to raise the ire of MAHA activists — it is not public health leadership. It is yet another example of politics and ideology trumping evidence.”
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Nobel laureate Paul Krugman calls right-wing politics “deadly” — and predicts that “MAGA Will Kill Many Americans,” by the thousands, driven by greed and willful ignorance.
Krugman goes one step further, arguing outright that this is not by accident:
“Does MAGA want to see thousands of Americans die prematurely from smoking and refusal to get vaccinated? Yes,” he writes.
He argues that the right’s decades-long opposition to health care is driven by greed, especially from “wealthy donors unwilling to pay taxes to help others in need.”
Krugman points to Tuesday’s decision by Trump’s FDA to allow blueberry and mango-flavored vapes, which critics warn will increase use among the young.
Why?
“Trump is reportedly hoping that support for vaping will win back support from young men,” Krugman writes — a constituency the president has been losing during his second term in office.
There’s also the recent decision, again by Trump’s FDA, to block the release of studies finding the COVID-19 and shingles vaccines safe, with side effects rare.
“Beyond this,” he continues, “right-wing politics in America often goes hand in hand with hostility to science in general and medical science in particular. The deadly linkage between reactionary politics and rejection of science was obvious during the Covid pandemic.”
Krugman also implicates greed in the anti-vaccine movement, saying that “quack medicine is big business.”
“Right-wing radio and social media have long relied on peddlers of snake oil for a large part of their revenue. So much of the attack on medical science can be seen as financially motivated,” he writes.
Ideological willful ignorance plays a part as well — driven by the alliance between oligarchs and white Christian nationalism, the latter of which is “deeply hostile to Enlightenment values, modern science very much included.”
To prove his point, Krugman points to the widely-reported resurgence of measles, that was seen as eliminated from the United States decades ago, thanks to vaccines. Now, many parents are choosing to forego vaccinating their children against this highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
He adds to that the refusal of many red states to expand Medicaid, a program largely paid for by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act.
The data bear him out. Life expectancy in “Trump-leaning” states trails blue states significantly.
There’s “a strong, clear negative correlation between Trump-leaning orientation and low life expectancy at the state level,” Krugman writes. “Deep red states like Alabama and West Virginia have life expectancy comparable to, say, Kazakhstan.”
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DILLY TEX // BABY JAIL AGAin outbreak
RWW
02/09/2026
by
- Miles Klee @ Wired: Turning Point USA’s Halftime Show Was Exactly What You’d Expect
“The All-American Halftime Show," born out of outrage over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, fell short of the hype. From Kid Rock’s poor lip synching to Erika Kirk being MIA, it was simply dull.
- Ellen Ioanes @ The American Prospect: Board of Peace Is a Board of Profits
Corporate interests dominate the organization planning the reconstruction of Gaza.
- Oriana González @ NOTUS: Republicans Want Nothing to Do With Conservative Efforts to Ban Gay Marriage
Trump has moved the Republican Party away from its decades-old opposition to same-sex marriage, and public support remains high.
- Bryan Kaylor @ Public Witness: At National Prayer Breakfast, Hegseth Says US Soldiers Gain Salvation by Dying for ‘Christian Nation’
Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself the “Secretary of War,” spoke after Trump to baptize the U.S. and especially its military. He did so by highlighting the worship services he’s been leading at the Pentagon. And he even suggested that soldiers can gain salvation by fighting for the United States.
- Hafiz Rashid @ The New Republic: March for Life Attendees Are Getting Measles
It turns out the anti-abortion March for Life demonstration was a measles superspreader event.
- Josh Kovensky @ Talking Points Memo: Trump DOJ Files 9/11-Era Charges Against Leftists Across the Country
Under Trump, the DOJ has changed how it brings terrorism cases, and is training them on the opposition.
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duch news 2 26 no lnx
The Hill
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Trump's surgeon general pick won't urge vaccines for measles, flu, whooping cough
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1 day agoAnother Montgomery County resident has been diagnosed with measles, the state announced Tuesday, raising Pennsylvania's count to 11 cases in 2026 and the Montgomery County total to three cases.
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Children could be forced to isolate for THREE weeks as measles rips through UK
9 days agoMeasles cases are surging in Enfield and Birmingham
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Warning as measles cases recorded in multiple NSW locations
19 hours agoConfirmed sites include high-end restaurants and a hospital.
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Babies travelling to countries with high measles incidence need to get MMR vaccine early: Ong Ye Kung
8 hours agoTwo doses are recommended, with the second given by the age of 18 months. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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Health officials warn of potential measles exposure at DIA, Littleton church
15 hours agoThe Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is warning the public of potential recent measles exposures at the Denver International Airport and at a church in Littleton.
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Mexico state steps up health screening in schools as measles cases grow nationwide
16 days agoMexico's most populous state is increasing health screenings at schools and recommending face masks due to a growing measles outbreak.
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Measles cases in the US surge past 1,000 in 2026
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Officials confirm 13 new measles cases in Upstate outbreak, exposures at two schools
15 days agoOfficials said the new cases brought the total number of cases in South Carolina related to the Upstate outbreak to 933.
Global News
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Noah’s Ark museum visitors hit with 'highly contagious' measles exposure warning
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As the debate over vaccine mandates heats up in Florida, there’s a push in the Legislature and the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis to broaden the use of ivermectin.
A Republican legislator from Spring Hill has filed legislation to allow the over-the-counter sale of ivermectin suitable for human use even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.
Ivermectin is an effective treatment for parasites in animals and for use by humans to treat parasites such as head lice and scabies, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The FDA has not approvedIvermectin for treatment or prevention of COVID-19, and so far recommends against taking it for COVID-19, instead suggesting people get vaccinated for protection.
Nevertheless, there was buzz during the pandemic about using it for treatment for COVID-19.
HB 29 sponsor Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, did not immediately return Florida Phoenix’s request for comment. If approved, Florida would join the ranks of Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Idaho, and Texas in approving the medication for over the counter sales.
The governor, First Lady Casey DeSantis, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, and Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris held a press conference at the University of South Florida Health College of Medicine to recognize World Cancer Research Day and to highlight $60 million in new cancer research grant opportunities.
There, the first lady said she expected some portion of the new grant funding to be used for cancer research on ivermectin.
“I know we should look at it. I know we should look at the benefits of it. We shouldn’t just speculate and guess,” DeSantis said.
Ladapo, seconded the idea.
“There’s been a lot of chatter about it, and this very simple drug that happens to be very safe, by the way, has unfortunately, you know it’s so much it’s been weighed down by all this politics, especially during the Biden administration.”
Ivermectin is not approved by the FDA for cancer treatment.
The FDA also warns large doses of ivermectin can be dangerous. “Even doses of ivermectin for approved human uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma, and even death.”
Ladapo and DeSantis defend no mandate push
Meanwhile, Ladapo and his boss DeSantis defended their push to eliminate vaccine mandates from Florida law, rules, and regulations.
“I hope that we continue to reject the normal and we pursue a path that feels righteous, that feels like we’re actually, you know, aiming toward the thing that we want to improve,” Ladapo said.
“That opportunity is there. Thankfully, we have leadership, uniquely in this state, to do it. And I hope it spreads like, like all those minor viruses that my critics are afraid of, or something.”
The minor viruses Ladapo referred to includes measles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 1,514 confirmed measles cases this year as of Sept. 23. Six of those confirmed cases were in Florida. There were 11 confirmed measles cases in Florida in 2024.
Measles and other disease outbreaks occur as the percentage of school-age children in Florida who are vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella dips. While the target rate for MMR vaccination is 95%, Florida’s 2024-2025 rate was 88.8%.
That’s a near 5% point change from the 2019-2020 year, aKFF analysis shows, and well below the targeted 95% needed for herd immunity.
Ladapo and DeSantis avoided directly answering whether their children have been vaccinated. Ladapo said reporters should be asking substantive questions and likened the questions about the children to “silly games.”
“I actually don’t care about sharing information about that. I really don’t care at all. But I won’t. And I won’t because I’m not going to participate in the silly games that so much of the media chooses to partake in instead of the substantive parts of the issues.”
In addition to defending his anti-vaccine mandate push, Ladapo appears on board with the Trump administration’s announcement that autism rates are up because pregnant women are taking acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during their pregnancies.
“They acknowledge that not all the studies show harm, but some of them do show relation. And it’s not a total explanation for autism by any means, but it does appear to be that it’s reasonable to conclude that it may be contributing to the prevalence of autism in children,” Ladapo said.
When asked whether he intended to issue any guidance he said: “We’re still looking at it. So, we may have some more guidance, but it would probably be very much in line with where the FDA is.”
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mma
TikTok Shop is selling supplements made by Plandemic filmmaker
For $29 on TikTok, you can buy a supplement to “bulletproof your immune system” and “surround it with piranhas” from a company that pushes medical misinformation
Written by Abbie Richards
Research contributions from Alex Kaplan
:{:{Published 09/25/25}:
On TikTok Shop, users can now purchase a supplement that will purportedly “bulletproof your immune system.” The product was “founded” by a group that includes Mikki Willis, who has falsely claimed that measles is a “bioweapon” and said he has been “working with” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Willis is also known for creating the viral film Plandemic, which pushed conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
TikTok Shop’s policies prohibit the sale of “medicinal supplements,” including “unlicensed medicines, herbal or homeopathic products, and those making health claims.” But that isn’t stopping the creators of Fierce Immunity from selling their supplement on the platform and suggesting that people who take it “don’t get sick.”
Fierce Immunity is a supplement claiming to “supercharge your immune system”
Fierce Immunity is billed as “a synergistic blend of bioactive compounds, precision-engineered to supercharge your immune system” and “a powerful blend of Vitamin D, Zinc Ascorbate, Quercetin, Hesperidin, and L-Arginine designed to fortify your immune system, reduce inflammation, and support rapid recovery.”
The supplement was created by a group that includes medical misinformers, and it was reportedly formulated with an “AI technology,” known as Swarm Intelligence. Fierce Immunity is also the first item listed in parent company Rebel Lion’s “Measles Protocol.” As part of the protocol, Rebel Lion claims Fierce Immunity works as “both prevention and response in times of viral threat.”
Health care experts have said that while some people can benefit from a vitamin D supplement, most people do not need vitamin D supplements because they get sufficient vitamin D from their diet and lifestyle. And while zinc plays a role in immune health, supplements are usually necessary only for people with zinc deficiency. In fact, some experts say excessive zinc levels can actually be “dangerous to your health.”
In small print, Fierce Immunity's website admits, “Fierce Immunity is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. … You should not use the information contained herein for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication.”
Rebel Lion is selling and promoting Fierce Immunity on TikTok
Rebel Lion is selling Fierce Immunity on TikTok Shop, even though the platform prohibits the sale of “unlicensed medicines, herbal or homeopathic products, and those making health claims.” In fact, the company is selling the product on the platform at half of its usual price of $58 a bottle.
On its TikTok account, Rebel Lion has posted videos of people making some bold claims about Fierce Immunity, such as saying it will “bulletproof your immune system” and “lock it down, supercharge it, and surround it with piranhas,” “It shields my immunity. I don’t get sick,” and “Two years ago I began taking Fierce Immunity … and in that two years, I haven’t been sick, not even a sniffle.” In another video, a man is repeatedly hitting a tire in a gym with a voiceover saying, “After six weeks of constant gut issues, I tried Fierce Immunity and in just two days, my discomfort vanished.”
In Rebel Lion webinars on YouTube, the commentary about Fierce Immunity gets even wilder. In a webinar dedicated to the “Real Story Behind the Measles Outbreak,” Rebel Lion co-founder Chris Roy said that “nobody that I know that’s taking Fierce Immunity is getting sick.” Roy also claimed that his friend’s sister “had breast cancer — stage four — and started taking Fierce Immunity and within about a month they said her tumors are shrinking.”
Fierce Immunity is being sold by a company led by medical misinformers
According to Rebel Lion's website, Fierce Immunity was “founded by Mikki Willis, Chris Roy, and JP Sears.” Willis and Sears both have histories of spreading medical misinformation.
Willis is the creator of the viral film Plandemic, which Wired reported was a “widely debunked pseudo-documentary” that “suggested Covid-19 was released to profit those in positions of authority and that vaccines were ineffectual.” During Rebel Lion's “The Real Story Behind the Measles Outbreak” webinar, he falsely claimed that measles is a “bioweapon” that has “been manipulated and targeted towards a community that is a threat because of their natural way of living.” In February, Willis also claimed that he had “been working with RFK Jr.” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard “for over a decade.”
Willis is still sowing doubt and mistrust around the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. During the Rebel Lion webinar, Willis encouraged viewers to share an upcoming video with their friends and family who still trust vaccines and linked his father’s heart issues to vaccines:
MIKKI WILLIS: I was getting calls from these people that were severely injured. They were the first ones to line up for the COVID-19 vaccines. And they were manipulated and coerced into doing that for whatever reason. We’ve been following them on their journey of healing for the past four years. They went from perfectly healthy to confined to a wheelchair, having to have breathing apparatuses just so they can breathe, to having seizures every 30 minutes, some of them severely injured from being perfectly healthy.
And so we’ve witnessed that firsthand. And that movie, when it comes out, share it like crazy because I have been saying, that’s the movie that ends the debate. If you have family members, friends, whoever it is that are still in denial just because maybe they got vaccinated and they’re OK, which, thank God, so many people are. My father and mother-in-law both, I don’t know, two or three vaccines — they’re fine. My father, three vaccines, three heart attacks — I just put him in hospice care.
In the description of the “ Real Story Behind the Measles Outbreak” webinar, Rebel Lion describes the video as an “urgent discussion … unpacking the latest measles outbreak in Texas and exposing what mainstream media refuses to report,” including questions like “Is this a mutated bioweapon?” and “Are vaccinated individuals more vulnerable?”
Journalists have described Sears as a “conservative, anti-vaccine comic” and “the clown prince of wellness.” In his comedy sketches, Sears has implied that vaccines cause autism, that COVID-19 boosters are intended to depopulate the world, and that mRNA vaccines are ineffective.
Roy, who owns the “Rebel Lion” trademark, doesn’t seem to have a significant history as a public persona online. Instead, he seems to bring the marketing expertise to the Rebel Lion project.
In May, Rebel Lion released a film that featured Dr. Ben Edwards and Dr. Richard Bartlett, who have downplayed the threat of measles, and Pierre Kory, whose certification was revoked by the American Board of Internal Medicine for his promotion of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.
Edwards reportedly treated measles patients in Texas, including children, with cod liver oil while reportedly having an active measles infection himself.
Bartlett has suggested that the measles vaccine could cause measles and that reporting on the rise in measles is a “misinformation, disinformation campaign to character-assassinate RFK and the Make America Healthy Again movement.” During the “Real Story Behind the Measles Outbreak” webinar, Willis asked Bartlett: “Should we stop all measles vaccines and let children get natural immunity?” Bartlett didn’t seem to answer the answer directly, but he said: “Parents deserve to know all the information. … We’re supposed to as doctors give informed consent. As far as vaccines, it’s again an individual decision. Traditional vaccines made with a live virus or a live weakened virus make sense to me. But there’s a risk. They’re live measles viruses. Live measles viruses cause measles.” He added that “every risk of measles can happen with the MR vaccine. And you’re not gonna hear that on CNN.”
During the May film, Kory argued that “measles is essentially just a rash. It was one of the most common childhood illnesses. It’s not lethal by any stretch of the imagination. Over 90% of kids with measles will suffer no complications. And the few that do, those complications are easily treatable.”
The Centers for Disease Control has been clear: Measles “isn't just a little rash.” In fact, the CDC says that 1 in 5 people who get measles will be hospitalized, and 1 in 20 children with measles will get pneumonia, which is “the most common cause of death from measles in young children.” A 2024 study also estimated that measles vaccines averted over 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.
Medical misinformers often sow doubt around vaccines and then profit from anxious consumers
Fierce Immunity offers something of a window into a larger industry in which grifters profit off fear and medical misinformation, seeding distrust in lifesaving vaccines while simultaneously selling bogus solutions.
Immediately after stoking fear about COVID-19 vaccines in the Rebel Lion webinar, Willis said, “This is why we created Fierce Immunity.” Roy added that when measles started breaking out, “that was the beginning of the conversation — was we were getting so many people asking us what they should do, what they should take, how should they build their immune system. Because we know … it all starts with the immune system.”
This sort of approach is also seen elsewhere in the medical misinformation space. For instance, a 2024 study from the University of Washington documented how wellness influencers leveraged anti-vaccine messaging for profit, using it to sell products including heavy metal detox sprays and supplements, homeschooling resources, and “off-grid” supplies. And during the pandemic, right-wing media figures and anti-vaccine activists peddled ivermectin as a miracle drug, even though it is ineffective at treating COVID-19.
Rebel Lion’s “Measles Protocol” also includes Budesonide, which the American Academy of Pediatrics has said is “not a recommended nor effective treatment for measles,” and an “antimicrobial oral rinse that reduces viral and bacterial load in the mouth.”
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TikTok Shop is selling black market Ozempic, performance enhancement drugs, and cosmetic filler
10/22/24 2:04 PM EDT
06/27/25 10:02 AM EDT
09/09/25
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Right-wing media downplayed the likelihood of a measles outbreak. U.S. cases just reached a new high since the disease was eliminated.
Written by Jane Lee, Alicia Sadowski, Isabella Corrao & Helena Hind
Published 07/09/25 MMA
After a February measles outbreak beginning in Texas, measles cases in the U.S. have reached the highest point since the disease was eliminated in 2000. Right-wing media have downplayed the potential of a measles outbreak.
- ### The number of measles cases has reached its highest point since 2000
- In February at least 100 cases of measles were reported in the U.S., mainly affecting children and teenagers. Many cases occurred in Gaines County, Texas, where “coverage of the MMR vaccine is particularly low. … Nearly 1 in 5 incoming kindergarteners in the 2023-2024 school year did not get the vaccine.” CNN, [2/18/25; USA Today, 2/20/25; CBS News, 2/26/25]
- Experts attribute the resurgence in measles in part to low vaccination rates. Community-wide vaccinations are critical to preventing the spread of measles because the disease is highly contagious. Over “90% of unvaccinated people who are exposed end up contracting it” and outbreaks can “result in severe complications and deaths, especially among young, malnourished children.” According to the CDC, one in five unvaccinated people in the U.S. who contract measles end up hospitalized. USA Today, [2/20/25; World Health Organization, 11/14/24; Business Insider, 2/20/25]
- As of July 8, the U.S. has over 1200 reported cases of measles since the Texas outbreak. Dr. David Sugerman, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the loss of COVID-19 grant money has impacted attempts to curb the outbreak by creating “funding limitations” in Texas. NBC News, [7/8/25]
- ### Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, right-wing media dismissed the possibility of a measles outbreak
- Newsmax host Emma Rechenberg dismissed CNN’s concerns over a measles outbreak, sarcastically asking, “Really, Jake Tapper?” Guest Curtis Houck agreed, labelling the concerns “more hysterical stuff.” Newsmax, *The National Report*, [11/15/24]
- Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza said CNN bringing up a potential measles outbreak “seems like just fearmongering." “RFK Jr. is going to make your kids, I don’t know, get the measles when he’s actually talking about maybe just some things that would make a lot of the obesity go down." Newsmax, *Newsline*, [11/15/24]
- Fox host Jesse Watters dismissed CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s concerns over measles: “I’m starting to think he’s being told what to say." Watters: “Jake Tapper was a debate moderator, and what does he have? ‘I hope you like measles.’ I'm starting to think he's being told what to say, because the ad sales guys over at CNN might be saying, ‘Don't go after big food and big pharma,’ because they've lost $250 million over the last four years under Joe Biden, because you can't do that and continue to have a real job." Fox News, *The Five*, [11/15/24]
- Watters asked Fox News guest and former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. adviser Calley Means if he could “respond to Senator [Elizabeth] Warren who says that you guys and this crew are going to bring back polio, measles, mumps, and the plague." Means dismissed the concern and defended Kennedy’s nomination for the secretary of health and human services. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [12/13/24]
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Texas poised to make measles a nationwide epidemic: public health experts
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rfk2 cod liver oil vit A no full endorse of vax 97% effective; fort texas state and cty rx prety good hotez dr but
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Marjorie Taylor Greene supports infecting kids at measles 'parties' as outbreaks turn deadly
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Fox News is championing RFK Jr's view of public health, even as it puts your kids at risk
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 08/27/24
Fox News hosts like Ainsley Earhardt are overjoyed about notorious anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s purported ability to help former President Donald Trump’s campaign appeal to “moms” concerned with public health.
“I think moms around the country appreciate his stance for trying to make our children healthy again,” she said on Monday.
Earhardt noted that in Kennedy’s speech last week endorsing Trump, “he talked about how 75% of the budget from the FDA comes from pharmaceutical companies” and “said it's very profitable when a child is sick,” adding that Kennedy’s condemnation of “corruption in health care” is “music to every mom’s ears."
The culture warriors at Fox aren’t typically invested in talking about public health issues. But in one key health-related fight on which the network aligned with Kennedy — COVID-19 vaccines — the results have proved disastrous. Their combined assault on what Kennedy falsely termed “the deadliest vaccine ever made” helped trigger plummeting levels of support for childhood vaccinations among Republicans, with ongoing consequences for America’s kids.
Fox’s unique pull with its right-wing audience gave it a moral responsibility to encourage viewers to take the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, the network — led by stars like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity — pandered to anti-vaxxers like Kennedy.
Fox conducted a yearslong campaign to undermine the vaccines, which the network falsely portrayed as ineffective and dangerous, while talking up the potential of fake cures for the virus. Its hosts were particularly scathing about public health efforts to require vaccination at schools and workplaces, which Ingraham described as a “crime against humanity.”
The right-wing assault on the COVID-19 vaccines led to lower rates of vaccinations among Republicans — and consequently higher death rates. But the anti-vaccine sentiment unleashed by the likes of Fox and Kennedy was not limited to COVID-19: There have been broader impacts on GOP support for the full range of childhood vaccinations.
Gallup reported earlier this month that the percentage of Americans who say it is important for parents to get their children vaccinated has tumbled since the COVID-19 pandemic — and that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are responsible for that decline.
Nearly 20% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now say that it’s “not very important” or “not important at all” for parents to get their kids vaccinated, according to Gallup’s polling.
Gallup further found that the percentage of Americans who think the government should require parents to vaccinate their children against deadly contagions like the measles has fallen to 51%, down from 62% in 2019 and 81% in 1991. That decline is largely due to Republicans, 60% of whom now oppose such government mandates.
The result is a looming crisis for America's children. It takes a 95% vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity for measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But immunization among kindergartners has fallen from 95% before the pandemic to 93% in the most recent school year. In 18 states, more than 4% of kindergartners have vaccine exemptions.
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The result is skyrocketing outbreaks of preventable and dangerous diseases among children — but things can still get so much worse.
Trump is more than willing to prioritize his political future over your kids. Playing to his base, he all but disavowed the COVID-19 vaccines his administration helped bring to fruition, and he vows that his administration “will not give one penny” to schools that require their students to be vaccinated.
He sought Kennedy’s endorsement and is dangling the prospect of rewarding him with a plum post — potentially secretary of Health and Human Services, where the anti-vaccine activist would wield incredible power. Far from trying to hold him back, Fox hosts like Earhardt and MAGA princes like Charlie Kirk are celebrating Kennedy’s supposed health bona fides.
For a glimpse of what an empowered Kennedy might mean for America’s parents, it's worth reviewing his role in “one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory,” as FactCheck.org put it:
In 2018, two infants in American Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine with expired muscle relaxant rather than water. The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program, and anti-vaccine advocates — including Kennedy and his nonprofit — flooded the area with misinformation. The vaccination rate dropped to a dangerously low level. The next year, when a traveler brought measles to the islands, the disease tore through the population, sickening more than 5,700 people and killing 83, most of them young children.
That doesn’t sound like “music to every mom’s ears."
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https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/12/27/leprosy_polio_malaria_tb_measles__and_massive_unscreened_illegal_immigration_1000817.html}:
update, March 2024:*
Tuberculosis Cases Are Surging in California, Newsweek
Chicago Evicts Migrants as Measles Cases Spread, Fox News
By James Varney, RealClearInvestigations
December 27, 2023
Successful public health campaigns and medical advances have enabled the United States to conquer a range of disfiguring and damaging diseases. Polio, which paralyzed thousands of Americans annually, was wiped out by widespread vaccinations. In 1999 the nation’s last hospital for lepers closed its doors in Louisiana. A global campaign eradicated smallpox, while lethal tuberculosis, the “consumption” that stalked characters in decades of literature, seemed beaten by antibiotics. Measles outbreaks still occur from time to time, but they are small, local, and easily contained.
Vaccination in Pakistan, one of two countries where polio is still endemic. The other is Afghanistan, source of an estimated 90,000 taken into the U.S. since America's chaotic 2021 withdrawal.
Recently, however, some of these forgotten but still formidable infectious diseases have begun to reappear in the U.S. For two years running, polio has been detected in some New York water samples, and this fall, leprosy re-emerged in Florida, where cases of malaria have also been recorded.
Health officials say they are not sure why these and other infectious diseases are resurfacing. One distinct possibility, which officials are loath to discuss, is that the millions of migrants who have crossed into the country in recent years could be bringing the scourges with them, since many are from countries where such rare diseases persist and vaccination programs are not robust.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: “The recent polio and leprosy cases are almost certainly imports to the U.S.”
“The recent polio and leprosy cases are almost certainly imports to the U.S.,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and scientist at Stanford University, one of the most outspoken critics of official COVID-19 narratives in the last pandemic that later proved flawed.
And the Biden administration, an aggressive promoter of often mandatory vaccination last time, now is offering little public comment on the connection between disease and the porous borders with which its immigration policy has become widely identified.
Neither the Centers for Disease Control nor the Department of Homeland Security would discuss the issue with RealClearInvestigations. Legal immigrants are required to receive vaccinations for a host of diseases, but the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged it does not have vaccination records for the millions who have entered the U.S. since the Biden administration relaxed border controls upon taking office in January 2021.
“It’s not like there is some Typhoid Mary out there, but this is something people are seeing and thinking about, even if they don’t want to discuss it publicly,” said Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the Biden administration’s border policies.
"Operation Allies Welcome" in Idaho: some of the 90,000 Afghan arrivals from a polio-afflicted land.
you motherfuckers
The reticence of federal agencies has not stopped some local officials, however, from raising public health alarms over massive immigration. New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan warned in April that at least half of the migrants who have poured into the city had not been vaccinated against polio. The potentially paralyzing and life-threatening virus remains endemic in two countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization. Since President Biden ordered what proved to be a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, an estimated 90,000 Afghans have come to the U.S. under the terms of Operation Allies Welcome.
Ashwin Vasan, New York City Health Commissioner: Half of migrants are not vaccinated against polio.
publichealth.columbia.edu
It is not clear if those migrants met the polio vaccination requirement. DHS did not respond to a question about whether medical histories were reviewed in the fast-tracked entry of Afghans who got out of their country before the Taliban reimposed its control.
Vasan’s warning pointed directly to the southern border, which has seen record-shattering arrivals on the Biden administration’s watch.
“More than 50,000 people have come to New York City in the past year shortly after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border,” he wrote in an 11-page letter. “I am writing now to underscore how critical it is that health care providers take a wide range of considerations into account when working with people who are seeking asylum.”
Citing outbreaks of chickenpox in shelters for illegal immigrants, Vasan also noted the arrival of newcomers who either began their journey in a country where tuberculosis is present or passed through such countries en route to the U.S.
The New York City Health Department did not respond to questions from RealClearInvestigations or to a request to speak with Dr. Vasan, but the numbers have only grown since he sent his letter. Since spring 2022, more than 100,000 migrants had arrived in the city, and more than 67,200 were living in taxpayer-funded housing at the end of November, according to the New York Times.
Poster girl, 1957: The poliovirus, long extinct in the U.S, is again being monitored by federal health authorities, via wastewater testing.
March of Dimes Foundation
Last year, the first recorded polio case in the U.S. since 2013 was diagnosed in New York State, with the victim described only as an “unvaccinated man.”Also in 2022, poliovirus was found in the water supply of four New York counties, including Long Island, and New York City. Another positive test result was recorded in Rockland County this year, according to the state.
In the U.S., polio vaccinations remain part of “the routine childhood immunization process” under which the CDC recommends four doses. Adults who grew up in the U.S. are vaccinated, the agency said.
The last occurrence prior to the New York diagnosis had been in 1979. Since November 2022, the CDC has begun wastewater testing for the poliovirus, so long extinct in the U.S., in selected areas, but the agency did not respond to questions about those investigations. It does provide information on COVID and monkeypox, the latter a disease that primarily afflicts the gay population.
A thorough investigation, exploring all avenues of transmission and trying to source a virus to its root, is common among virus hunters, and the idea that millions of people coming to the U.S. could inadvertently carry with them some infectious disease is but one possibility. For example, thus far researchers have been unable to pinpoint where the infamous Ebola virus originates in equatorial Africa.
'Historically Atypical Countries'
The situation in the United States is further complicated by the fact that DHS officials don’t know where all of the more than 7.5 million migrants who’ve arrived since Biden took office are living. Those whom Border Patrol agents have encountered and processed have immigration court dates, but those dates areyears in advance. Many people with uncertain immigration status lack health insurance and stay off the grid as much as possible, meaning even if the U.S. launched some kind of vaccination program it would not know where to concentrate its efforts.
In addition, the historic flood of illegal immigration during the Biden administration has also featured a much more global population. DHS uses the term “historically atypical countries” to describe the panoply of countries outside of Mexico and Central America from which illegal immigration has soared. Between 2011 and 2022, the number of annual encounters involving immigrants from historically atypical countries soared from fewer than 8,000 to almost 1 million. The first six months of 2023 saw more than half of official encounters – these numbers do not include what Border Patrol calls “gotaways” for whom little information is available – from historically atypical countries. But infectious diseases largely forgotten in the U.S. remain public health issues in both hemispheres, and many of those nations have much less robust vaccination programs than most modern Western nations.
Ancient scourge: Leprosy victim, 24, in a medical monograph, circa 1886.
Pierre Arents/Wikimedia
In 1988, when the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, wild poliovirus was evident in 125 countries, but the zone where it remains endemic has shrunk to Afghanistan and Pakistan, with most recent cases occurring along the countries’ nearly 1,600-mile border, according to the CDC. Vaccination campaigns have proved problematic under the militant Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, according to the CDC. Oral vaccines in “parts of the south and northeast regions” are “allowed only at health facilities, mosques, and polio vaccination sites.”
In March, Al Jazeera reported that the Taliban would allow a polio vaccination program for children, but precise figures on the country’s overall vaccination rate remain unclear. The World Health Organization estimates that 76% of Afghanistan’s children have received a polio vaccine.
But some countries have even lower vaccination rates. On Nov. 30, for instance, some 700 people, including many from Senegal and Nigeria, walked into the U.S. at the Texas border. Only 63% of Senegal’s children have been vaccinated for polio, and various fevers, hepatitis, and malaria are endemic there. Measles, which the U.S. declared eliminated here in 2000, are an issue, too. The WHO estimates 22 million children missed their first measles vaccine last year and more than half of them live in just 10 countries, all of which fall in the “historically atypical” immigration list.
Ashley St. Clair, conservative commentator: “All the pilots, airline staff, and passengers want to know is: what medical screenings are being done?”
X
Measles cases have risen in the U.S., from 13 individual cases in 2020 to 121 in 2022, according to the CDC. Recent outbreaks in Ohio and Illinois have all occurred among unvaccinated children, according to state health officials. The age and nationality of victims is not made public, but the measles vaccination rate is below 70% in many countries that have sent immigrants to the U.S. recently.
While few are publicly pushing the panic button, some public health officials worry that a creeping mistrust of vaccines in the wake of the pandemic may make more Americans vulnerable to dangerous and even deadly scourges. Syphilis, for example, has been on the rise for many years but rose sharply during the pandemic.
COVID-19 has drawn the lion’s share of attention from the public health bureaucracy since 2020, leading to shortfalls in other areas, some experts said.
“All of these diseases are more prevalent in part because of lockdown policies which diverted public health resources and attention worldwide away from its traditional priorities of controlling the spread of these deadly infectious conditions,” Dr. Bhattacharya said, referring to measles and other maladies.
And just as there is no cure for polio, there is no vaccine for some infectious diseases. Malaria, for example, the mosquito-borne fever that killed more workers than yellow fever did when the Panama Canal was built, remains endemic in tropical zones, and its path to rare outbreaks in the U.S. usually follows either a trip made abroad or someone moving here, according to health officials in Florida.
Department spokesman Jae Williams told RCI the exact sources of many infectious disease outbreaks in the Sunshine State remain unknown, but the huge increase in illegal immigrants could be a clue.
“It’s always a possibility, and our most recent malaria cases appeared to be a strain from Central America,” he said. In other words, the malaria could have been brought by a newcomer or picked up by someone who traveled there and returned.
Central Florida this summer saw leprosy return, although the exact source remains a mystery, Williams said. Information about the age, sex, and nationality of victims is not public, and most of those who contracted the infectious, skin-disfiguring disease were described only as “landscapers.” Various accounts have speculated armadillos are to blame, but armadillos are not newcomers to the region. The theory holds that somehow the leprosy bacteria, which generally requires prolonged contact and against which most humans have developed immunity over millennia, is in the dirt armadillos wallow in, and the cases that broke out among landscapers then would be linked to the animals they encounter.
But leprosy is not endemic in Florida. It is most common in parts of southeast Asia, equatorial Africa, and Brazil.
“The influx of people, sure it’s a problem and it’s always a possibility,” Williams said. “But we don’t really know.”
Nevertheless, the questions are being asked with more frequency. On Dec. 19, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative commentator, set off a firestorm on X, formerly Twitter, that her Delta flight from Phoenix to New York was filled with people who had recently been processed, released, and brought to the airport by Border Patrol.
“All the pilots, airline staff, and passengers want to know is: what medical screenings are being done?” she wrote.
Delta did not respond to questions from RCI about what knowledge it had been provided about its passengers.
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