America Records Its 8th Measles Death Of The Year In Wisconsin

The national embarrassment that is America’s measles problem continues to have devastating effects. While the federal government generally, and RFK Jr. specifically, blissfully ignores the thousands getting sick from a disease that was declared eradicated more than two decades ago, it all continues to get worse and worse. We have the tools at our disposal that would have precluded all of this sick and suffering, of course, but we’re currently being governed by ignorant anti-vaxxers that have spent decades driving down vaccination rates. Only days ago, we learned that a 7th person died just this year from measles.

If you thought this was purely an East Coast problem, you were wrong. The country now has its 8th fatality from measles this year, this time in Wisconsin. The anti-vaxxer movement puts everyone in danger, not just the unvaccinated. If you need a reminder of that, well, this latest fatality in Wisconsin was that of an infant, too young to be vaccinated.

An infant in Wisconsin has died of measles, the state health department said Thursday — the third measles-related death reported in the U.S. this week. It’s Wisconsin’s first measles-related death since 1990, the Health Service Department said, adding that a coroner had listed measles as the infant’s immediate cause of death.

None of the eight people who have died were vaccinated, according to state health departments; some were ineligible because of their age or health status. Typically, the first dose of the vaccine is administered around a child’s first birthday.

The deaths of every one of these people is on the heads of the anti-vaxxer movement. But there is a special flavor of anger that should be reserved for infants — infants! — who are dying as blameless victims, killed before they could be vaccinated. That this is occurring is abhorrent. That the current administration is staring down the deaths of children and doing nothing about it is criminal. We went 30 years without a measles death in the entire country. Now we have 8 so far in one year, along with thousands of confirmed infections and climbing.

Around 85% of kindergartners in Wisconsin have been vaccinated against measles — below the national average of 92%. Experts say 95% is the threshold needed to keep the population protected.

“We can actually eliminate transmission of measles in the community by getting enough people vaccinated,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, the state epidemiologist for communicable diseases. “We have the opportunity to take a disease that could affect everybody and essentially make it go away.”

Go away again. Damn it, we did this already. Fire or impeach RFK Jr. and show the country that you’re serious about fixing this.