A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas. It's the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.
A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.
The death was a “school-aged child who was not vaccinated” and had been hospitalized last week, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday in a statement. Lubbock health officials also confirmed the death, but neither agency provided more details. A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.
When the parents are irresponsible, most other nations step in and make the responsible choice for their children in their place, whether the dumb parents like it or not.
But in the US, the state is even more irresponsible than the parents.
We've done that up here, for parents trying to treat childhood illnesses with distilled water and kale smoothies. Parents went to jail, grandparents are raising the child, if I remember right.
The only one that suffered, and paid any consequences, was that poor kid. They should be charged with child endangerment, and probably manslaughter, since this was completely avoidable.
But, you can’t restrict my freedom! I should still get the right to free travel AND the right to die of fully treatable disease, on top of my right to spread them to you! Fuck yeah, America, freedom, 2nd amendment!
A big storm approaches. The weatherman urges everyone to get out of town. The priest says, "I won't worry, God will save me".
The morning of the storm, the police go through the neighborhood with a sound truck telling everyone to evacuate. The priest says "I won't worry, God will save me".
The storm drains back up and there is an inch of water standing in the street. A fire truck comes by to pick up the priest. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises another foot. A National Guard truck comes by to rescue the priest. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises some more. The priest is forced up to his roof. A boat comes by to rescue the priest. He tells them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises higher. The priest is forced up to the very top of his roof. A helicopter comes to rescue the priest. He shouts up at them "Don't worry, God will save me."
The water rises above his house, and the priest drowns.
When he gets up to heaven he says to God "I've been your faithful servant ever since I was born! Why didn't you save me?"
God replies "First I sent you a fire truck, then the national guard, then a boat, and then a helicopter. What more do you want from me!!??
If only this country could’ve been founded by people who knew the heartbreak of losing a child to a preventable disease.
In 1736, I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if the child died under it: my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen. -Benjamin Franklin
Or, more recently, the author Roald Dahl, who lost a daughter to measles in 1962.
In the letter he described his personal experience: "Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its course, I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it." She became disinterested in playing and within an hour was unconscious.[1] "Within twelve hours she was dead" he wrote.
This isn't relevant to your comment, but out of curiosity. Have i been using the wrong cue in this context? It is cue and not queue, right? Like cue ball or cue the music, meaning begin or start and not queue like lining up or waiting your turn?
I think that word substitution is a necessary part of the logic of the people who see people other than themselves as inherently less than them and deserving of suffering if their health would cause them even the slightest inconvenience...for lack of a better word I'll call these people "the cullers".
The cullers see the deaths that occur from disease as just being "nature taking its course". It's only a small step from "healthy people don't die of this" to "they deserved their deaths because they're weak" and then a slightly larger jump to the even more horrifying "we should kill off the weak on purpose in the name of efficiency".
I feel sorry for the kid, but at the same time, I hope the funeral is the most painful, drawn out event for their parents, that everyone who comes lets them know exactly whose fault it is that their child is dead. I hope it's a learning experience for them.
It is not an uncommon occurrence for evangelical extremists to tell you to be grateful your child or whoever is dead because they get to be with God. These people are mental.
Unfortunately, no one in the antiVax is going to change their minds until it hits them very close. That kids first cousins might, maybe, get vaxed. More likely, they'll blame it on the hospital, or the flu.
Even if they're willing to admit that the vaccination would have saved his life they're going to be torn getting their other children vaccinated because of the possible negatives they think could happen. In their view it's a slight chance of death versus guaranteed autism.
I bet if you go ask them right now they'll point out that colds Have death rates associated with them. Just another avoidable unavoidable tragedy.
They'll refuse to be reasoned with or educated. These people were literally taking horse dewormer and an attempt to avoid vaccines.
I don't think that wishing them extra pain is particularly useful. We're all mad at them but realistically they're just undereducated, obstinate, and programmed.
Yeah, but that's what's fucked up a out all of this. It's a religious anti-Vax area that votes hard red. It's only spreading because it has some of the highest rates of unvacinnated kids, due to "religious" reasons. Even if it was a Healthcare access issue, they voted for the party currently trying to gut Medicaid.
While it's terribly sad for the children, this is consequences of the actions taken by the community.
So where does it say in the original article that these parents didn't get their kid vaccinated because they couldn't afford it? I must've missed that. See I'm pretty sure it was because they deliberately chose to leave their kid vulnerable to infectious disease, but if you have evidence proving the contrary (not just an article saying "some people don't because they can't afford it" -- something actually relating to these specific parents who lost a child, demonstrating that they couldn't afford it), please, do enlighten me.
I mean the parents are stupid, perhaps even criminally negligent, but they were probably acting with the best of intentions and genuinely thought they were protecting their child. It's incredibly sad.
Or "It was The Markets will" if you're a centrist or capitalist. Their belief system works pretty much exactly the same, just a different god. Centrist so-called atheist enablers are not excused from this equation.
They didn't murder they own kid, it was God simply telling them it was their kid's time to go. I mean that with 100% sarcasm, but there are people out there who believe just that.
The chances of America charging these parents is zero. And this poor kid is just a herald of of things to come - people dying of preventable, contagious diseases because morons and kooks think vaccines are some kind of left wing conspiracy.
Could they be arrested for this though? Getting vaccinated isn't mandatory. They made the very poor decision to not vaccinate their child, but is it neglect?
Vaccines are such a charged subject for political reasons (that felt so frustrating to type).
I try to find something analogous. If I had the option to remove a poisonous plant from my home, I didn't because of personal choice, and my child ate the plant and died, I would consider it neglect.
Legally however, not even judges will agree with each other on this.
The fact that it is not mandatory should not even register with anyone with half a brain cell.
The US is just so stupidly backwards and going even further in that direction that it's even an option to not vaccinate your kids.
All that's going to happen is that this country will push out all the intelligent people who will want to leave for somewhere with some intelligence and the oligarchs will be left to rule over a blatantly stupid populace who force themselves into slavery
This is really sad for an easily preventable disease. Below the fold, they mention this (which a lot of people won't see without reading the article)
The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in West Texas, where small towns are separated by vast stretches of oil rig-dotted open land but connected due to people traveling between towns for work, church, grocery shopping and other errands.
Not so loud about their beliefs when they backfire, eh?
I hope this kid's parents suffer terribly. This child depended on them to keep it alive, literally the most fundamental part of being a parent, and they failed miserably. It's the worst form of betrayal: the kind that costs lives. I wonder what Jesus would have to say about that?
I don't wish suffering on them. Their child is dead. They're suffering enough. They're likely to just hold stronger to whatever beliefs they have and blame whatever bs reason they can think of.
I hope they learn. They learn that there are truths and things in this world that are real, and everything isn't some messed up conspiracy theory. That you can challenge others beliefs as long as you also challenge your own.
The fact that their choice to not vaccinate contributed directly to their child's death is a hard pill to swallow, but let's hope they swallow it all the same.
Hope the parents' lives are completely ruined now. But they're probably already busy on the replacement. That's what they want to bring back: a world where a woman has to carry 18 pregnancies to term in hopes of having one or two that survive to adulthood. Good times.
What a fantastic thing for the parents to experience! I love that they will have to live with the fact that their child is dead of a completely preventable disease purely because of their own decisions.
Another sad aspect to this is that often the parents think they are doing the right thing. They're wrong of course. Some people have mental issues that lead them to "magical thinking". I know some people who are anti Vax, and are very health conscious in all other respects. They're just ignorant. One of the founders of permaculture in Australia wrote about being against the covid vaccine during the lockdowns here. I used to live in one of the villages he designed, and the people and their beliefs were mostly lovely. But they have a distrust of science that makes them vulnerable to dangerous ideas.
My late father used to smoke at least a pack a day. He did that for almost fifty years. When he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer he said, and I quote: "We'll never know why I got this".
People can be really good at dodging responsibility even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
The report states that this was a “school-age child”. Because the outbreak is primarily in rural west Texas Mennonite families, the child was likely homeschooled and with parents who, while not opposed to vaccines, are on the fundamental side of religion. Mennonite is like Amish-lite.
I believe this may have been a combination of poor education, jesus stuff, and misplaced faith in isolation.
Is that true of these Mennonites in West Texas? Mennonites are a pretty diverse group. I had a friend who was Mennonite and his parents were biker metalheads. He was a straightedge, vegan hardcore guy. You'd never confuse them for Amish.
I’m not west Texas Mennonite, so I couldn’t say with authority. Both Amish and Mennonite are Anabaptist, but Mennonites don’t eschew electricity, cars, and technology.
The Mennonite families I’ve known were rural and lived in a more humble fashion with a hard-working ethic reminiscent of 1950’s USA. They were also inclusive, so they probably would embrace biker metalheads.
Saying that this child's death was because of it's parents decision is cutting off the chain of causality way too soon. It forgives all the grifters and the culture of anti-science.
These parents have lost their child, but they didn't disappear, the kid transformed into a political football. People calling for "accountability" like this family got away with something haven't thought this through. And frankly I have serious doubts that they give one tiny shit about a dead kid; they're here to play football.
Not the last, unfortunately, and given MAGA voters lack of empathy for others, only those who suffer this completely avoidable loss might (or not) learn, and those who do learn will be ostracized by their fellow MAGA
The fact that it is impossible to tell how absolutely dripping with sarcasm my comment was is a testament to how useless, meaningless and ridiculous the words (and sentiment of) "thoughts and prayers" are.
So once more for the people in the back, to the parents who essentially killed their child I send them my thoughts and prayers.