One of America’s worst measles outbreaks in recent years continues to spread, with 292 reported cases in western Texas and eastern New Mexico as of March 17. A nearby Oklahoma county has confirmed its first case, which officials believed to be linked to the outbreak’s epicenter in Gaines County, Texas. Two people have so far died from measles infections since the outbreak began in late January.

The actual number of cases is likely higher than the official count, based on reports from doctors who are treating patients as well as statistical analysis (two deaths would suggest thousands of cases, based on the measles’ mortality rate of roughly 1 in 1,000 infections). Officials fear the virus’s spread could persist into the spring and summer travel seasons, allowing the virus to reach other parts of the country; more cases and deaths could follow.

The outbreak has now exceeded the total number of reported measles cases in the US last year, which itself had already represented an increase from 2023. Measles vaccination rates in most US states have fallen below the 95 percent threshold scientists consider necessary to control the disease, and those rates have continued to drop. The Texas emergency appears to have begun in an insular religious community with high vaccination exemption rates; 14 percent of all children in Gaines County have exemptions.

The nation’s health leadership, meanwhile, is undermining the best defense against measles. While US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has paid lip service to the value of vaccines, he has also

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