What the Fuck Are We Doing

Our country's descent into an unnecessary measles pandemic is a new level of maddening.

Photo by Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

In all the time I’ve spent during the last decade or so ruminating on the various catastrophes that might befall us as we march toward a fascist state, I realize now that I didn’t spend nearly enough time thinking about rudimentary public health. I thought about reproductive rights and access to affordable care, but I took a lot for granted. I didn’t expect the fall to be so far and happen so fast.

But here we are. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new figures confirming that the United States now has the highest number of reported measles cases in the country in 33 years. Reminder: It is July 10th! That number (1,288 at the time of writing and possibly more by the time you read this) is only going to go up from here. It’s a stark and alarming turnaround from just 25 years ago, when the disease was officially declared eliminated in the U.S.

Measles is a highly infectious disease, and the 1000+ reported cases stem from 27 outbreaks (an “outbreak” is defined as three or more related cases), with most cases in Texas. As of now, 155 people have been hospitalized, and three people have died. Over 60 percent of reported cases are in people below the age of 20. The situation is bad on several levels, and experts anticipate it will only get worse.

This is insane! We didn’t get here suddenly, and yet it still feels unbelievable. The seeds were planted many years ago, but fully took root during the Covid pandemic, when vaccine hesitancy went from a fringe belief to something far more mainstream, and far more dangerous.

Our now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heard the call way back then, kept the ball rolling, and man, proudly expressing his dumb thoughts has really worked out well for him and horribly for the rest of us. Kennedy is actually currently being sued by some pissed off and fed up medical organizations like the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, and others for his unprecedented work to erode public confidence in vaccine safety. And while they’re very right to do so, it seems highly unlikely that anything will come of it. It’s not like any of this is new. (If you want to have a lot of fun go back and read this haunting Jack blog from a mere eight months ago!)

The suit is focused on messaging around Covid, but Kennedy has a laundry list of broader, equally dangerous claims he’s being sued over. Regarding measles, Kennedy has said that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective treatments and that it’s “not unusual” for the U.S. to experience measles outbreaks.

He has also said that a poor diet can be a contributing factor to measles, and if there’s any doubt in your mind that this man is a shameless psychopath, please know that he didn’t just commit to this belief in a vague, “Hey, people should eat well to stay healthy!” way. He went so far as to say that “malnutrition may have been an issue” for the six-year-old, unvaccinated girl in Texas who was the first person in a decade to die of measles in the U.S.

The girl was a member of a Mennonite community in Texas, and her parents later said their position on the MMR vaccine remained unchanged. An eight-year-old in the same community died from measles a few months later. RFK Jr. was eventually pressured into endorsing the MMR vaccine; just four days later, he was back on his bullshit, claiming that the vaccine hasn’t been “safely tested” and wears off quickly. (Both claims are very, very untrue.) He also said that measles will “always” be with us, which, again, is a total lie, given that measles was declared wiped out in this country a mere 25 years ago.

RFK Jr. is a dipshit, but much like the rest of the dipshits currently in power, he has power to influence a large swath of people who are increasingly skeptical and defiant. Vaccine rates are down, vaccine stigma continues to rise, and funding to help reverse these trends is stagnant. While many of us can still protect ourselves from measles specifically, this grim trajectory is very bad for all of us in the broader sense.

As vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez told The Guardian, “It’s a very dark epidemic that never had to happen.”

And that’s really all there is to it. The measles outbreak is just another case of so much unnecessary death and pain, made worse by people who do not give a fuck and will not suffer in any meaningful way as a result. We had eliminated measles—a preventable disease with a vaccine that’s 97% effective—and now there’s potential for that designation to disappear. I’m in the age range where measles has always felt like an issue of the past, a remnant from a time before modern medicine. Now we’re sliding back and many of the most exasperating issues from the height of the Covid pandemic feel poised to return.

There’s a lot to be outraged and scared about right now, and the utter senselessness at the heart of so much of it can still manage to knock the wind out of you. There’s the aggressive, proactive violence, and then there’s the erosion of the ground we’re standing on—the regression of so much of the simple, stabilizing protections that are giving way under the weight of misinformation, distrust, and very loud idiots. It’s bewildering, frustrating, and heartbreaking.

Earlier this year, when I first started reading about the potential for a broader measles epidemic, I tried to figure out if I’d had the proper shots (I was born in a timeframe that’s murky). There was something deeply bleak and comical about rifling through my baby box of photos, tiny onesies, and preschool graduation photos in search of an answer to a question my parents certainly never thought I’d be asking. I never found any documentation, so I’ll get a booster just to be safe. A small bit of comfort amid a sea of anxiety over what all of this might portend in the years to come.