Media’s Fearmongering Foiled As TX Measles Outbreak Ends
Teh West Texas measles outbreak, which corporate media had portrayed as the start of a national epidemic, officially ended eight months after it began. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (TX DSHS), no new measles cases have been reported in the affected counties for over 42 days, signaling the conclusion of the outbreak that primarily impacted Mennonite and nearby communities. While health authorities continue surveillance, the threat is considered contained.
The article criticizes the media for sensationalizing the outbreak and pushing political narratives rather than investigating root causes, such as increased border crossings from regions with measles outbreaks. Media outlets also targeted public figures like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of downplaying the crisis, despite relatively low case increases compared to previous years.
Coverage frequently enough framed vaccine hesitancy within affected communities-largely based on longstanding religious beliefs-as problematic, labeling it “vaccine resistance.” The article emphasizes that while measles is contagious and poses risks to vulnerable individuals, it was never the severe threat media had portrayed.
the resolution of the outbreak exposes the corporate media’s tendency toward fearmongering and undermines public trust in their reporting, especially given their history of misleading coverage during the COVID pandemic.
The West Texas measles outbreak that corporate media claimed would be the start of a national epidemic is officially over just eight months after it began.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (TX DSHS), the agency responsible for publishing Lone Star State health statistics, announced on Aug. 18 that the measles outbreak that affected areas of West Texas, including Gaines County, is no longer.
The virus that ran its course in more than seven hundred people, mostly children, in the Mennonite and surrounding communities since January appears to have lost its virulence in the area. As TX DSHS reported, more than 42 days have elapsed since a “new case was reported in any of the counties that previously showed evidence of ongoing transmission.”
While DSHS committed to continuing its surveillance of the region because “the end of this outbreak does not mean the threat of measles is over,” the department conceded that without more cases, there was no reason it should keep updating its interactive outbreak dashboard.
The conclusion of the measles explosion is good news for Texans and Americans but doesn’t bode well for the corporate media. After all, it was coverage of the case count in places like Seminole, Texas, that dominated headlines at the beginning of the year.
Just like the corporate media spent the duration of Covid misleading Americans, however, outlets were more concerned with peddling leftist narratives about measles than digging into the reasons it suddenly surged.
They ignored the effect four years of unfettered border crossings from countries that deal with measles outbreaks on the regular meant for measles in a border state like Texas and instead criticized “Texas leaders” for being “quiet amid measles crisis.”
Media also crucified Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for failing to fall for their blown-out-of-proportion bait. In one article, The New York Times even accused Kennedy of “downplay[ing]” the outbreak even though, as we noted in these very pages, six months into the alleged crisis, there were only 35 more reported measles cases than the total number recorded in 2019.
Some of the worst coverage, however, came from outlets that claimed Americans’ decisions to opt their children out of certain vaccines would exacerbate the crisis and even cause the death toll to rise.
The Washington Post, which spent paragraphs droning on about how the “scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities,” referred to this exercise in self-governance as “vaccine resistance.” Forbes even painted the lower vaccination rate in the afflicted communities, whose members’ convictions about jabs are likely religious and far pre-dated RFK Jr.’s rise in popularity, as a “problem.”
Yes, measles is highly contagious and could pose a problem to those with vulnerable immune systems. The virus never was, however, the killing machine that the media made it out to be.
The media’s treatment of the Texas measles flare-up doesn’t hold a candle to the censorship, lying, and propaganda that laced their Covid coverage. It does, however, further prove that Americans have no business trusting so-called newsrooms that blame them for and browbeat them over every manufactured crisis.
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