I went to Seminole, Texas, after a measles outbreak tore through. Came back with a story about anti-vaccine activists at RFK Jr.-founded @ChildrensHD who exploited the crisis, doctors and public health officials working to contain it — and a community left to bear the cost. 🧵
The county had some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, and rumors were spreading — some private schools had closed. When measles took hold, it spread fast, especially among Mennonite families who recently avoided vaccines.
For most Mennonite families who avoided vaccines, it wasn’t about religion. Their hesitancy came from experience — a disabled child, a search for answers, encounters with anti-vaccine doctors. These were called “mighty, mighty testimonies.”
Public health workers scrambled to test, treat, and inform. Then anti-vaccine activists moved in. As they had with so many autism parents, they brought cameras and conspiracy theories. Some framed the outbreak as a failure of vaccines, others claimed measles was a bioweapon.
CHD raised money. Alternative doctors handed out cod liver oil and steroid inhalers. One was trespassed after entering the ICU to push unproven treatments. Then RFK Jr., now the nation’s health secretary, showed up — and praised them as “extraordinary healers.”
Dr. Ben Edwards once practiced small-town family medicine. Then he found a guru who denied germ theory and lost his license for risky treatments. Today, Edwards runs a wellness empire in Lubbock—and hosts a podcast interviewing anti-vaxxers like Andrew Wakefield.
Meanwhile, a CDC epidemiologist named Jonathan Yoder quietly moved into a borrowed office. He called pastors, radio hosts, editors — anyone who might help him reach the community. He worked alongside Zach Holbrooks, the local health director trying to hold the response together.
Two girls died. One was 8-year-old Daisy Hildebrand. After her death, CHD posted a video of her father blaming the hospital. Then RFK Jr. named her publicly. Her dad told me he started getting calls: “People were calling to say we’re going to hell for killing our daughter.”
The local public health director told me the lesson he’ll carry forward is simple: build the relationships before an outbreak.
You can read the whole thing here: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…
Oh and. The official U.S. measles count is 1,088. But on Fri, Dr. Ben Edwards gave his data to the health dept. He treated 261 people, mostly kids. If those were all measles cases that would push 2025 as worst outbreak since the 1990s. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…
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