In West Texas, an unvaccinated child has died from measles, the first known U.S. measles death since 2015. There have been at least 124 cases in West Texas and nine in New Mexico in the current outbreak. Many of the cases are centered in a Mennonite community, known for having lower vaccination rates. This is Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer of Covenant Health in Texas.

Dr. Lara Johnson: “We were confident that we’d eradicated measles from the United States and had really gotten to a point where we just didn’t see these kinds of outbreaks happening. Obviously, that has changed over the last 20-something years. And so, we do see outbreaks more frequently, but that is related to how much we’re vaccinating our population.”

At the White House, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed the outbreak, calling it “not unusual.”