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The number of measles cases in Texas continues to climb. On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 309 confirmed measles cases. Forty of the patients have been hospitalized.
The West Texas outbreak has grown so vast that the number of cases in Texas in the last three months has surpassed the 2024 CDC count of measles cases for the entire nation.
One fact stands out — almost everyone infected with measles is unvaccinated.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico, where the measles outbreak has spread, the case count is much lower than in Texas. In New Mexico, it's more difficult to obtain a vaccine exemption, and the state has a higher vaccination rate.
Nevertheless, Texas lawmakers are considering bills that would make it even easier to opt out of getting vaccinated. All of those bills are supported by the political action committee, Texans for Vaccine Choice.
The organization has so much high regard in Republican circles that on Feb. 11, on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, it was given special recognition.
“This afternoon I have the distinct pleasure to honor, welcome and celebrate Texans for Vaccine Choice on ten years of advocacy,” said Republican State Rep. Mitch Little of District 65 in East Texas. Little led the celebration of the anti-vaccine PAC.
“With the assistance and advocacy of liberty-loving residents of our great state, Texans for Vaccine Choice is now a widely recognized organization. Please join me in congratulating them on 10 years of service,” Little said.
As the representatives were celebrating Texans for Vaccine Choice, the West Texas measles outbreak was well under way. It was on Feb. 6 that the Texas Department of State Health Services issued an alert that there were six cases of measles in Gaines County in West Texas. Three weeks later, DSHS reported the outbreak had bloomed to 124 confirmed cases and one fatality, a six-year-old girl. And the numbers of cases continue to grow due to the high number of unvaccinated in the area.
“It is irresponsible. The fact that [Texans for Vaccine Choice] have any power is stunning," said Terri Burke, director of The Immunization Partnership, a Houston based pro-vaccine advocacy group. “I try not to think too much about Texans for Vaccine Choice. What I think about are the lawmakers who are being bamboozled by them."
Burke said Texans for Vaccine Choice has become influential in the halls of the Texas Capitol with the agenda to end all vaccine requirements in the state.
“They are really a small, very vocal minority of people, and that looks powerful. It looks large and it causes lawmakers to be fearful. They ask candidates to sign a pledge that if they're elected, they will not mandate vaccines of any kind,” she said.
Texans for Vaccine Choice did not respond to TPR's request for comment. But in other interviews, the group has denied being anti-vaccine.
However, on its website, members post disinformation about the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations. The website also hosts a podcast called “The Shot Caller” that recently platformed and agreed with Dr. Mark Bailey. He says vaccines do not work and viruses are not real.
In the posted interview Bailey said, “We’ve spent so long researching the issues of viruses, and so-called germs — pathogens — it’s not really controversial. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s just a matter of showing people that there’s no evidence for these things and there never was.”
Bailey's views on virology, particularly his assertion that viruses do not exist, are widely rejected by the scientific and medical communities. His work contradicts decades of established research in microbiology, infectious disease, and epidemiology.
“It is a concerning moment,” said Dr. Suleman Lalani, who is also a Democratic state representative for House District 76, which includes Fort Bend County, parts of Sugarland, Richmond Meadows, and the Stafford area.
Lalani said he’s worried about how politics is overshadowing the proven science, which has repeatedly shown that measles and other viral diseases can be prevented by vaccination.
“I'm very much concerned, and we are looking, keeping an eye on all the legislation that is coming up, which is trying to remove the vaccine requirement or creating some exemptions to that,” he said.
There are at least 20 bills filed in the current legislative session that Texans for Vaccine Choice is supporting. Many would make it easier to get a vaccine exemption. Lalani said he will work with his fellow lawmakers to try to prevent those bills from becoming law.
“So I'm hoping as a physician legislator, I'm able to convince and bring science and talk facts to my colleagues so they can understand what is going on because there's a lot of misinformation out there,” he said.
But SMU political science professor Cal Jillson said Texans for Vaccine Choice has a lot of political power because the group can help decide winners and losers in the state’s Republican primary.
“The Republican majority in the Texas legislature is very sensitive to relatively small groups of voters,” he said.
But, Jillson said, with a raging outbreak of measles in Texas, the lawmakers could be reconsidering their support for weakening vaccine requirements.
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