
Instructions for measles vaccination are observed outside the Lubbock public health establishment on April 09, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images from North America
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Brandon Bell / Getty Images from North America
Katherine Wells has been an epidemiologist working to protect the public from disease epidemics for 25 years. Until January, she had never met measles.
“I mean, we considered the measles eradicated in the United States,” she said.
Now, as Director of Public Health for Lubbock, Texas, Wells is at the center of a measles epidemic who infected more than 700 people in Texas only, sent over 90 years to the hospital and killed two otherwise healthy children.
The epidemic has been the most important since 2000, according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections exceeded the number of cases that occurred during a 2019 epidemic in New York, previously the most important, said the CDC.
“It’s frustrating,” said Wells, “because we have the solution, which is a very effective vaccine.”
Wells firmly believes that his best chance of stopping viral infections is to stimulate vaccination in western Texas, where immunization rates among children’s gardens have dropped in many counties, as they have done nationally.
One of its most difficult challenges: anti-vaccine defenders have flooded the region with false affirmations on the risks of vaccines. “They evolve ten times the speed we are,” Wells told compromise when we have caught up with her to talk about his experiences. These false messages not only undermine public confidence in vaccines, she said, they worsely widespread public health.
The fight against disinformation takes money, “said Wells, and the federal government – a reliable partner of local health officials in the past – has taken a step back. The city and the state of Wells suddenly lost federal funding for public health in March when the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services canceled more than $ 11 billion in national subsidies. A spokesperson for the Texas State told the compromises that there were no funds available to send to Lubbock, although the state has provided other types of support.
Wells does not give up. “We cannot let this noise disturb what we have to do,” she said. “We still have to focus on our community. We need to get weapon vaccines, even if it takes on head-to-face conversations with individuals.”
You will find below the strengths of our conversation with Wells, edited for length and clarity.
On the shock of dealing with a measles epidemic
Public health still occurs at 4:30 am on Friday afternoon. That afternoon, my staff told me that we had two potential cases of measles in the hospital. And it is not unusual. You still have doctors who see a rash and they want to test measles. So I didn’t think about it much. This next Monday, I am in fact on board for one of our community non -profit organizations, and I was seated at this meeting of the Board of Directors and the woman next to me said: “My husband is a paramedical coach in rural areas and yesterday he told me that there was a lot of measles in the County of Gaines. I literally got out of my seat, I went out and started making phone calls.
It was frightening. I’m going, well, am I reacting excessively or is it really something? But my intestine inside said something more happens. … If you undergo, then it’s so contagious, it’s like exponential growth. So you want to enter as quickly as possible and determine exactly the number of cases. What’s going on, on the ground? Are there other sick people? How can we assure ourselves that it remains in this community and does not spread to other communities in the region?
On the ways in which federal upheavals have complicated the fight of measles
We look at the CDC, hhs licensed colleagues. All this uncertainty. … I don’t know what is going to be cut, what public health will look like at the local level.
But we have this team of people who come to work, seven days a week, helping families who are affected by measles, the fight against disinformation of vaccines, working with our suppliers who need to have children tested or test adults, speaking to companies that could have had an exposure to measles.
This basic public health work continues. And it’s just an incredible workforce that gets, you know that the national media, accused of their work, are not important. But these people, because of their community care, continue to present themselves every day, day after day, and ensure that the work that must occur during a measles epidemic occurs.
Faced with the “machine” which produces the disinformation of the vaccine
This is definitely a challenge. I almost call it a disinformation machine. … It is simply difficult to follow messaging. You feel like you are fighting a chip on a kind of false information, then they rotate and find another. … You look at the defense of the health of children diving and starting to speak to parents of deceased children – give a false hope to a community and peddle cod liver oil and vitamin A.
Being healthy – or take these supplements – will not prevent your child from getting measles. And we do not know which child will have serious complications of measles. We do not know who will end up in the hospital and we do not know, unfortunately, which child can die.
On how to help people who are afraid of vaccines
Trying to bring someone to take an injection when it is not sick, to avoid the disease, just is a lot of fear of the unknown. I spoke to many parents who said: “Well, we have never had measles, polio or breathlessness in our community. So why, even if the risk of vaccines is so tiny, why even take this risk if this disease does not exist?” We see more doctors in our community willing to talk about the importance of the vaccine, more doctors ready to take the time of their patients to have these conversations.
I think he who really touched my heart was a mother with five young children, who had never vaccinated her children before. … She felt quite comfortable to enter and have this conversation with one of our nurses and had the five children against measles vaccinate with the MMR. … So we arrive at individuals. It’s just a slow process. She is only one of the many parents who are now entering the public health department – because we are this messenger of trust – to obtain the vaccine. … It’s edifying. You are so exhausted. I mean, we have worked three consecutive months without a day off, and this gives you this increase in energy – and a little hope.
On the culture of the community for the future of public health
It makes me want to double my work in public health. … In ten years, I hope that the story around vaccines is changed and that we are back in a place where people can trust science and trust public health, and listen to these messages, and believe in the community.
I still have hope for all this. In the United States, 2,000 other directors of the Health Department have 2,000 health directors, who do this work day after day. And public health really occurs at this local level – with people who know their community and who want to make their community a better place.
Dan Gorenstein is editor -in -chief and Melanie Evans is a journalist for CompromiseA non -profit press organization that reports the most difficult choices of health care. You can register for compromises’ Weekly newsletter To get the latest stories in your reception box every Thursday morning. To find out more about Katherine Wells, listen to the complete episode of the compromise podcast below.