North Dakota Now The Focus of Measles Cases

(Getty images via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – As super-contagious measles continues to spread and nears a six-year U.S. record, cases in its original epicenter of West Texas may be subsiding as hesitant residents become more concerned and willing to vaccinate, while North Dakota is a new focus with the highest rate of any state.

The reality of measles may be overcoming vaccine misinformation in some areas, despite the purge of experts from decision-making roles in the Trump administration under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The nation’s top vaccine expert resigned under pressure in March.

And on June 11, Kennedy appointed eight new members of an immunization advisory panel — some of whom are vaccine critics — after sacking all 17 members of the group two days earlier. Kennedy called his actions “a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines.”

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, however, called the committee’s mass replacement “one of the darkest days in modern public health history.” The Infectious Diseases Society of America called the move “reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful,” saying Kennedy’s criticism of the original 17 committee members is “completely unfounded.”