Health officials prepare for measles spread as disinformation threatens already low vaccination rates
When Pastor Landon Schott attended a school board meeting for Mercy Culture Preparatory Academy last week, he found the room filled with balloons and T-shirts.
The celebratory shirts read: #1 school in Texas for least amount of vaccinations.
Schott, who has more than 48,000 followers on Instagram, posted a video to congratulate all the families at the school who have chosen to “embrace freedom of health and they are not allowing government or science projects to affect how you live and lead your life.”
State Rep. Nate Schatzline also shared the news with his over 17,000 followers on X. His video says that the school is in his district and that his children attend there.
“Why haven’t we celebrated this sooner?” the Republican asked.
The Fort Worth area school has the lowest measles vaccination rate in Texas: Just 14% of incoming kindergartners had measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) coverage last school year, according to data from the state health department.
But low vaccination rates across Texas are leaving many communities vulnerable amid a measles outbreak centered in the western part of the state, one of the largest the United States has seen since the disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2000.
In efforts to prevent even broader spread, public health officials in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are working around the clock to raise vaccination rates and otherwise help protect vulnerable communities – work that is challenged by the spread of disinformation.
Overall, the MMR vaccination rate among kindergartners in Texas was 94.3% for the 2023-24 school year, just below the 95% target that federal agencies have set to prevent epidemics. But about half of all school districts in the state have coverage that falls below this threshold, including nearly a quarter that have a vaccination rate of less than 90%. And Mercy Culture Preparatory Academy is one of more than a dozen schools where coverage was less than 50%.
“Mercy Culture Preparatory requires proof of immunization for every student, as it is required to do under Texas law. However, we also honor the immunization exemptions created under that same Texas law,” school leadership said in a statement last week. “The school’s vaccination rates simply reflect the choices made by our families, not a policy or position imposed by the school.”
Tarrant County, home to Mercy Culture Preparatory, has not reported any measles cases this year, but local health officials there and in many parts of the state are preparing for what seems inevitable.