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.
Related article West Texas measles outbreak expands to three states “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. “They are stressed and stretched beyond belief,” Terri Burke, executive director of the Immunization Partnership, a nonprofit focused on improving vaccination coverage in Texas, said at a briefing Thursday. “The biggest thing I’m hearing is the need for more resources.” One public health director in a county that has been hit by the outbreak told Burke she had been working more than a month straight without a day off. “We spoke at six o’clock at night, and she told me she had started at 4:30 that morning,” she said.
