A child who was not vaccinated has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month and the first from measles in the U.S. since 2015.
The death was a “school-aged child who was not vaccinated” and had been hospitalized last week, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday in a statement. Lubbock health officials also confirmed the death, but neither agency provided more details. A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.
Yeah, but at least he didn’t have autism!
Not so loud about their beliefs when they backfire, eh?
I hope this kid’s parents suffer terribly. This child depended on them to keep it alive, literally the most fundamental part of being a parent, and they failed miserably. It’s the worst form of betrayal: the kind that costs lives. I wonder what Jesus would have to say about that?
I don’t wish suffering on them. Their child is dead. They’re suffering enough. They’re likely to just hold stronger to whatever beliefs they have and blame whatever bs reason they can think of.
I hope they learn. They learn that there are truths and things in this world that are real, and everything isn’t some messed up conspiracy theory. That you can challenge others beliefs as long as you also challenge your own.
The fact that their choice to not vaccinate contributed directly to their child’s death is a hard pill to swallow, but let’s hope they swallow it all the same.
Not a chance.
They’ll find a convenient scapegoat (probably trans people) and dig in deeper.
You legitimately have too much patience.
In so far that anyone can deserve to suffer, these pieces of shit do.
How’s all that winning working out for Texas?
Sorry for the kid. Maybe the parents will also learn the legal side of “criminal neglect”. They simply murdered their own child.
They didn’t murder they own kid, it was God simply telling them it was their kid’s time to go. I mean that with 100% sarcasm, but there are people out there who believe just that.
but there are people out there who believe just that.
That is the sad part.
Only if the parents are brown.
If white, “it was gawds will”.
Or “It was The Markets will” if you’re a centrist or capitalist. Their belief system works pretty much exactly the same, just a different god. Centrist so-called atheist enablers are not excused from this equation.
These morons think God’s will controls everything, apparently it didn’t occur to them that God also intended for humans to create vaccines.
“Capitalism created vaccines.” - The Average “Enlightened” Centrist
The chances of America charging these parents is zero. And this poor kid is just a herald of of things to come - people dying of preventable, contagious diseases because morons and kooks think vaccines are some kind of left wing conspiracy.
Could they be arrested for this though? Getting vaccinated isn’t mandatory. They made the very poor decision to not vaccinate their child, but is it neglect?
Vaccines are such a charged subject for political reasons (that felt so frustrating to type).
I try to find something analogous. If I had the option to remove a poisonous plant from my home, I didn’t because of personal choice, and my child ate the plant and died, I would consider it neglect.
Legally however, not even judges will agree with each other on this.
The fact that it is not mandatory should not even register with anyone with half a brain cell.
The US is just so stupidly backwards and going even further in that direction that it’s even an option to not vaccinate your kids.
All that’s going to happen is that this country will push out all the intelligent people who will want to leave for somewhere with some intelligence and the oligarchs will be left to rule over a blatantly stupid populace who force themselves into slavery
RFK Jr wants to cut back on medical research and other countries have already said “come over here to continue your work” so yeah, we’ll definitely see a lot of people leaving.
Congratulations Texans! You did it!
If the child could medically get vaccinated, the parents murdered their own kid. You don’t get to be a parent and get something like vaccines wrong.
We did it, America! From the brink of eradication all the way to killing children in Texas in around a decade! We’re number one! We’re number one!
I swear I might actually punch someone if I hear them talking about kids dying “with” measles vs. “from”.
I think that word substitution is a necessary part of the logic of the people who see people other than themselves as inherently less than them and deserving of suffering if their health would cause them even the slightest inconvenience…for lack of a better word I’ll call these people “the cullers”.
The cullers see the deaths that occur from disease as just being “nature taking its course”. It’s only a small step from “healthy people don’t die of this” to “they deserved their deaths because they’re weak” and then a slightly larger jump to the even more horrifying “we should kill off the weak on purpose in the name of efficiency”.
Meanwhile RFK Jr. is like "It’s one child Michael, what could it cost? 10 dollars? "
I had a good laugh! Thank you! :D
At least they didn’t get autism.
It’s kinda hard to maintain eye contact when you’re dead, though
What a fantastic thing for the parents to experience! I love that they will have to live with the fact that their child is dead of a completely preventable disease purely because of their own decisions.
What’s sad is, they won’t even change from this.
That would require admitting they were wrong.
Stupidly insecure people are incapable of admitting fault unless they literally have no other choice in order to be accepted by their peers.
Another sad aspect to this is that often the parents think they are doing the right thing. They’re wrong of course. Some people have mental issues that lead them to “magical thinking”. I know some people who are anti Vax, and are very health conscious in all other respects. They’re just ignorant. One of the founders of permaculture in Australia wrote about being against the covid vaccine during the lockdowns here. I used to live in one of the villages he designed, and the people and their beliefs were mostly lovely. But they have a distrust of science that makes them vulnerable to dangerous ideas.
My late father used to smoke at least a pack a day. He did that for almost fifty years. When he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer he said, and I quote: “We’ll never know why I got this”.
People can be really good at dodging responsibility even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
These are Mennonites. Preventing gods gifts of disease is the devils work.
I feel sorry for the kid, but at the same time, I hope the funeral is the most painful, drawn out event for their parents, that everyone who comes lets them know exactly whose fault it is that their child is dead. I hope it’s a learning experience for them.
People who don’t get vaccines are stupid.
They’re not going to learn their lesson; they’re going to think that it was a random act of God without explanation.
It is not an uncommon occurrence for evangelical extremists to tell you to be grateful your child or whoever is dead because they get to be with God. These people are mental.
As someone who grew up with this shit, after my sister died in an accident this is exactly what these nutters say.
Same here my friend. My little brother’s funeral had me raging.
And to make things worse, Bronzo the Clown installed that idiot Bobby Brainworms to validate their bullshit.
Unfortunately, no one in the antiVax is going to change their minds until it hits them very close. That kids first cousins might, maybe, get vaxed. More likely, they’ll blame it on the hospital, or the flu.
Even if they’re willing to admit that the vaccination would have saved his life they’re going to be torn getting their other children vaccinated because of the possible negatives they think could happen. In their view it’s a slight chance of death versus guaranteed autism.
I bet if you go ask them right now they’ll point out that colds Have death rates associated with them. Just another avoidable unavoidable tragedy.
They’ll refuse to be reasoned with or educated. These people were literally taking horse dewormer and an attempt to avoid vaccines.
I don’t think that wishing them extra pain is particularly useful. We’re all mad at them but realistically they’re just undereducated, obstinate, and programmed.
I suggest you educate yourself before you wish ill on people you know nothing about. That comment is absolutely vile.
Poverty And Lack Of Health Insurance Keep Kids Unvaccinated Too : Shots - Health News https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/20/724468630/the-other-reasons-kids-arent-getting-vaccinations-poverty-and-health-care-access
Yeah, but that’s what’s fucked up a out all of this. It’s a religious anti-Vax area that votes hard red. It’s only spreading because it has some of the highest rates of unvacinnated kids, due to “religious” reasons. Even if it was a Healthcare access issue, they voted for the party currently trying to gut Medicaid.
While it’s terribly sad for the children, this is consequences of the actions taken by the community.
I thought making blanket judgements about entire communities or groups of people is something we were supposed to think a little harder about.
And saying they deserve it is also something we are supposed to avoid.
Maybe by imposing my moral standard on others im not making the best argument, but i feel obligated to point it out.
We can’t afford to think like that anymore. It’s us or them.
So where does it say in the original article that these parents didn’t get their kid vaccinated because they couldn’t afford it? I must’ve missed that. See I’m pretty sure it was because they deliberately chose to leave their kid vulnerable to infectious disease, but if you have evidence proving the contrary (not just an article saying “some people don’t because they can’t afford it” – something actually relating to these specific parents who lost a child, demonstrating that they couldn’t afford it), please, do enlighten me.
It doesnt.
It also doesnt say that the kid was the child of anti vax minnonites. It doesnt say that they were poor, or the closest hospital was 45 miles away and they had no car. It doesnt say they were a recent immigrant. That seams like easy ammunition for the right. Would be an easy way to demonize people if it were.
It doesnt say any of that.
It could have been. But you dont know. And neither do i.
See how that works?
All of that is true.
However, it does say where this kid died. In West Texas. Where there are large swathes of undervaccinated children because of their anti-vax parents.
See how that works? Or is the power of inference beyond you?
Inference in this case is only reinforcing your preconceptions and bias. There is no hard evidence in this article.
Wait. Hold up… i get what you are saying.
We dont like “the others” They are “the enemy” “They arent like us.” "They should burn for their beliefs and what they do to the rest of us. " “They hurt our communities.” “They sicken our people.”
Your inference is reductive and crass. It is the excuse of homophobes and racists and facists across the god damn world.
But you didnt realize that at all, did you?
You are so caught up in being right and villifying a community with no actual evidence, that you forgot that there are sick and dying children.
Infer my ass. Where is your empathy?
Hold up… i get what you are saying.
Oh, good, you’re not stupid!
[proceeds to strawman some bullshit of us vs them into my mouth]
Ah, nope, nevermind, I had too much hope. See, the time for empathy is before someone starts killing innocent children with their ignorance, not after they’ve already started dying. It’s okay, I forgive your stupidity. Better luck next time, sport, but I have better things to do than try to make random internet strangers less stupid, that’s a you problem and I’m keeping it that way. Bye now! <3
I dont see any more straw man arguments in my arguement than you have in yours.
When there is evidence for why the kid wasnt vaccinated, i will amend my public opinion. Until the reporters or an agency can say definately that the kid died because the family was antivax, i will withold my judgement. Until then, they are a sad statistic in an embarrasing resurgence of a shitty disease.
Odds are very good that you’re right, and im appalled that this is happening. but im not condemning them until i have actual evidence. And there is nothing wrong with withholding that judgement. And that is my point.
Yeah this whole thread is a bit gross.
I mean the parents are stupid, perhaps even criminally negligent, but they were probably acting with the best of intentions and genuinely thought they were protecting their child. It’s incredibly sad.
Show me where in the article it says the kid that died was from an anti vax family. It doesnt.
My point is, poverty and lack of health facilities play a huge role in kids not getting vaccinated. Its outlined in the article i replied with.
This whole thread is jumping to conclusions, extrapolating with no evidence, and condemning the parents of dead kids
It sounds familiar. It sounds. Kinda like… antivaxers.
The article talks about the safety of vaccines… Reporters have to walk on eggshells to avoid pointing fingers and insult part of their audience.
my degree was in journalism. In a past life i was a reporter. Shit job. I have had lots of shit jobs since. I completely understand what you are saying.
But, if they cant explicitly say it, then you probably shouldnt extrapolate. When the evidence is clear, then by all means evicerate whoever you want.
Just because the propoganda is something you agree with, doesnt mean it isnt propoganda. You have been given a roadmap, but you do not have evidence.
I also agree with your point. I know they cant say it out loud. But i draw the line at wishing ill on the parents of dead kids.
And once again, my point is, you dont know if the kid was part of the minnonite community that refuses vaccines, or if it was the neighbor kid. You do not know if there were other factors that prevented the kid getting that vaccine. Poverty, lack of healthcare, or an immunocompromised child.
The problem with that line of thinking is that soon enough it wasn’t the parents fault but the fact that their dog died 5 years ago and they never got around to getting the vaccine. Might there be mitigating facts? Sure, but at the end of the day, it’s either the parent’s fault or the state’s fault for not making sure the kid got vaccinated.
And btw immunocompromised children are rare enough to be a rounding error.
deleted by creator
no, it’s very much on them if they choose to continue being stupid when being stupid cost them the life of their child. It’s not on anyone else.
And if they choose to continue being stupid, to go back to the anti-vax community after the anti-vax community helped them kill their kid, well, we can only hope they don’t have any more kids to kill.
You’re thinking with your emotions, not your rationality right now. Fiki_fiki is right, by insulting people as you’re trying to convince them of something only makes them cling harder to their existing beliefs.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, as I highly doubt the aforementioned dipshit parents are reading this Lemmy thread.
I’m saying if the death of their own child doesn’t make them wise up, nothing will, and it’s not anyone else’s responsibility to try and cater to their stupidity by softening the blow. If enduring your own child’s funeral, that you caused, only makes you double down on killing kids, then you hopefully do not have access to any more children to kill. That’s all. Please feel free to explain how that’s “emotional” or “isn’t rational”. I think it’s quite rational.
I’m not so sure about that. You’re applying logic to people that never were acting on logic in the first place. Acknowledging the fault would psychologically break most at that point, I’d expect their brain to double down instead out of defense… Not a lot of people have control over that, even for smart people.
The distrust in science is because they do not trust the institutions which have likely caused real harm to them. It’s a bigger problem. Life is not so simple. I wish it was, but it isn’t.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t be held accountable… I’d expect a trial to convince them more than the initial event which is emotionally extreme, they’d likely be in shock for some time. A trial would force them to think about it for a long, long time.
Hope they live a long time
Yes.
That poor kid. Easily preventable if they didn’t have stupid parents. At what point can we hold the parents accountable?
In a sane system, at this point.
When the parents are irresponsible, most other nations step in and make the responsible choice for their children in their place, whether the dumb parents like it or not.
But in the US, the state is even more irresponsible than the parents.
What a sad, sad country it has become…
Not everywhere in the us, but Texas, where this is happening currently, seems especially bad, at least in counties outside Dallas and Houston area.
This could easily happen in parts of SoCal or anywhere with big Mennonite or Amish cults too.
When can we hold Bobby Brainworms accountable?
bUt MaH rELeeJun!
We’ve done that up here, for parents trying to treat childhood illnesses with distilled water and kale smoothies. Parents went to jail, grandparents are raising the child, if I remember right.
Pretty sure they are suffering from their stupidity already.
The only one that suffered, and paid any consequences, was that poor kid. They should be charged with child endangerment, and probably manslaughter, since this was completely avoidable.
I think in Texas it would be criminally negligent homicide, but I doubt the conservative justice system there will punish anyone for intentionally not preventing a deadly disease.
I think in Texas it would be criminally negligent homicide
Nah, it wasn’t a fetus so this is just a perfectly normal case of God’s Will.
I’m pretty sure there’s prayers and talks of God’s will involved too.
I’m pretty sure they’d say that god’s plan, like every other bit of knowledge that might improve their lives, is unfathomable.
Despite most of the rest of the world fathoming it just fine.
That child died because their parents are fucking morons. They should be held accountable.
Yup. Or if you don’t vacate yourself or your children you shouldn’t be allowed to travel, go to events, and you get medical care in a tent outside
As a person with a weakened immune system, I am totally with you on that.
But, you can’t restrict my freedom! I should still get the right to free travel AND the right to die of fully treatable disease, on top of my right to spread them to you! Fuck yeah, America, freedom, 2nd amendment!
Edit: and God and Trump!
eagle screeches in the background
Queue the childs parents: If only we’d known how dangerous measles was we’d have gotten our child vaccinated!
If only this country could’ve been founded by people who knew the heartbreak of losing a child to a preventable disease.
In 1736, I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if the child died under it: my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen. -Benjamin Franklin
Or, more recently, the author Roald Dahl, who lost a daughter to measles in 1962.
In the letter he described his personal experience: “Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its course, I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it.” She became disinterested in playing and within an hour was unconscious.[1] “Within twelve hours she was dead” he wrote.
Nah, they’ll wish there was a way to protect their child from dangerous childhood diseases and that the fascist medical system failed them.
Ah, also another classic.
A big storm approaches. The weatherman urges everyone to get out of town. The priest says, “I won’t worry, God will save me”.
The morning of the storm, the police go through the neighborhood with a sound truck telling everyone to evacuate. The priest says “I won’t worry, God will save me”.
The storm drains back up and there is an inch of water standing in the street. A fire truck comes by to pick up the priest. He tells them “Don’t worry, God will save me.”
The water rises another foot. A National Guard truck comes by to rescue the priest. He tells them “Don’t worry, God will save me.”
The water rises some more. The priest is forced up to his roof. A boat comes by to rescue the priest. He tells them “Don’t worry, God will save me.”
The water rises higher. The priest is forced up to the very top of his roof. A helicopter comes to rescue the priest. He shouts up at them “Don’t worry, God will save me.”
The water rises above his house, and the priest drowns.
When he gets up to heaven he says to God “I’ve been your faithful servant ever since I was born! Why didn’t you save me?”
God replies "First I sent you a fire truck, then the national guard, then a boat, and then a helicopter. What more do you want from me!!??
In 2025 the average centrist sees rising oceans, climate disruption, and fascism taking over the globe.
“Don’t worry, The Markets will save me.”
I’ve been urging my wife to use this parable on her elderly parents who keep refusing our help. They sold their house about 20 years ago and used the money to buy an RV so they could travel around the US… while they waited for the rapture to take them up to heaven.
They blew all their retirement savings and now they’re living in a trailer park trying to deal with a multitude of medical issues for which they don’t have insurance. Because they never expected to live this long. And they keep saying they’re waiting for god to send them a solution to their problems.
dang, sorry to hear you’re having to go through this with her parents =(
That is literally Noah’s ark from the POV no one talks about
This isn’t relevant to your comment, but out of curiosity. Have i been using the wrong cue in this context? It is cue and not queue, right? Like cue ball or cue the music, meaning begin or start and not queue like lining up or waiting your turn?
The person you replied to should have used cue rather than queue.
But not from experts, we don’t trust those!
it’s ok, everyone. it was god’s plan.
Increment Kennedy’s body count again.
The vaccines wouldn’t have helped!
They need more studies.
they are made of ingredients
