How America Re-Imported Measles: Newark Airport’s Measles Warning Is a National Alarm
Trump, RFK Jr., and the triumph of ignorance over medical science
By David Shuster
Newark Liberty International Airport, a sprawling American monument to holiday travel chaos, overpriced pretzels, and security lines designed by sadists, has now added a new feature: incubator for measles. Officials warn that on December 12 and 19, a single infected passenger turned Terminals B and C into a Petri dish of epidemic potential.
If you were there, officials are urging that you monitor symptoms and double check your vaccination status. Translation: if you were not vaccinated, enjoy the rash, fever, and possibly worse because nature is coming to collect its due.
How did we get here? How did the United States, a nation that once eliminated measles, smallpox, and polio, allow people to wander through life and transportation hubs unvaccinated, clueless, and ripe for infection?
The answer lies in a toxic stew of right-wing ignorance, arrogance, and political opportunism. And leading this parade of fools over the past decade has been Donald J. Trump.
Trump turned vaccine skepticism from a fringe hobby into a national MAGA pastime. Trump mocked experts, shrugged off basic science, and treated the collective intelligence of the American people as a matter for social media polls.
In turn, millions of gullible conservatives, seeing a figure of authority champion nonsense, concluded that centuries of medical knowledge were optional. Because as we’ve seen repeatedly under Trump, many of the Old Orange Man’s staunchest supporters would rather die spectacularly than read or embrace a peer reviewed scientific study.
Let’s be clear. Measles is not a benign childhood inconvenience. It is a virus that infects nine out of ten susceptible people it encounters. Measles causes pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death.
Trump’s HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior has only added to the misery. Fueled by his insanity, countless vaccine conspiracy nutjobs have hijacked school boards, screamed about “freedom” and “liberty,” and loosened vaccine requirements.
In several bright Republican red school districts, the measles vaccine is optional. So, vaccination rates have fallen.
Medical experts point out the math is simple. When more than 95% of a community is vaccinated, that community reaches herd immunity. At that point, an infectious disease has a difficult time spreading. In dozens of U.S. counties, particularly in MAGA areas like West Texas, the rate has dropped to 80%.
So, measles is now spreading and stalking parts of the United States like a vengeful spirit. And the only crime of most of the victims – predominantly children and young adults – is having MAGA parents who believed that “alternative facts” somehow conferred immunity.
Newark is emblematic of the broader disaster. A single carrier in a crowded terminal can spark an outbreak thousands of miles from home. Airports, schools, and community centers are now cell culture plates of stupidity.
The remedy is simple, painfully obvious, and tragically resisted: vaccinate. Vaccinate your children. Vaccinate yourself. Stop treating centuries of medical science as a suggestion and recognize that the MMR vaccine is safer than ignorance, more effective than arrogance, and infinitely preferable to death.
Unfortunately, vanity and sheer foolishness now pass for national character. Trump and his devoted followers have made anti-intellectualism a lifestyle choice.
The question is whether we will allow our nation to be consumed by the vast cluelessness of the Trumpian masses. Or whether we will remember, as we did for decades, that vaccines exist not for politics or pride but for life itself.
The MMR vaccine is safe, effective, and better than a fever, rash, and visit to the morgue.
There is no grand conspiracy. There is no secret poison. There is only science — and the relentless stupidity of those who choose to ignore it.
Don’t ignore it. Get vaccinated.
Newark Airport is challenging enough.
I remember when people got vaccinated for TWO reasons: to protect themselves and to protect others! It was part of being a responsible citizen. And...by the way...the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine also protects fetuses in a woman's first trimester. If the pregnant woman catches rubella during that time, it can cause the fetus's death, or multiple serious birth defects. I have to wonder just how many of those who oppose ANY vaccines have any scientific or medical science background or knowledge upon which to base their beliefs. The reality is that ANY medication can cause a death. Anyone can have a bad reaction to a med.
The abject stupidity overwhelms me.