Just over a year after Texas experienced a historic measles outbreak, vaccination rates for some students are beginning to tick upward.<\/p>\n
The outbreak began in Gaines County in West Texas in 2025 and claimed multiple lives, including children. Since then, the vaccination rate for kindergarten students has seen a slight increase, according to reporting by The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n
For local doctor Eric Baggerman, news of the outbreak’s impact was difficult to hear.<\/p>\n
“I was speaking with some folks about it, and that is when they let me know that the first child had died,” he said.<\/p>\n
While Baggerman views the increase in vaccination rates as a positive development, he believes more progress is needed.<\/p>\n
“If this outbreak raised enough awareness to increase the rates of vaccines, that’s great. I don’t want to have to see anyone die just to bring up the need for vaccines,” he said.<\/p>\n
Not everyone views vaccinations through the same lens.<\/p>\n
Carrie Bigford with Texans for Vaccine Choice said there are several reasons some families may be hesitant about vaccinations.<\/p>\n
“A lack of trust in the vaccine program after COVID, that’s another really common thing. People are disenfranchised by that program,” she said.<\/p>\n
Bigford also said she wants to address what she considers a common misconception about her organization.<\/p>\n
“We are not an anti-vax organization. We support your right as the owner of the body or the steward of your child’s body to choose,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said decisions about vaccinations are often more nuanced than many people realize.<\/p>\n
“You can be a person who chooses to get a lot of vaccines, but there can be one vaccine that doesn’t fit your family. Maybe their child had a mild reaction, so they’re waiting 6 to 12 months to vaccinate. There are so many reasons why someone might want to have a more nuanced discussion,” she said.<\/p>\n
Although they approach the issue from different perspectives, both Bigford and Baggerman said education is essential.<\/p>\n
Both believe parents should thoroughly research the topic and make the decision they believe is best for their family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over a year after Texas experienced a historic measles outbreak, vaccination rates for some students are beginning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[128948,86646,128947,27,29,28,3602,375],"class_list":["post-363683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-baggerman","tag-gaines-county","tag-kindergarten-students","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tribune","tag-west-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}