“It was, like, quite intense, those little babies with those sort of almost whooping coughs.”

One of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the U.S., Brian Hooker, says he caught measles in West Texas and traveled back home.

That means either:

1. He got it and never sought medical care (where providers would’ve been obligated to report it), possibly contributing to spread under the radar, or
2. He didn’t actually have confirmed measles, and he’s spreading misinformation about getting and recovering from it.

I wrote about this for the Guardian today, and I hope you’re able to click and read all about it.

But I wanted to include some reporting that didn’t make it into that story.

Hooker, who is the chief scientific officer with Children’s Health Defense, said on a podcast that he got sick with measles after traveling to Texas with several colleagues such as Polly Tommey, an anti-vaccine filmmaker with CHD, and meeting with measles-positive people.

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Another CHD staffer visited West Texas and didn’t report getting sick, Tommey said – but that individual was likely protected by his repeat measles vaccinations, she added: “He did have, I think, around six MMRs in his life. That might have done it.”

The unvaccinated children they enountered, on the other hand, seemed very ill, Tommey said. 

“The coughing was really kind of intense,” she said on the podcast. “It was, like, quite intense, those little babies with those sort of almost whooping coughs.”

Ben Edwards, the anti-vaccine doctor in Texas giving the children alternative treatments, agreed. “Yeah, it was unusual,” he said. “I’d never seen measles, either. I’d only read about it in the textbooks, so I was taken a little bit aback.”

Yet Edwards, who also said he got measles, agreed with Tommey that it is “dangerous” to take measles-stricken children to the hospital because they might not be given the alternative treatments he recommends – a message that can lead to death if parents wait until it’s too late to seek care.

Yet it’s a message more people are hearing.

Last week, Hooker traveled to the Hill to testify before a US Senate committee in its first-ever “vaccine injury” hearing, attempting to link MMR vaccination to autism – despite several studies showing no relationship.

Got tips or ideas for what I should cover next? Get in touch via email (melodyaschreiber@gmail.com) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).

Top image: Photo of a measles rash from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)