First, you may know already that the measles outbreak in West Texas has caused the death of a child. Here is a link to a Guardian article if you haven’t heard: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/texas-measles-outbreak-cases.
If you do the math, that is one death for 132 known infections (124 in Texas and 9 in New Mexico), a very high ratio. The ratio is actually lower since there must be more undetected infected people running around, but given that up to 90% of unvaccinated people catch the virus after contact and that the virus is airborne, staying in the air for hours, the spread of the disease seems inevitable.
Since the present federal governmental intends to “save money” by abstaining from caring for people so that tax money can go to the “productive” rich, the spread of measles becomes a civic problem as well as a medical and emotional problem for those who catch it. That the federal government’s actions are causing confusion as well as intended harm in healthcare is described in this next link to an article on healthcare for veterans: https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2025/02/26/under-pressure-va-halts-contract-cancellations-in-major-reversal/. These indiscriminate, across-the-board, thoughtless, but intentional cuts threaten the well-being of so many older men in this county who depend entirely on the VA for medical care.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, public discussions of healthcare in the state are being molded by deliberate misinformation. New Mexico’s shortage of doctors and hospitals, some say, is caused by the state’s absence of a cap on malpractice suits. Now a group supporting limitless malpractice awards has countered that supposition with clearly erroneous assertions: https://searchlightnm.org/dark-money-fighting-malpractice-reform-new-mexico-2025-legislature/. Public discussion is always messy, but one of the ironies of this debate is that both sides use corporations as villains and cast themselves as public benefactors of good health. It’s what we all love to hear, but it resolves nothing.