MTM - Measles Mini Epidemic in South Carolina

Headlines shout epidemic, but we ask a different set of questions: What does the baseline look like, who is truly at risk, and which practical steps actually matter? We dig into the meaning of “outbreak,” how population size and local conditions affect risk, and why sanitation and nutrition historically drove down mortality long before modern tools. That lens helps separate legitimate concern from manufactured panic and gives families a steadier way to respond when cases spike.

We also explore how incentives shape the story. News cycles lean toward the dramatic, and clinical systems depend on predictable revenue, which can leave listeners wondering whom to trust. Rather than picking teams, we walk through how to evaluate claims, what good evidence looks like, and how to think about adverse event reporting with nuance. Along the way, we revisit well-known outbreaks, examine the difference between infection counts and severe outcomes, and highlight the role of vitamin A status, immune suppression, and pregnancy in shaping individual risk.

Most importantly, we offer clear, calm actions for households: recognize symptoms early, reduce exposure to high-risk contacts, focus on supportive care, and verify information across multiple sources. We close with a faith-grounded reminder to refuse fear as a guide and to seek wisdom, compassion, and clarity in our choices. Plus, a preview of our upcoming conversation with Dr. Brian Hooker, co-author of Vax Unvax, for a deeper look at evidence, narratives, and what it means to make informed decisions as a family.

If this conversation helped you think more clearly, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s feeling overwhelmed by the news cycle, and leave a review so others can find the show. Your feedback helps us keep the focus on facts, context, and care.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Premise
• 0:24 Defining Epidemic And Baseline
• 1:55 Historical Mortality And Improvements
• 4:12 Will Measles Surge Today
• 5:09 Media Fear And Incentives
• 6:29 U.S. Measles Death Claims Examined
• 7:35 Disneyland Outbreak Revisited
• 8:47 Cultural Memory Of Childhood Illness
• 9:44 Vaccine Risk Assertions And Data
• 12:31 CDC Research Controversy Claims
• 15:00 Practical Advice And Faith Perspective
• 17:41 Upcoming Guest And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:03

Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and country. Hosted by author and physician Dr. Robert Jackson and his wife Carlotta and daughter Annabeller. So listen up because the doctor is dead.

SPEAKER_00: 0:22

Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, the question I've been asked recently is Dr. Jackson, what about the measles epidemic in South Carolina? Well, let's start off with a definition. What is an epidemic? The public health definition of an epidemic is any increase of an infectious disease above the usual baseline. In South Carolina, the measle baseline is practically zero. In fact, I haven't seen a true measles case in forty years of practicing medicine in South Carolina. In fact, despite the recent epidemic, I still haven't seen a case of measles in my medical practice. Ten cases of measles would constitute an epidemic in South Carolina. It would constitute an outbreak because it is an increase above the baseline of practically zero in our state of South Carolina. I remind you that public health officials use the terms epidemic and outbreak interchangeably. Currently there are about 300 cases of measles in the state of South Carolina, and I remind you that our state has almost five million people living in South Carolina currently. The next question is this does that pose a public health risk today? Well, let's go back to the eighteen hundreds and the early nineteen hundreds. That question would have been a resounding yes in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, and you would say, Well, doctor Jackson, why? Well at that time sanitation was poor and nutrition was poor. And at that time there were three hundred to four hundred deaths annually from measles. But shortly thereafter by the nineteen forties, measles mortality had dropped to about two per one hundred thousand citizens. And that was twenty years before the very first very ineffective measles vaccine. So why had measles mortality dropped so drastically? Well you know the answer. It was because of improved sanitation and improved nutrition. The exact same reason that cholera and yellow fever and tuberculation and scarlet fever all disappeared about that same time, but they all disappeared without a vaccine. The next question is this will measles come roaring back today? We know that lots of parents today are refusing to vaccinate their children at all, not just declining the measles vaccine, but other vaccines as well. Will that precipitate a measles epidemic? No, no, no, of course not. Well, doctor, why not? The conditions for a widespread epidemic do not exist today. Sanitation in America is excellent. Nutrition in America is excellent. There is no widespread vitamin A deficiency as existed in the early nineteen hundreds and late eighteen hundreds. There was a widespread vitamin A deficiency back then that propelled measles epidemics before the nineteen hundreds. That condition does not exist today. Will we see many epidemics like what we're seeing in upstate of South Carolina? Yes. And the public health officials and the pediatricians will go on the news spreading fear porn like they did with COVID, stirring up the anxiety of the uninformed and the easily excitable. But remember they make lots of money from vaccines. The average pediatrician's livelihood would collapse entirely except for the constant stream of children coming through the doors of their offices to receive pediatric vaccines. So do not expect a pediatrician to tell you the truth about measles or pediatric vaccines. In fact, doctor Paul Thomas, the author of Vax Facts and a pediatrician, lost his license to practice medicine in the state of Oregon when he began to speak truth about vaccines. The medical establishment hates and opposes the truth about vaccines. So what exactly is the truth about measles deaths in the United States? Well, there have been absolutely none zero in the last twenty years. Now, I know there was one adult woman who died in the last twenty years who was labeled a measles death. But that was totally unfair because she was immunocompromised. And although she contracted measles, her death was really from her other illnesses and the fact that she was immunocompromised. And I know there were two children in Texas last year that were labeled as measles deaths, but they were under closer scrutiny. Both of these children were immunosuppressed due to other illness, and it was not accurate to label them as measles deaths either. Now, some of you will recall the media hysteria regarding the measles outbreak at Disneyland in 2014. There were, oh I would call it a sensational media report of children presenting to emergency rooms with fever and rash and testing positive for measles. The media and public health hysteria lasted for several days until everyone realized that each child, each child's symptoms came from their guess what? Measles vaccine. They had all recently received a measles vaccine. The media hysteria immediately disappeared and the cases of measles that were so dangerous the day before suddenly morphed into a normal reaction to the vaccine. Now, when I was a child in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, the parents in the small town where I grew up would have measles and chicken pox parties in order to expose their children and quote get it over with. Measles wasn't a big deal or dangerous for the vast majority of kids in industrialized countries. A twenty thirteen article in the American Journal of Public Health read like this Parents largely came to see measles as an unpleasant, although more or less inevitable part of childhood. It went on to say many primary care physicians shared this view. Now, dear listener, here's the bottom line. We have traded a mild childhood illness for a government mandated vaccine with potential serious side effects. Not every child has side effects, but enough children do that the risk of the vaccine far exceeds that of measles in the United States today. You do not believe me? Well let's look at VAIRS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system from just one month, november thirtieth, twenty eighteen. Just that one month. There were ninety three thousand one hundred and seventy nine reports of measles vaccine reactions with four hundred and fifty-nine reported related deaths. Did you get that? four hundred and fifty nine reported related deaths. There were six thousand nine hundred and thirty six hospitalizations and one thousand seven hundred forty eight related disabilities. That's from the vaccine. The risk from the vaccine far exceeds death or disability from natural measles infection. In an article by Wilson and others entitled Adverse Events Following the twelve and eighteen month vaccinations, not just measles, but vaccinations plural, it states that one in one hundred and sixty eight children vaccinated ended up in the emergency room after the twelve month shots. One in seven hundred and thirty children vaccinated ended up in the emergency room after the eighteen month shots. Did you know that? According to the control group's judicial report, the risk of death from the MMR is one in one hundred and eight thousand six hundred and sixty six children vaccinated. Now I remind you that there are four million pediatric patients born into the United States every year. The vast majority of them receive vaccinations according to the CDC protocol. And the risk of death from the MMR vaccine is one in a hundred and eight thousand, according to this report. Now, here's what really concerns me. It's a statement made by William Thompson, and this is reported in the book Vax Facts, and I want to read to you what doc Dr. Thompson said. He was a long-term CDC researcher, and he told scientist and autism dad, father of an autistic child, and vaccine watchdog Dr. Brian Hooker that he and four CDC colleagues had played fast and loose with their data when reporting the results of a study on MMR timing. That story of research fraud is detailed in the documentary Vaxed from cover up to catastrophe. That's the title of the documentary. Dr. Thompson issued a statement through his attorneys after the film came out, and this is his statement. I regret that my call co-authors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age thirty six months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed. The increased risk Dr. Thompson was talking about was a three times greater rate of autism in the black boys who got MMR on time. The original paper actually found a statistically significant increased risk of autism in the general population as well. The authors just dismissed that result by claiming without any evidence whatsoever that the kids with autism got the vaccine early so they could get early intervention. Thompson later said that his co-authors literally threw the omitted data into a garbage can to get rid of it. They were able to bury this malfeasance for more than a decade before Thompson confessed the fraud to Dr. Hooker. Now, I want you to understand that that research fraud covered up the fact that the MMR vaccine does cause an increased risk of autism in the general population and especially for African American males who receive the MMR vaccine on schedule. And that concerns me greatly because the CDC has declared for years that these vaccines do not cause autism. But there are multiplied thousands of parents out there who are adamant that the MMR vaccine, and not just that particular vaccine, but others as well, were the exact cause of their child's neurologic regression and autism. And yet the CDC has covered it up. And that concerns me greatly. So let me conclude by saying this. How should we respond to this measles mini epidemic in South Carolina? Realize that newscasters have got to have something to talk about. And a mini epidemic like this is fodder for their newscast. Realize that pediatricians make big money from pediatric vaccines, and you will never expect to get the truth from them about the MMR vaccine. Realize that nationwide the average measles, the I'm sorry, the average number of measles cases is less than 300 annually out of 330 million people who live in the United States. Realize that measles is still just a fever and a rash. And if your child gets measles, simply keep them away from pregnant moms and treat them with vitamin A, which will decrease their symptoms by more than eighty seven percent. And lastly, do not live your life in fear. The scripture says that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love and faith and a sound mind. That's first Timothy one and verse seven. The Psalmist said, Whatever time I am afraid, I will put my trust in God. Do not allow the fear mongers in the media to control your life. Get the facts and trust in God. Now, before I conclude, I want to let you know that next week I'm going to be interviewing Dr. Brian Hooker. Dr. Hooker co-authored with Robert Kennedy the book Vax Unvax. And it's going to be my privilege to interview Dr. Hooker for more than medicine. We'll probably broadcast that the following week. So probably two Saturdays from now, that interview will drop. So keep your ears to the ground, and I hope to provide a very interesting interview with Dr. Hooker, the co-author of Vax Unvax, in about two weeks' time. You're listening to More Than Medicine. I hope you're having the beginning of a very happy new year, and I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.

SPEAKER_02: 18:33

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at Jackson Family Ministry dot com. Also, don't forget to check out Jackson.