Measles Vaccine – Misremembering, Forgetting, and Deceiving.

Posted on | August 19, 2025 | 4 Comments

Mike Magee

If there were a contest for longest titles for a small piece of art, surely Belgian artist Rene’ Magritte’s “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man. would be a contender.

Despite the 26 word label, the 1962 painting housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is gouache and pencil on paper and measures only 13 3⁄8 x 9 1⁄2 in. (34.0 x 24.2 cm) despite its mammoth imagery.

Magritte’s MOMA biography states that “He produced a body of work that rendered such commonplace things strange, slotting them into unfamiliar or uncanny scenes, or deliberately mislabeling them in order to ‘make the most everyday objects shriek aloud.’”

In an age like ours, ravaged by intentional misremembering, forgetfulness, and outright disception, Magritte (who died in 1967) demands that we enter his world where past, present and future collide and distort our human reality. His work screams out “your actions have consequences.”

Cleverly, he co-opted turn of the century, Spanish-born, American made philosopher George Santayana’s quote to drive home the point of his imagery. It comes from his epic 5-volume “Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress” completed in 1906 which includes Reason in Common Sense, Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art, and Reason in Science.

Santayana had greater faith in science than in human capacity to create society. Of science, he wrote, “science contains all trustworthy knowledge.” As for human capacity for self-governance, he believed “a truly rational morality or social regimen has never existed in the world, and is hardly to be looked for.” Rather he hoped it seems that “common sense” might dictate. Where might that reside? If it can be found, it would likely reside ”in the generous atmosphere of love and the home.”

Sadly, the calming tranquility of house and home has been disrupted during the Spring and Summer of 2025 by an unwelcome, and formerly vanquished enemy, the Rubeola virus which causes measles. A potent anti-vax movement, led by RFK Jr. at HHS, has resulted in 1,356 confirmed case of measles with 13% hospitalized and 3 deaths across 41 states nationwide.

We’ve known about the disease for a long, long time. The first published account dates back to Persia in the 9th century. It’s connection to a blood-born infectious agent was confirmed by Scottish physician, Francis Home, in 1757. By 1912, the US Public Health Service deemed it a serious enough threat that reporting was now required. Over the next decade, 6000 cases on average were reported each year. By mid-century, 3 to 4 million people were infected each year, and approximately 50,000 were hospitalized and 500 died.

The first effective vaccine was licensed in 1963 by John Enders, and further refined in 1968. By 1989, it became clear that a booster would be required to reinforce waning immunity to the disease. By 2000, measles was declared eliminated thanks to an effective immunization program which reached 91% of the US population. But lax vaccination 8 years later led to an outbreak of the disease.

Three or more cases in the same locale at the same time constitutes an outbreak. The first outbreak was reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services in West Texas in late January, 2025. By August, 2025, 762 cases had been confirmed. Ninety-nine of the patients had been hospitalized. There were two fatalities in school-aged children who lived in Gaines County, Texas. The children were not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions.

Since the Texas outbreak, there have been 32 outbreaks reported in 2025 accounting for 87% of confirmed cases. 66% occurred in children under age 20, 92% of whom were unvaccinated.

Measles vaccine is included in MMR vaccine and MMRV vaccine; MMRV is only licensed for children 1–12 years old. CDC recommends children receive 2 doses of MMR vaccine.

Angering the anti-vax community that strongly supported him, RFK Jr. posted this statement on X on April 7, 2025: “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine” and had the federal government “supply pharmacies and Texas run clinics with needed MMR vaccines.” At the same time, he confused the issue by suggesting a number of other “effective treatments” that infectious disease specialists declared ineffective.

In RFK Jr.’s eyes, the crisis is abating. But Sen. Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer couldn’t disagree more. He recently wrote, “Under your tutelage as Secretary, you have undermined vaccines, gutted public health funding, and dismantled core federal protections meant to keep Americans safe. You have walked our country into the nation’s largest measles outbreak in 33 years.”

Comments

4 Responses to “Measles Vaccine – Misremembering, Forgetting, and Deceiving.”

Mike Magee
August 19th, 2025 @ 5:07 pm

George Santayana’s
“Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress”
completed in 1906 includes:
Reason in Common Sense,
Reason in Society,
Reason in Religion,
Reason in Art, and
Reason in Science.
Anthony J. (Tony) DeLucia, Ph.D.
August 20th, 2025 @ 9:29 am

I am slowly, but somewhat surely “Aging Away in Margaritaville” and can’t put two and two together as to how I became aware of your insights. I need to look things up and see if the titles of other monographs you have done are up my alley. I am so glad you are calling the current, anti-science rhetoric and policy we are seeing at all levels of government for what it is, unadulterated bovine excrement.
Mike Magee
August 20th, 2025 @ 9:42 am

Thanks, Tony. I too am “aging away” but greatly appreciate your labeling my efforts as “insights.” Drawing connections with our past is helpful because it reminds, refreshes, and renews. Best, Mike
Mike Magee
August 20th, 2025 @ 7:16 pm

From Rich Lippin:

Ozymandias

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.