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Today, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) reported two measles cases in the state likely linked to ongoing outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico. The individuals reportedly self-isolated and refrained from going out in public upon symptom onset, OSDH said. (Soucheray, 3/11)

The resident recently traveled through LAX before going to a North Hollywood nail salon and an El Monte grocery store. (Rodriguez, 3/11)

Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas’ total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized. New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case in Eddy County. (Shastri, 3/11)

Measles is unlike other childhood viruses that come and go. In severe cases it can cause pneumonia. About 1 in 1,000 patients develops encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and there are 1 or 2 deaths per 1,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus can wipe out the immune system, a complication called “immune amnesia.” (Syal, 3/12)

Unlike President Trump’s picks to lead other health agencies who established their conservative bona fides during the Covid-19 pandemic, his choice to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dave Weldon, was virtually invisible during that period. But an examination by STAT of thousands of pages of documents from Weldon’s 14 years in Congress, part of his archives housed here at the Florida Institute of Technology, and interviews with a half-dozen former health officials, found that his support for anti-vaccine theories runs long and deep. (Owermohle, 3/12)