Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about measles and public health.

Okay, so Trump had his first cabinet meeting, and during the meeting, the subject of measles came up.

The response from the Health and Human Services Secretary left many unimpressed, and some said he was downplaying

the situation. But that's not what we're going to talk about today. We're going to provide

some information about measles, how to protect yourself, and the general situation. Okay,

so currently in the United States and primarily in Texas, there's a measles outbreak.

There's at least 133 confirmed cases, 124 in Texas, and nine in New Mexico.

The majority of those cases are aged 5 to 17.

Estimates say there are more unknown cases out there, but the scope

hasn't been really determined yet. The current working theory is that the outbreak originated

in an under-vaccinated community in Gaines County, Texas, and spread from there. There have been

at least 18 hospitalizations with one death. This isn't

something to take lightly. So, what is measles and how can you protect yourself? Let me start by saying,

this is not chicken pox. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is vaccine preventable.

The CDC says that if you're not protected and you're exposed, you have about a 90% chance

of infection. Measles spreads through the air. The CDC says the virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after the infected

person has left. Symptoms appear about 7 to 14 days after exposure. Some common symptoms

include the rash, high fever, cough, runny nose, and watery eyes. It can have very serious complications like encephalitis. That's inflammation

in the brain and pneumonia. How do you protect yourself? Measles is a vaccine preventable disease.

The MMR vaccine. It protects against measles, mumps, and rebella. By one, get two free.

One dose is about 93% effective and two doses makes it about 97% effective at preventing measles.

According to the CDC, even if you are part of that group that gets measles after vaccination,

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