Editor’s note: Dr. Josh Green is the governor of Hawaii. Before being elected governor in 2022, he worked as an emergency room doctor and family physician in Hawaii for over 20 years. While serving as lieutenant governor, he led an emergency medical mission to help stop the measles epidemic in Samoa and led Hawaii’s vaccination campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic, ranked as one of the most effective in the nation.
America’s children are in danger. Measles outbreaks are spreading in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and beyond, threatening lives, overwhelming health-care resources and exposing vulnerable communities. Texas alone has confirmed more than 400 measles cases and the death of the first child from measles in our country in more than a decade: the heartbreaking loss of a school-age child in Gaines County. The outbreaks continue to spread, gaining momentum and posing a threat to children across our country — with one public health official in Texas fearing that the outbreak there could last an entire year.
But this tragic outcome we can see coming doesn’t have to happen. We can prevent it if we act now…