If You’re Unsure Whether You’re Immune to Measles, It May Be Time to Check–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Feb. 9, 2026

Indy Digest: Feb. 9, 2026

This weekend, I spent some time doing something that is SO VERY 2026: I went through my childhood records to confirm that I had, in fact, gotten the measles vaccine.

I was pretty sure I had been vaccinated, and I even had a recollection of getting measles at one point when I was young—but stories like this, from Wired, prompted me to want to be 100 percent sure:

Some children affected by measles in the ongoing South Carolina outbreak have developed a serious complication of the disease called encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, state epidemiologist Linda Bell said on Wednesday.

The South Carolina measles outbreak began in October with a handful of infections. As of February 3, cases have climbed to 876, with 700 of those being reported since the beginning of the year. The surge could mean another bad year of measles for the United States, which had more than 2,267 cases—the highest in 30 years—in 2025. Declining vaccination rates across the country are driving the resurgence.

Encephalitis is a rare but severe complication of measles that can lead to convulsions and cause deafness or intellectual disability in children. It usually occurs within 30 days of an initial measles infection and can happen if the brain becomes infected with the virus or if an immune reaction to the virus causes inflammation in the brain. Among children who get measles encephalitis, 10 to 15 percent die.

Yikes. I am very far from being a child, but seeing as measles is even worse on adults than it is on children … better safe than sorry.

Fortunately, I was able to find my records fairly quickly. According to the handwritten “Immunization and health record” tri-fold card my mom gave me a while back, I know that I indeed received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine when I was a year old. As for that recollection of having measles, I was mostly correct: When I was 7, I got German measles, also known as rubella, despite being vaccinated.

Because there were still outbreaks in schools and even colleges in the late 1980s, the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1989 recommended students get a second shot—and I indeed received an MMR booster vaccine that year, when I was 14 years old. This two-dose recommendation became the standard and is credited with helping the U.S. get to the point where measles was declared eradicated in 2000 (and rubella was declared eradicated in 2004).

All of this was on my mind this morning when this KTLA story came across my news feed:

Riverside County health officials reported the county’s first case of measles this year after a child tested positive.

Health officials say the child, who was not vaccinated for measles, is recovering at home. They had no recent history of out-of-state or international travel.

The Riverside County case follows nine confirmed recent cases in Southern California, including in Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, according to the California Department of Public Health.

“As we see growing reports of measles from our neighboring counties, the risk of measles is no longer remote,” says Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Chevinsky. “It’s now also impacting us here in our own county, even among those with no recent international or out-of-state travel. The importance of timely vaccination is clear.”

As the United States heads toward having its “measles eradicated” status revoked, tale note: If you’re not sure you’re fully vaccinated, check your records and/or talk to your doctor. Inept, corrupt and should-be-jailed people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are in charge now, and as a result, measles is back—in an increasingly big way.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• General rule: When the government is deleting, hiding or suppressing information, that’s a big, red, honking warning sign, no matter who is in charge. NPR reports: “The State Department is removing all posts on its public accounts on the social media platform X made before President Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, 2025. The posts will be internally archived but will no longer be on public view, the State Department confirmed to NPR. Staff members were told that anyone wanting to see older posts will have to file a Freedom of Information Act request, according to a State Department employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the Trump administration. That would differ from how the U.S. government typically handles archiving the public online footprint of previous administrations. The move comes as the Trump administration has removed wide swaths of information from government websites that conflict with the president’s views, including environmental and health data and references to women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The government has also taken down signs at national parks mentioning slavery and references to Trump’s impeachments and presidency at the National Portrait Gallery. The White House has also launched a revisionist history account of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has replaced the government’s coronavirus resource sites with a page titled ‘Lab Leak: The True Origins of Covid-19.’”

• ProPublica has published an excellent yet depressing/enraging piece about the children being held at an immigrant-detention center in Dilley, Texas. It’s highly recommended reading. Reporter Mica Rosenberg writes: “Since early December, I’ve spoken, in person and via phone and video calls, to more than two dozen detainees, half of them kids detained at Dilley—all of whose parents gave me their consent. I asked parents whether their children would be open to writing to me about their experiences. More than three dozen kids responded; some just drew pictures, others wrote in perfect cursive. Some letters were full of age-appropriate misspellings. Among them was a letter from a 9-year-old Venezuelan girl, named Susej Fernández, who had been living in Houston when she and her mother were detained. ‘I have been 50 days in Dilley Immigration Processing Center,’ she wrote. ‘Seen how people like me, immigrants are been treated changes my perspective about the U.S. My mom and I came to The U.S looking for a good and safe place to live.’ A 14-year-old Colombian girl, who signed her name Gaby M.M. and who a fellow detainee said had been living in Houston, wrote a letter about how the guards at Dilley ‘have bad manner of speaking to residents.’ She wrote, ‘The workers treat the residents unhumanly, verbally and I don’t want to imging how they would act if they where unsupervised.’”

• Did NBC edit out or cover up booing at the vice president during his appearance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics? The Guardian says: “As speed skater Erin Jackson led Team USA into the San Siro stadium she was greeted by cheers. But when the TV cameras cut to Vance and his wife, Usha, there were boos, jeers and a smattering of applause from the crowd. The reaction was shown on Canadian broadcaster CBC’s feed, with one commentator saying: ‘There is the vice president JD Vance and his wife Usha—oops, those are not … uh … those are a lot of boos for him. Whistling, jeering, some applause.’ The Guardian’s Sean Ingle was also at the ceremony and noted the boos, as did USA Today’s Christine Brennan. However, on the NBC broadcast the boos were not heard or remarked upon when Vance appeared on screen, with the commentary team simply saying ‘JD Vance.’ That didn’t stop footage of the boos being circulated and shared on social media in the US. The White House posted a clip of Vance applauding on NBC’s broadcast without any boos.” NBC, for the record, denied editing out the boos.

• Gov. Gavin Newsom wants state workers to return to the office to work at least four days per week. A legislator, backed by an employee union, is pushing back. Our partners at Calmatters report: “One of California’s larger public employee unions is pushing legislation to make remote work a permanent option for state workers as the clock ticks down on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s July 1 mandate for most employees to be in the office four days a week. The measure, authored by Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Milpitas Democrat, would require state agencies to offer work-from-home options ‘to the fullest extent possible’ and provide written justifications when they require employees to work in person, according to a press release from the Professional Engineers in California Government. The union represents more than 15,000 state engineers who mostly work for Caltrans and in environmental agencies. The bill would also require the state to establish a dashboard to document the annual savings as a result of remote work. The Department of General Services, which manages contracts and real estate for the state government, published that information until ending the practice in 2024. … Remote work is a money saver: Allowing state workers to work from home at least three days a week could save the state $225 million a year, according to a state auditor’s report released last year.”

• Today’s recall news involves … mislabeled M&M’s! Today.com reports: “Beacon Promotions Inc. has initiated a voluntary recall of several repackaged M&M’s products. After the company set the process in motion on Jan. 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorized the recall in its Class II classification on Feb. 4. Per the FDA website, this category is used for ‘a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.’ … All of the recalled products have undeclared allergens, including milk, soy and peanut. This could pose a health concern to anyone with allergies to these ingredients.” California is one of the states where these repackaged M&M’s were sold/distributed.

• And finally … last week in this space, we reported on the massive layoffs at The Washington Post. The New York Times reports on Martin Weil, one of the reporters who was let go—after working at the newspaper for more than 60 years. The lede (gift link): “Not long into his career at The Washington Post, Martin Weil learned to ignore most of the crackles on the police scanner. One night in June 1972, though, he paused upon hearing this: ‘Doors open at the Watergate.’ He decided against chasing down the meaning of those words that night. But the next day, he approached the city desk to ask if anything was afoot. The answer was yes—the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex had been burglarized. And The Post, of course, was pursuing that story and many, many others, until it attained what the newspaper’s publisher at the time, Katharine Graham, later termed a position of ‘dominance’ in the Washington region. On Wednesday, The Post announced plans to move on from that legacy as part of widespread cuts to the newsroom. The layoffs, affecting more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists at the paper, are landing hard on the local news desk, where Mr. Weil has worked since 1965. He was among those laid off, one of the last ties to the paper’s Watergate era.”

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