Prominent US anti-vaxxer says he caught measles and traveled back home

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/21/anti-vaxxer-measles-texas

Prominent US anti-vaxxer says he caught measles and traveled back home

Brian Hooker seems to not have alerted authorities of his illness after leaving west Texas

Melody Schreiber
Mon 21 Jul 2025 11.09 EDT

One of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the US says he caught measles in west Texas and traveled back home – but he seems not to have alerted local authorities of his illness, which means the highly transmissible virus may have spread onward.

Measles is a threat to people who are unvaccinated or immune-compromised. In anti-vaccine communities, it may quickly find a foothold and spread largely under the radar before ballooning into an outbreak.

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Hooker then traveled home to Redding, California, and developed measles symptoms, he said.

“Full disclosure, 18 days after visiting Seminole, Texas, sitting in a measles clinic and being exposed to Doctor Ben with the measles, I got the measles. So cool,” Hooker said.

… more if you can stand it …