The fever comes suddenly — so high it makes your baby tremble in your arms. His tiny body is burning, soaked in sweat, his chest heaving as he struggles to breathe through a raw, hacking cough. His eyes, bloodshot and glassy, barely open. He won’t eat. He won’t drink. 

Then the rash appears, angry and relentless, crawling across his soft skin like wildfire. The doctors tell you there’s nothing to do but wait. No medicine will stop it. No cure will make it go away. All you can do is hold your child and pray he makes it through. 

This is measles. Not a "harmless childhood illness." A ruthless, airborne virus that has already killed children this year — and is still spreading, unchecked. 

It is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet. It lingers in the air for hours after an infected person leaves the room, waiting to claim its next victim. One in 5 children who contract it will be hospitalized. One in 20 will develop pneumonia. One in 1,000 will suffer swelling in the brain, which can cause lifelong disability or death. Even after a child recovers, measles can leave a deadly ticking time bomb in their body—a degenerative neurological disease that can kill them years later. 

We have a way to stop this. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 97 percent effective after two doses. It is one of the safest, most studied vaccines in history. It has saved millions of lives. 

And yet, measles is back. Because of lies. Because of fear. Because of the people in power who are pushing deadly disinformation for their political gain. 

I am the mother of an 18-month-old son. He has received his first MMR dose, but he is too young for his second, which means he is not fully protected. That is why I am terrified as measles spreads across this country. My child — all of our children — are at risk, not because parents don’t care, but because powerful men have made it their mission to scare them away from vaccines. 

But here is the truth that so many people fail to understand: parents who don’t vaccinate their children aren’t doing so because they want their kids to get sick. No loving parent chooses to risk measles, or polio, or whooping cough. 

They make that choice because they are afraid. Because someone — often someone in power, someone they trusted — has convinced them that the greater danger isn’t the disease, but the vaccine itself. Fear is a powerful thing. And the anti-vaccine movement knows that. 

Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. know that. They know that if you can make parents doubt, even just a little, you can keep them from vaccinating. And that’s all it takes for these diseases to return. This crisis is not solely the fault of hesitant parents. Fault also lies with those who built a machine of fear and lies and profited off its destruction. And now, the most dangerous of them all sits at the highest level of our government. 

Trump appointed Kennedy, a notorious anti-vaccine extremist, as secretary of health and human services. Kennedy has spent decades spreading debunked conspiracy theories about vaccines. He falsely claims they cause autism. He has used his platform to fuel doubt, scare parents and undermine public trust in medicine. His appointment to oversee our country’s health policy wasn’t just reckless—it was a direct attack on the very vaccines that have kept diseases such as measles at bay for generations. 

But Trump’s role in this disaster didn’t start with Kennedy. During his first term, as his approval ratings tanked during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump turned to vaccine disinformation to save himself. He downplayed the virus, calling it no worse than the flu. He mocked mask-wearing and social distancing. He suggested injecting disinfectant as a cure. And when vaccines finally arrived — when he could have stepped up as a leader and pushed the country to protect itself — he made the calculated political decision to instead shore up support from anti-science grifters and those they had already infected with their disinformation. 

The consequences of those decisions are here. In Nevada, the rate of childhood vaccination exemptions — children who are not required to obtain vaccinations for religious or medical reasons — within the Clark County School District rose from 4 percent in the 2019-2020 school year to over 7 percent in the 2023-2024 school year. According to the Centers for Disease Control, rates of kindergarteners vaccinated against measles decreased from 95 percent in the 2018-2019 school year to under 92 percent by the 2023-2024 school year. 

Now, a massive measles outbreak is tearing through Texas and is now spreading across the country. There have been more than 200 cases and at least two children are dead. This disease was eliminated in the U.S. decades ago. It should never have returned. But now, thanks to Trump, Kennedy and the web of extremists they have empowered, it is back. 

Children are suffering. Hospitals are filling up. And it will only get worse. 

It’s easy to blame parents for not vaccinating their kids. But that blame is misplaced. Parents are not the villains here. They are victims of a deliberate, well-funded campaign to scare them. They are bombarded with falsehoods and manipulated by bad actors who prey on their deepest fears. 

The real villains are the ones who spread those lies. The politicians who refuse to stand up to anti-vaccine extremists. The conspiracy theorists who profit from fear. The grifters who stoke doubt while quietly getting their own children vaccinated. 

Measles is back, and children are dying. Their tiny bodies, covered in pockmarks, will line the coffers of the bad men leading our government after being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. I hope their parents find peace — and I hope the bad actors who tore these children from them are held accountable.

Shelbie Swartz is executive director of Battle Born Progress, a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization providing strategic communications for Nevada progressive causes. She lives with her husband and toddler in Las Vegas.