Dr. Ruth's COVID, Flu & Health News 2-15-26

Here's the latest helpful newsletter by Dr Ruth Ann Crystal 2-15-26:

----------------------------------------

COVID, Flu, and Health News, 2/15/26
Ruth Ann Crystal MD, Feb 15, 2026 

I hope that you are enjoying the long weekend. Here are some updates on COVID, Flu and other topics.

Flu

According to the CDC, Influenza A activity is still high but is starting to decrease, while Influenza B cases are increasing, particularly in the Midwest. Wastewater levels for flu are especially high in Washington state, Oregon, and Kentucky as of 2/7/26. Outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) have plateaued although we may see another bump in cases. According to the CDC, children under 18 years have the highest peak weekly influenza-associated hospitalization rate observed since the 2010-2011 season. There were 6 more pediatric flu deaths reported this week which brings the total to 66. According to the CDC, “approximately 90% of reported pediatric deaths this season have occurred in children who were not fully vaccinated against influenza.”

COVID

Through 2/7/26, COVID levels in wastewater are VERY HIGH and HIGH in these states according to the CDC:

From: https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-national-data.html

From WastewaterSCAN (which omits 12 states), these are the highest levels of COVID in U.S. wastewater as of 2/14/26:

Bangor ME 2230 PMMoV

Lewiston ME 1527 PMMoV

Kinston NC 1095 PMMoV

Pinson AL 984 PMMoV

Portland ME 846 PMMoV

Birmingham AL 700 PMMoV

Montpellier VT 672 PMMoV

Warren MI 660 PMMoV

Share

Prevention

Some Olympic athletes, such as the U.S. women’s cross-country ski team, are wearing masks and are self quarantining to protect themselves against getting sick before their events in the 2026 Olympic games. This is in contrast to members of the Finnish women’s hockey team who went out to karaoke and ended up all getting the stomach flu, so their game against Canada had to be postponed.

Social and Advocacy

In advance of Long COVID Awareness Day on March 15th, four European Long COVID and COVID grassroots associations from France and Spain joined to create Long COVID Rise Up. “The Federation will bring together patient groups, allies and whistleblowers to demand urgent research, prevention, and an end to political neglect and inaction” for Long COVID.

Pregnancy

In a pregnant hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, maternal COVID infection caused significant placental inflammation leading to restricted fetal growth (IUGR) without direct infection of the fetus. Placental damage was marked by fibrin deposition, thrombosis, and elevated inflammatory markers. Vaccination and anticoagulant treatment protected the placenta and improved fetal outcomes.

Vaccines

Science magazine just put out an explainer article on the new NEJM article looking at the genetics and the mechanisms behind Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis (VITT). In people with a “double whammy” of both a genetic predisposition and a mutation in antibody-producing B cells, an adenovirus protein from either an adenovirus infection or from adenovirus-based vaccines like AstraZeneca and the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccines, can rarely trigger “rogue” PF4 antibodies that attack platelets and cause both life-threatening blood clots and bleeding. This does not happen with mRNA vaccines.

Antivirals

Researchers from Madrid found that combination antiviral therapy with Remdesivir plus Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) and/or triple therapy with the addition of Sotrovimab monoclonal antibodies was important to completely treat persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection in 15 immunocompromised patients. “Early monotherapy treatment in these patients was associated with a high rate of clinical and microbiological failure, with sporadic documentation of resistance mutations that were overcome with combined antiviral therapy.”

Share

Long COVID

In a small double blind randomized pilot trial in Taiwan involving 39 adults with Long COVID, 20 participants received probiotic treatment and 19 received placebo. Six weeks of the probiotic heat treated Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PS23 (HT-PS23) significantly lowered cortisol levels, improved breathing difficulty and appetite loss, and improved performance on executive function cognitive tests. This study adds to growing evidence that targeting the gut microbiome may help alleviate some Long COVID symptoms.

Researchers from Australia used high resolution fMRI comparing the brains of 19 adults with Long COVID to 16 healthy controls during cognitive tasks. People with Long COVID had abnormal brain network connectivity especially in focus and decision-making networks, and also had slower cognitive task performance. Disrupted brain communication appears to underlie cognitive dysfunction (brain fog) in Long COVID.

In an article from May 2025 that I had not previously seen, the European Academy of Neurology’s task force issued a position paper highlighting evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection may trigger neurodegenerative disease, potentially increasing the future incidence of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The paper synthesizes pathological data from global autopsies and registries, identifying microvascular damage, gliosis, demyelination, and neuronal and glial injury and cell death as primary drivers of long-term brain tissue decline. The authors advocate for systematic follow-up and surveillance programs to monitor these emerging neurological risks across the millions of individuals previously infected with COVID.

In a nested study of 228 adults (128 with Long COVID and 100 recovered controls), German researchers assessed circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) and other markers of mitochondrial damage. They found that mitochondrial damage and cellular stress appear to be linked with cognitive impairment in Long COVID, noting that “lower relative ccf-mtDNA in PASC [Long COVID] might indicate altered mitochondrial quality control, potentially leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, accumulation of damaged mitochondria, and increased inflammation.”

Share

“Despite their therapeutic benefits, inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) have been reported in association with Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKis) treatment, most previously involving tofacitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.” A new case report from Vanderbilt shows that a CNS inflammatory demyelinating disease may have been exacerbated by JAK inhibitor Baricitinib use. Stopping Baricitinib reduced vision loss and brain and spine lesions. This is important to know since the RECOVER trial is currently testing Baricitinib to treat Long COVID.

A group from the University of Washington investigated the effectiveness of a fully remote study of women from underrepresented, underserved, and underreported (U3) populations who were positive for COVID infection. Over 6 months, participants self-collected blood and nasal swabs at home and shipped them back to the lab for processing. Patient surveys were administered electronically. The study had a 98% retention rate and participants were very satisfied with the remote study design. Authors noted that the study topic, flexibility, and positive interactions with the study team were important factors for participant recruitment and retention of underserved populations.

A recent review in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation suggested that exercise intolerance in Long COVID may partly reflect deconditioning and that exercise training can be beneficial. Rob Wüst and colleagues cautioned in a new article that in some Long COVID patients, post-exertional malaise and cardiac abnormalities such as preload failure and inflammation-related scarring can occur independently of cardiac deconditioning, and that any exercise recommendations for people with Long COVID should be made with caution. This makes sense since Rob Wust’s lab previously showed muscle atrophy and necrosis in 36% of Long COVID patients after exercise, with amyloid deposits, T cell, and macrophage infiltration noted in their skeletal muscles.

A new systematic review from Taiwan compiled evidence on audiovestibular symptoms in Long COVID, including hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, and balance problems, and explores potential mechanisms such as direct viral or immune-mediated effects on the inner ear and neural pathways. It also discusses diagnostic approaches (e.g., audiometry, vestibular testing) and management strategies ranging from corticosteroids to vestibular rehabilitation, highlighting that these manifestations may be underrecognized and can persist long after acute COVID infection.

Measles

As of February 12, 2026, 910 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026, with 3% (30 of 910 cases) hospitalized according to the CDC. The outbreak in South Carolina continues to spread, with the South Carolina Department of Public Health reporting 933 measles cases centered around Spartanburg County as of Feb. 10, 2026.

A new measles outbreak has started in Shasta County, California and the California Department of Public Health asks residents to check their MMR vaccine status to see if they need a booster. “As of Feb. 10, 2026, local public health departments have identified measles cases in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Shasta counties. Nine cases were linked to exposure in Southern California, possibly at Disneyland in Anaheim and at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as people were traveling on Jan. 22 and 28.”

The New York Times reports “Dr. Mehmet Oz has urged Americans to get vaccinated against measles, one of the strongest endorsements of the vaccine yet from a top health official in the Trump administration, which has repeatedly undermined confidence in vaccine safety…The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is considered very safe and about 97 percent effective in preventing infection.”

Government News

Despite previously approving Phase 3 testing of their mRNA flu vaccine, the FDA is now declining to review Moderna’s application for its mRNA flu vaccine despite positive study results. The study enrolled more than 40,000 adults ages 50 and older and showed that the mRNA Influenza vaccine was more effective in protecting against the flu than currently licensed influenza vaccines. Moderna’s CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases, and sadly, mRNA vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have now been shelved.

The Trump administration terminated $600 million in CDC grants for HIV and STI prevention and surveillance in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota “because they do not reflect agency priorities.” The four Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to block the Trump administration’s cuts saying that they were being unlawfully subjected to “devastating funding cuts to basic public health infrastructure based on political animus and disagreements about unrelated topics such as federal immigration enforcement.”

Here are some more articles that may interest you:

2/12/26 NY Times: Eyeing the Midterms, Kennedy Pivots Toward Food and Away From Vaccines

2/11/26 The 19th: Without school vaccine mandates, many kids may never see a doctor

2/10/26 Nature: Dozens of researchers [from Columbia University] will move to France from US following high-profile bid to lure talent

2/10/26 Guardian: ‘I saw the writing on the wall’: Austria offers safe haven for US academics as Trump wages war on universities

2/12/26 NY Times: Trump Repeals Key Greenhouse Gas Finding, Erasing EPA’s Power to Fight Climate Change

Share

Other News

Emory University researchers analyzed data from 114 adults with autism using AI and identified three biologically distinct autism subtypes. One subtype marked by high anxiety and social withdrawal showed brain changes that improved with oxytocin, pointing toward the possibility of personalized treatment approaches.

Dr. Eric Topol had two recent posts that were very interesting. First, Dr. Topol interviewed neurosurgeon Dr. Kevin Tracey discussing how vagus nerve stimulation can modulate immune system responses by dampening inflammatory signaling. A recent study showed that 1 minute of vagal nerve stimulation daily can help treat refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Second, Dr. Topol wrote an article entitled Why All Mammograms Should Incorporate A.I. Using artificial intelligence to help read mammograms leads to more accurate breast cancer detection while reducing the workload for radiologists.

Another study, this time of 65,800 seniors from Kaiser Permanente showed that 2 doses of the recombinant shingles vaccine (RZV) were linked to a 51% lower risk of dementia.

Heads up: Health officials in Minnesota have reported an outbreak of a sexually transmitted form of ringworm infection. The infection is caused by Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMVII), a fungus that produces round, coin shaped red and irritated rashes on the genitals, arms, buttocks, trunk, and legs.

Nadieh Bremer just released an amazing data visualization site called Searching for Birds. It is an interactive exploration into what humans look for when inquiring about birds. I highly recommend trying it.

From: https://searchingforbirds.visualcinnamon.com/

Have a good week,

Ruth Ann Crystal MD

Melanie Phillips 2-15-26 On Ignoring Antisemitism

Here, the great Melanie Phillips take on Bret Stephens' so-called advice on how Jews should handle antisemitism. I'm glad my parents never told me to "just ignore" it! All that does is embolden the antisemites and make them think they're winning.

-------------------------------------------

Why Bret Stephens is wrong. The fight against Jew-hatred needs to be harder and smarter
Melanie Phillips, Feb 15, 2026 

"How should the Jewish world respond to the nightmarish onslaught that we’re living through?

"What’s happening is unprecedented. We’re not merely dealing with antisemitism roaring out of control across the west.

"Antizionism is being deployed as an obscene moral prism through which society is being reframed. It’s redefining lies as truth, casting victims as oppressors and defaming Israel’s defensive war against genocidal extermination as a genocide itself.

"It’s attempting to erase the heritage of the Jews in their ancestral homeland, erase the victimisation of Jews in the State of Israel, and even erase the attempt to erase the Jews from the face of the earth in the Holocaust. Antizionism is being deployed to erase reason itself.

"It’s coming mostly from the left but also from the right; from nurses wearing a “Palestine” pin and from a Scout leader wearing a keffiyeh to a Beavers’ meeting for children aged six to eight; from the Encyclopedia Britannica renaming Israel as Palestine on its map.

"It’s coming from thugs abusing diners in Israeli-owned restaurants, abusing Jewish passengers on Tubes and buses and preventing a Jewish MP from visiting a school in his constituency. In short, we’re looking at a collective madness.

"In a lecture to the 92nd Street Y community centre in New York last week, the journalist Bret Stephens addressed the question of what to do about all this. He made many characteristically insightful remarks. But he was also profoundly wrong.

"Rightly observing that antisemitism could never be eradicated and that constantly seeking to prove ourselves worthy to win the world’s love was a fool’s errand, he said: “We need to stop being wounded, aggrieved or indignant. We need to stop caring”. And he recommended that Jews ignore antisemitism because we can’t do anything about it.

"This is misguided on several counts. First, Jews have a duty to speak out and must always care about such terrible wrongdoing.

"Second, while antisemites may be beyond reason, many others who have turned against us are not. Framing the problem as antisemitism misses this point by a mile. That’s because the key issue is antizionism.

"People are being bombarded with what purport to be reliable reports of appalling Israeli behaviour.

"These are all obsessive lies, wild distortions and blood libels which portray Israel as the most evil regime on the planet just for existing as a Jewish state. This demonises in turn all those who support Israel’s existence — which means most Jews.

"The belief that the Jews collectively do terrible things has been given rocket fuel by the belief that Israel is doing terrible things. Antizionism, ludicrously claiming that Jews are oppressive colonisers of their own ancestral homeland, is principally responsible for this tsunami of antisemitism and is therefore an evil in its own right.

"Stephens is absolutely correct that Jewish leadership has failed, not just in America but in Britain too. But it failed not because resistance is hopeless but because the strategy has been totally wrong.

"It’s focused on identifying the evils of antisemitism and on promoting Holocaust education. But great swathes of the west bitterly resent claims of antisemitism and having the Holocaust — as they believe — rammed down their throats.

"That’s largely because they think Jews don’t fit the profile of the world’s victims of oppression or hardship. They think Jews are like themselves but infinitely more successful. They’re jealous and resentful about the Jews’ achievements, they think Jewish power dominates western society, and so they assume that the Jews are claiming to be victims solely to sanitise the presumed crimes of Israel.

"Stephens says the response should be to ignore all such bigotry and focus instead on building up Jewish identity and peoplehood. This is indeed absolutely critical. But turning inwards, as he suggests, simply to produce thriving Jewish communities will do nothing to address the rapidly rising threat to those communities.

"Before the Holocaust, Polish Jewry was a thriving community distinguished by immense learning and Jewish culture. That did nothing to prevent that community from being almost totally wiped out.

"Jews must “thrive” for a purpose. This is to live by Jewish precepts to enable them to fight for truth, justice and their own continued existence — for which their grasp of peoplehood is essential. As my new book being published next month lays out, we need to assert confident Jewish peoplehood in order to fight the hate harder and smarter.

"We should be out-and-proud Zionists. We should be saying loud and clear that the Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel, that the Arabs are the colonisers, and that Zionism, the movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancestral land, is the ultimate anti-colonisation movement.

"We should also be saying that Zionism is an inseparable part of Judaism, and so antizionism is an attempt to destroy not just Israel but Judaism itself.

"Jews have a moral obligation to fight for their survival. We just need to stop playing defence, get onto the front foot and for the first time start taking the fight to the enemy."

Jewish Chronicle

Israeli Hostages & The Guthrie Case? No Comparison At All.

I'm sure the author thought this was a good premise in a way, but the reason the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli Jews by Hamas didn't get the same 24/7 attention that this Guthrie case is getting is precisely because those victims were Jewish! I don't remember constant coverage of the fact that Hamas thew babies into ovens like the Nazis did to the Jews in Auschwitz. And I can't possibly compare one missing woman to thousands of raped, brutalized, tortured, captured, and murdered Jews and a sadistic hostage saga that went on too long.  I doubt anyone else will make the "251 Nancys" connection either.

------------------------------------------------- 

Think of it as 251 Nancys. Maybe the interest and emotions around the Guthrie saga will help people to better understand what Israel went through, day after day, for two years.  

By Alan Newman 2-13-24

"Continuous reporting has filled television airways and made headlines in the United States about the kidnapping in Tucson, Ariz., of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie. Practically every news outlet has devoted time to each twist and turn of this story, which began on Feb. 1. It is a full-throated whodunit garnering viewers’ attention, and seemingly all have been caught up these past two weeks in worry and concern for this 84-year-old woman.

"A little more than two years ago, on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was invaded by thousands of Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas. They invaded the southern border and proceeded to murder 1,200 people, injure some 2,000 others, and kidnap 251 men, women and children, dragging them into Gaza. The vicious perpetrators provided ample evidence of their ghoulish actions with their own GoPro cameras.

"Think of it as 251 Nancys.

"Israel went to war for the next two years—not just with Hamas in Gaza, but with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Iran itself. On Oct. 13, 2025, the last of the living hostages returned to Israel. On Jan. 26, the last hostage body of Ron Gvili, 24, was brought home.

"In Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and throughout the Jewish Diaspora, the fate of the kidnapped became a gut-wrenching campaign. They were Israel’s 251 Nancys. Jews worldwide wore yellow ribbons and dog tags to show their solidarity. When visitors arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport, photos of the captives stared back, their beautiful faces pleading for help. These same images were displayed in every corner across the country. The countdown to their return was tracked down to the second.

"Those rescued alive were celebrated as heroes, and for families whose relatives were buried, thousands attended funerals to grieve along with them.

"These same images of the hostages were desecrated on streets across the globe by the same keffiyeh-wearing mobs that rioted in support of the terrorists and against Israelis and Jews everywhere. At least, in the case of Nancy Guthrie, nobody is screaming for her people’s destruction and accusing her family of genocide.

"Yes, some of the hostages were Nancy Guthrie’s age. And there were many more young people. There were babies even—the redheaded Ariel and Kfir Bibas babies, who at 10 months and 4 years were just beginning their lives. The victims were light-skinned and dark-skinned. Some weren’t even Jewish, but Arab, Bedouin, Druze. Some weren’t Israeli, but guests and workers from abroad. Some had helped Palestinians in distress for years, some employed Gazans in their homes and fields, and some had been at a music festival, dancing and having a good time.

"In Israel, the societal resolve to never leave behind a hostage played out militarily, diplomatically and personally. After all, in just three degrees of separation, each kidnapped soul was a “family” member to every Israeli. In every synagogue, shop and neighborhood, the tragedy was front and center. Each rescue and resolution was important. So were each of the nearly 1,000 soldiers who died in battles and attacks waged on seven fronts.

"Thanks to America, and especially to U.S. President Donald Trump, working with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the fighting in Gaza and throughout the region was mostly brought to a halt. With great celebration and relief, many hostages came home to their families, and the dead received a proper religious burial.

"Likely, the drama around Nancy Guthrie will soon be resolved. Maybe the interest and emotions around this saga will help people better understand what Israel went through, day after day, for 736 days."

Playing Russian Roulette With The Measles

I'm grateful that my parents had common sense and got their children vaccinated! Not getting vaccinated was unthinkable back then!

------------------------------------------

Doctors bear the burden as ‘medical freedom’ fuels worst US measles outbreak in 30 years

By Chad Terhune and Julie Steenhuysen at Reuters
February 13, 20266:10 AM EST 

SPARTANBURG, South Carolina, Feb 13 (Reuters) - About a dozen times each day, medical staff at Parkside Pediatrics in Spartanburg, South Carolina, head to the clinic’s parking lot, reaching inside cars and minivans to check children and their parents for fever, rash and other signs of measles.

Dr. Justin Moll started this outdoor triage in December to cope with what has quickly become the largest U.S. measles outbreak in more than three decades, federal health data show. He wants to keep the highly contagious virus out of the clinic’s waiting rooms, already packed with infants and other small children. Many of them are unvaccinated against measles because they’re still too young.

Moll and his colleagues have treated about 50 measles patients since the outbreak started in early October, something never seen before at their South Carolina clinics. They fear that outbreaks like these are becoming the new normal as Americans’ opposition to vaccines deepens, fueled by backlash to the COVID-19 response and misinformation on social media. Medical experts say U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies have further undermined public trust in life-saving immunizations by promoting unproven theories about the dangers of vaccines.

"This is not going to be the last vaccine-preventable disease to hit us," Moll told Reuters at his clinic in Spartanburg, the epicenter of the outbreak.

For this story, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen doctors, nurses, parents, school officials, pharmacists, pastors, lawmakers and former health officials in South Carolina.

The South Carolina outbreak has surpassed 930 cases, about 20 of which required hospitalization, according to state health officials. No deaths have been reported by the state.

School immunization rates statewide have dropped by nearly 3 percentage points since prior to the pandemic in 2020, as local leaders and parents pushed back against COVID-related lockdowns and vaccine mandates and demanded more "medical freedom" to choose what, if any, other routine shots their children receive.

Only 89% of all students from kindergarten up through high school are up to date on their shots in Spartanburg County, below the 95% rate that public health experts say can prevent measles’ spread. In some local schools, vaccination rates have dropped below 20%, according to state data.

During previous outbreaks, the federal government has led the charge to encourage widespread vaccination and coordinate efforts among states to curb the spread of disease. Kennedy has not made any major statements regarding the measles outbreak in South Carolina. HHS didn't respond to a request for comment.

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) two-shot protocol remains recommended at the federal level starting at 12 months of age, with a second at 4 to 6 years of age.

Measles is among the most highly contagious viruses known. Spread through coughing, sneezing and talking, it can linger in the air for up to two hours and move quickly through communities with low vaccination coverage.

'SOME FOLKS HAVE OVERREACTED' IN AVOIDING ALL VACCINES

Some South Carolina Republicans now have second thoughts about discrediting routine immunization but find they hold little sway.

"I now believe that some folks have overreacted in the other direction and oppose any and all vaccines, even ones that have been tried-and-true for decades," Josh Kimbrell, a Republican state senator running for governor, wrote last month to a Spartanburg County school board.

He asked school officials to examine their policies on vaccine exemptions for students, but was pilloried on social media when he posted the letter online. Kimbrell didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Dr. Leigh Bragg, a pediatrician near Spartanburg, said local hospitals, churches and schools are reluctant to speak up about the most proven way to curb the outbreak. “People are trying to stay in the middle and not pick a side on vaccinations,” she said.

Even South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, has championed personal choice as the preventable disease spreads through the state.

"Our approach is to be sure people have the information and that the vaccine is available for them, give them all the information so they can make up their mind on what they want to do," he told reporters at a state tourism conference this week.

The outbreak struck as South Carolina’s public health department grappled with reductions in federal funding and overall staffing in recent years, two former department employees told Reuters.

Last month, the Trump administration said it had sent South Carolina $1.4 million to support its measles response. State officials said the federal government also has provided assistance with testing, clinical advice and free vaccines.

"The number of cases we’re seeing now is unprecedented," Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s state epidemiologist, said this week. "We have a great deal more work to do to stop this outbreak."

Despite Bell's pleas for people to get fully vaccinated, some remain reluctant to heed those calls. At state-run vaccine clinics at Spartanburg churches, only a handful of people have shown up in recent weeks.

Talina Podrez, a 21-year-old barista in Spartanburg, said measles had swept through her local church in January, leaving services about half empty. While she stayed away because she only has one of the two recommended MMR shots, Podrez said she isn’t interested in getting another shot.

"My mom was against most of the vaccines so we just got whatever was needed for the bare minimum," she said.

'MANY PARENTS HAVE LOST RESPECT AND FEAR FOR THIS DISEASE'

Nathan Heffington, a nurse practitioner and medical director for Parkside Pediatrics in Spartanburg County, believes that many more infections aren’t being counted. He has seen multiple unvaccinated families show up with telltale signs of measles, but then refuse to get tested.

The clinic still reports them to the state as suspected cases and advises them to quarantine.

“The actual numbers are much, much higher than the reported numbers, which is just all the more nerve-wracking,” Heffington said. “Many parents have lost respect and fear for this disease.”

While political leaders shy away from a strong endorsement of vaccines, it is left to medical providers like Moll and Heffington to persuade reluctant parents of their value.

"They’re not anti-anything. They're just trying to do the best thing for their family and figure out who to trust," said Moll.

Kathleen Black’s two oldest children, ages 8 and 4, got all their routine immunizations. But she wanted to hold off when her youngest, Katie, was born about a year ago.

From social media and friends, Black heard childhood vaccines may cause autism or developmental delays, claims not supported by medical research. Like many in South Carolina, she voted for Trump and supports Kennedy’s demands for more vaccine safety studies.

“I like to go down those rabbit holes and it opens up millions of questions, like ‘What’s in the vaccines? Why are we giving all these vaccines?’” she told Reuters during a visit to the Parkside clinic.

Heffington explained to her the risks posed by vaccine-preventable diseases. He then discussed the immediate threat her baby faced from measles, and the protection provided by an early MMR shot. He answered all of her questions about possible side effects. Finally, Black pressed him: “Would you do it?”

“Absolutely,” the father of five replied. Black agreed to the first dose that day, and her daughter received a second dose last month.

“I wouldn’t trust every doctor,” Black said, “but I definitely trust Nathan.”

Reporting by Chad Terhune in Spartanburg, and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; 
Editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft

Melanie Phillips 2-13-26 on The Deepening Madness Against the Jews"

Here's another powerful column by Melanie Phillips.  I'm glad she writes to vindicate the way we feel.

For me, the insane hatred of the Jews is as rabid and unhinged as what we see in America with the anti-ICE incitement and indoctrination every single day. All of these people are deranged in their hatred and they will do whatever it takes to destroy their scapegoat, whether it be Trump, ICE, or Jews.

You can't reason with Jew-haters. It's like an inherited disease in these evil people. What have we ever done to the Australians, for instance? The answer is nothing.  Social media makes it easier for antisemites to broadcast their hatred and boast about it for "likes" because it's somehow become acceptable to do so.

They are jealous of us Jews and our accomplishments and the fact that we've never leeched off the government but have always worked hard to earn our success. 

All we can do is fight back against their violence and lies like we've always done.

-------------------------------------------------------

The deepening madness against the Jews
The proper response to this war against a people is not to deflect it but to fight it better

Melanie Phillips, Feb 13, 2026

"The tsunami of global antisemitism in the wake of the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023 and during the Gaza war that followed has caused as much bafflement as horror at the sheer perversity of this malevolence.

"It’s now become clear, however, that what we’re looking at is an even more sinister pattern of behaviour. Appallingly, the slaughter of Jews excites a large number of people so much that it galvanises them to howl for the blood of more.

"This was manifest on Octber 7 itself, when mobs started pouring onto the streets of Western cities screaming about Israeli genocide and “intifada now,” even while the Israelis were still battling the Hamas terrorists perpetrating the slaughter.

"This week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Australia to express solidarity with its beleaguered Jewish community, six weeks after the Bondi Beach terrorist atrocity when 14 Jews and one off-duty police officer were murdered by Islamist gunmen.

"Obscenely, the memory of those victims was desecrated by a hate-fest on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne. Herzog was greeted by mobs screaming “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada!”(Gadigal being the Aboriginal name for Australia), and promoting the same lies about genocide and war crimes that had incited the pogrom-style atmosphere culminating in the Bondi Beach atrocity.

"The same shocking phenomenon has been on display in Britain. The latest report by the Jewish defence body, the Community Security Trust, which recorded in 2025 the second-highest number of attacks in a calendar year, says that the Yom Kippur terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue that left two Jews dead triggered an immediate spike in antisemitism.

"On the day of that attack, the CST recorded 40 antisemitic incidents, with a further 40 the following day — the two highest daily totals during the year. And, in December, it recorded a similar if smaller spike in the wake of the Bondi Beach atrocity.

"In other words, terrorist atrocities against Jews have produced not sympathy or horror, but rather spikes in Jew-hatred, even in other countries. This isn’t just confined to a few cranks and nut-jobs on the fringes of society. It involves many thousands of people.

"There’s nothing remotely normal or explicable about this. It’s a form of madness that’s taken widespread hold.

"Even if Israel is hated, that doesn’t explain why so many regard it as the single greatest threat to the world, deserving a level of opprobrium meted out to no other country on earth including the world’s great tyrannies such as Russia, China or Iran.

"What can explain such an obsession with Israel and Zionism? What is driving people in the supposedly civilised West to call in their droves for the killing of Jews?

"This deranged and murderous hatred is, of course, standard fare in the Muslim world, and Muslims have been leading the charge against Israel and the Jews ever since October 7. But plenty of non-Muslims have been pitching in alongside them.

"One reason is Palestinianism: that exterminatory creed whose aim is the destruction of Israel, and whose antecedents lie in both the murderous Islamic theological hatred of Jews and in the Nazi party of the 1930s to which the Arabs of pre-Israel Palestine were allied.

"Deploying Nazi demonisation of the Jews and Soviet-style inversion of language and reality, the Palestinian cause has acted as a Trojan horse for antisemitism among the liberals and leftists who control Western culture and for whom “Palestine” has become their moral lodestar.

"Grotesquely, this has reframed bigotry as conscience. This week, a new and sinister low was plumbed in the politically liberal British seaside resort of Brighton. Keffiyeh-clad activists went door-knocking from house to house asking residents to boycott Israeli goods — and noting down those who didn’t agree to do so — to turn the town into a “Zionist-free” zone.

"Many reasons can be adduced for this wild and venomous hostility. There’s the grip of “anti-colonialist” dogma that’s now standard in the universities, along with the “intersectional” network of so-called “oppressed” victim groups. There’s the fact that the idea of Israelis as victims can’t be allowed to get in the way of that “colonialist oppressor” narrative.

"These and more are valid reasons. Ultimately, however, this obsession defies rational explanation because it is a form of Jew-hatred — and that’s a pathology, a paranoid neurosis, a collective derangement that defies reason itself.

"In a thoughtful but provocative lecture last week at New York’s 92nd Street Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said that, since antisemitism is immune to rational engagement, diaspora Jews should stop trying to defeat it. Instead, they should concentrate on building and maintaining thriving Jewish communities devoted to instilling Jewish knowledge and culture among their young.

"Building up Jewish identity and peoplehood is indeed absolutely critical. However, that’s no reason to abandon the fight against the madness engulfing the West.

"First, Jews have a duty to bear witness against such a monstrosity and to stand up for truth and justice. Second, it’s wrong to cast the issue as antisemitism. While anti-Jewish feeling is certainly at its core, it expresses itself through anti-Zionism. And this has gained such traction because it uses claims that purport to be observable facts.

"Even though these are wildly distorted and false, they derive from actual events, such as the war in Gaza, which gives these claims a level of plausibility. That has persuaded many who are not antisemites to believe them as true, and therefore to hate Israelis and Zionism.

"Those lies can and should be fought. Indeed, anti-Zionism is an evil in itself and should be attacked as such.

"It is bizarre and wrong to single out one country for double standards — to demonise it alone by wall-to-wall lies and distortions, to deny to one people alone the right to their own ancestral homeland. Anti-Zionism should be fought as a form of bigotry in itself.

"But while there are good reasons for not publicly identifying this onslaught as antisemitism, the fact remains that bigotry against a country doesn’t have the same level of evil as bigotry against a people — and this bigotry only happens over Jews.

"We need to face squarely what we’re up against. Jew-hatred isn’t just another kind of prejudice or racism. It’s a unique desire to rid the world of a people because their very existence is felt to be unbearable.

"Such haters don’t think Jews are victims because they don’t behave as victims. They are instead conspicuously successful. This inspires resentment and jealousy among Westerners, who therefore think claims of antisemitism and Jewish victimisation must be a Jewish scam to sanitise Jewish wrongdoing.

"And the really terrible reason that the murderous attacks on Jews incite and inspire such Westerners to double down with calls for more attacks on Jews is that, like the Islamists, they believe they’re now within sight of their goal to get rid of the “Jewish problem” once and for all.

"They treat as gospel what’s said by the entire global humanitarian establishment that has framed the demonisation of Israel and dehumanisation of Zionists as “anti-racism,” and has cast Israel and its supporters as pariahs. They hear no push-back whatever from the lily-livered liberals and revolutionary fellow-travellers that form the governments of Britain and France, Canada and Australia.

"Hypocritically wringing their hands about Bondi, Manchester and October 7 —and professing falsely that there’s no place for antisemitism in their own countries while doing nothing to stop it — these governments parrot propaganda that incites hatred of Israel, and have given way to Islamist intimidation and cultural creep at home.

"So Jew-haters think their time has come. If they now pile in to kick the Jews in the gut when they’re down and vulnerable, they may get rid of them altogether from their heads, their conscience and their world.

"In other words, the Jews are facing a cultural war against them. The proper response to such a war is not to give up or deflect it. It is to fight back better."

There's Something Wrong When Supporting I.C.E. Has Become a Punishable Offense

This is from John Hinderaker at Powerline, and it should anger everyone. It's been happening often, and it's nothing more than McCarthyism by the anti-I.C.E./pro-criminal left.

------------------------------------------------

How Low We Have Sunk

"The world is indeed turned upside down, or at least the United States is. Consider this story from Northern California:

"A Northern California school placed a teaching intern on leave for celebrating US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Facebook comment as a mob of angry locals threatened to damage her property.

"Sarai Jimenez, a special education teaching intern at MacQuiddy Elementary in Watsonville, endorsed the presence of ICE officers in her town in a comment on the social network last month.

“Yay!!! We need ICE in Watsonville!! It’s been getting out of hand,” Jimenez wrote.

"So a teaching intern expressed support, not for criminals, but for law enforcement. And it got her dismissed from her position. Supporting the rule of law isn’t just optional in this district, it is prohibited:

"Parents in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, where 84% of students are Latino, expressed outrage at Jimenez’s support for ICE.

“You can’t just tell the world how you feel and not expect repercussions from people because of how they feel about ICE,” local father Jorge Guerrero told Lookout.

"Even if “how you feel” is supportive of our nation’s laws.

"MacQuiddy Elementary Principal Sara Pearman said Jimenez’s comment “does not reflect the values” of the school or district.

"She told families that the school is looking for a long-term substitute for Jimenez.

"So the “values” of the school district explicitly include lawbreaking, and supporting lawbreakers.

"How did we get to this pass? And what is the path forward? Honestly, I think it is hard to see how those of us who support the rule of law can continue to share a country with those who do not–a group that now numbers close to half of our population. What possible basis for a common citizenship is there, between us and them? I don’t think there is one."