Measles killed a 7-month-old in New York's North Country

On Sunday, Nov. 1, a 7-month-old boy died of measles at home in Denmark, a town in Lewis County, up in New York's North Country. The county coroner told The New York Times the boy was unvaccinated and his family is Amish. On Monday the state called it New York's first measles death in more than 30 years.

Babies usually get their first measles shot at 12 to 15 months. In an outbreak, as state health commissioner Dr. James McDonald put it, "the first dose of vaccine gets pushed up to 6 months of age." Lewis County now has 16 cases, all unvaccinated. The national count, 4,852, is the highest since 1991. Kindergarten coverage has slipped from 95.2% to 92.4% since 2019, a slide that reaches far beyond any Amish farm.

Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke Monday evening. She began as "a mother and grandmother" and ended by calling the death "a devastating reminder of what's at stake when Washington deliberately erodes decades of progress." The federal health department answered on Tuesday with condolences and a reminder that Secretary Kennedy calls the vaccine "the most effective way to prevent measles." Within a day, a boy's death had become a round in the state's fight with Washington.

Paul knew how fast that happens. He was writing to churches in Galatia, in what is now Turkey, that were split over whether believers had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. He defended their freedom and took none of it back. Then, two verses after telling them to use it to serve one another, he warned them where a fight about freedom goes:

Galatians 5:15But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don't consume one another.

A fight like that will step right over the person it is supposed to be about.

Measles in New York has long been an argument about exemptions, fines and federal policy. Now there is a grave, and the argument rolled on over it. Paul's warning is also practical. Researchers say Amish wariness of vaccines comes mostly from family tradition and distrust of modern medicine, rather than any rule of the faith. Trust is what moves it. A community that hears its loss turned into a talking point has one more reason to stop listening.

The family is owed something before any argument. When Job lost his children, three friends came and did the best thing they do in the whole book:

Job 2:13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

After that week they started talking, and got nearly everything wrong. Lewis County's health office has asked for "compassion and respect for the family's privacy," and serving this family starts there.

There are other babies in Lewis County tonight, and none of them can ask for a shot or for a truce. Whatever shelter they have, the grown-ups around them decide, at home and in Albany and in Washington. Paul's warning is that those grown-ups can spend their freedom biting one another while the babies wait.