Anti-abortion protesters who travelled to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life ended up at a measles super spreader-event, according to health officials.
Thousands of pro-lifers came for the Jan. 23 march and concert at the National Mall and now the D.C. Department of Health has reported multiple cases of the potentially fatal disease reported in the weeks after, The New Republic reported.
“The march is a big event for religious conservatives, this year attracting politicians such as Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Republican Representative Chris Smith,” according to The New Republic. “Many on the right oppose vaccination, with some citing religious reasons, making the march a possible hotbed of measles infections.”
The U.S. has two ongoing major outbreaks, including one in South Carolina, where the state has the largest outbreak in America since 2000 and another in Texas, which prompted an ICE family detention center last week to go under lockdown.
Health officials have said the March for Life measles outbreak could have spread through different transit areas, such as Ronald Reagan National Airport and Union Station. Of the reported people infected, they also visited Catholic University of America and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
“DC Health was notified of multiple confirmed cases of measles whose carriers visited multiple locations in the District while contagious,” the department said in a press release Sunday. “DC Health is informing people who were at these locations that they may have been exposed.”
Both South Carolina and Texas, the location of other measles outbreaks, “are Republican-run and home to countless anti-vaxxers,” The New Republic reported.
“The March for Life gathers people from right-wing areas all over America in one city, and it’s not shocking that an outbreak was the result. What is shocking is how much the Republicans in power right now are still undermining a return to widespread vaccination, leaving other public officials begging people to get vaccinated,” according to the outlet.
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