In the oil towns of west Texas a measles outbreak is spreading. At least 58 people have been infected and 13 are in hospital, the biggest surge in Texas in 30 years. Health officials reckon hundreds more cases have yet to be detected. Gaines County, where the flare-up began, had the state’s third-highest share of children exempt from measles and other vaccines for religious or philosophical reasons last year. In the decade to 2023 the rate of schoolchildren without the recommended jabs there more than doubled, from 7% to 18%.