内容摘要：For many, there is little they can do as they now wait for the fallout from the move.

For many, there is little they can do as they now wait for the fallout from the move.

An aerial view of Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Silva Rey)Mexico considered measles eliminated in 1998. But its vaccination rate against the virus was around 76% as of 2023, according to the World Health Organization — a dip from previous years and well below the 95% rate experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks.

Mexico’s current outbreak began in March. Officials traced it to an 8-year-old unvaccinated Mennonite boy who visited relatives in Seminole, Texas — at the center of the U.S. outbreak.Cases rapidly spread through Chihuahua’s 46,000-strong Mennonite community via schools and churches, according to religious and health leaders. From there, they said, it spread to workers in orchards and cheese plants.Farm worker Fernando Pedro Cruz Vencinos tends to an apple orchard in a Mennonite community, the epicenter of a measles outbreak, in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, Mexico, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)

Farm worker Fernando Pedro Cruz Vencinos tends to an apple orchard in a Mennonite community, the epicenter of a measles outbreak, in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, Mexico, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)Gloria Elizabeth Vega, an Indigenous Raramuri woman and single mother, fell sick in March. Because she’s vaccinated, measles didn’t occur to her until she broke out in hives. Her supervisor at the cheese factory — who also caught measles — told her she had to take 10 days of leave and docked her pay 40% for the week, Vega said.

It’s rare for vaccinated people to get measles, but officials say that may account for up to 10% of cases here, though they’re milder.

Vega tucked herself away in the back of her two-room home, hoping her daughter and mother — also vaccinated — wouldn’t get sick. She wishes people would think of others when considering vaccination.“Nervous and excited,” the 31-year-old replied. “As it comes closer, I worry: Am I going to be able to cope with the pain?”

“It’s normal to feel nervous,” Brown assured her. “You want to be open to the entire process. You got this. You can do it!”Brown said she’s constantly awed by her patients’ strength. She recalled a teen just out of jail who overcame addiction and wound up giving birth vaginally without pain medication.

Joseph has no intention of returning to Europe. She has started a midwifery school, put together training programs for other health care professionals and convenes a national group of professionals and advocates who share ideas to improve maternal health and eliminate disparities over videoconference.She figures America needs her more.