Nothing else needs saying, except this is just one colossal iceberg off the coast of Ilulissat, Greenland, among hundreds of others breaking off or calving at alarming rates over the last 10-20 years. This particular iceberg moved into Disko Bay, Greenland, after fracturing, melting and then became small enough to literally flip, doing a somersault and creating massive waves as it broke apart due to Climate Change.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is also covered in one of the earth’s two ice sheets. The other cloaks Antarctica. Greenland’s encompasses around 80 percent of the nation’s land mass, spanning more than 650,000 square miles. But it’s also melting at an accelerating rate due to climate change, losing an annual average of 261 gigatonnes—one gigatonne is equivalent to 2.2 trillion pounds—contributing to rising sea levels that impact the rest of the world. And Greenland’s massive icebergs are a reminder of this exceptional scale. Once the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland erode past a specific amount of square miles, a point the Earth is reaching rapidly—unless the remaining superpower nations like the United States do more, A LOT MORE—the planet can no longer be saved. Most life as we know it, such as humans and most animals on land and in the seas, will perish. Us, we, and they will indeed go extinct. Guaranteed.
When 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2016, the Copernicus Climate Change Service estimated that Earth would reach the 1.5 degrees threshold by 2042. But now, the European organization’s global temperature trend monitor predicts that Earth will hit 1.5 degrees Celsius in warming by 2029—just three years from now. No one country is doing enough, period. But for 2026 what 10 nations are doing the most to slow Climate Change?
Denmark — Overall score: 80.52
United Kingdom — Overall score: 70.8
Morocco — Overall score: 70.75
Chile — Overall score: 70.63
Luxembourg — Overall score: 70.45
Lithuania — Overall score: 70.3
Netherlands — Overall score: 67.27
Norway — Overall score: 66.83
Portugal — Overall score: 66.05
Sweden — Overall score: 64.91
Want to know where the United States ranks? Are you sitting down? The USA is #65 and dropping as of August 5, 2026, at 12:07pm CST (-5 hrs UTC).
Civilization must, I repeat MUST get off and stop burning fossil fuels and other gases and minerals causing Global Warming. It is so much worse than first predicted 40-60 years ago! What are you doing about it at home? What are you doing about Climate Change in your neighborhood, community, town, city, or state? What are you making your elected government officials address, and take action, not just hear their repeated lip-service?
Here’s the outlook, it’s bleak, very bleak if we continue with business-as-usual:
Not only will you, your spouse or partner suffer greatly from every imaginable disaster possible, severe food shortages, empty grocery stores, increased extreme temperatures, increased draughts more prolonged, increased flooding, more 1,000-year and 100-year Category 4 and 5 (and 6?) storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes… but your own children, nieces, nephews, cousins, siblings, parents(?), and best friends, followed by your grandchildren and all of their relatives, will begin to die off from a wide variety of health issues, disease, malnutrition, and other problems yet unknown!
Doing nothing or very, very little, and too slowly has just ONE outcome for us all. It isn’t rocket science.
Yes, here we go again, just like in July 2025, but worse and faster. Some of you may have heard on national news broadcasts on July 16-18, 2026, that we here in Kerrville, Texas, and the Hill Country area once again experienced massive thunder showers from south of Center Point, Texas, up to Ingram, Hunt, Mountain Home, to south of Harper, Texas, and once again we suffered cataclysmic rainstorms and thunderstorms throughout the wee-hours of July 16, almost a year to the date of the major flooding here that took 139 lives, 117 of them just in Kerr County including the young girls at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. So far this catastrophic flooding has taken 2 lives. What was this caused by? Was it the same weather event that happened July 4, 2026: a mesoscale convective vortex with enhanced tropical moisture? Yes, it was.
This highly unusual weather event only started last year, in 2025. In contrast, historically speaking, this sort of major flooding only happened rarely, on average about 20-40 years apart or more, if at all. Suddenly, it seems to be happening on a more regular basis. How can I say that? My Mom and her new second husband moved to Kerrville in 1997. I have been coming here to visit several times a year since then with my ex-wife and our two children. And of course, Mom and I would talk quite often on the phone when I was living up in Dallas, TX. That is practically 30-years for Mom and off-and-on for me. I am very, very familiar with the weather trends here in the Texas Hill Country. It was something my Mom’s generation often chatted about to people: how’s the weather(?), etc. They enjoyed talking about it frequently and Mom wouldn’t spare me the semi-trivial details. Therefore, I am practically a 3-decade encyclopedia of Kerrville weather trends since 1997. I also study historical data tables because just like the U.S. Stock Exchange, trends are significant for learning probabilities and possibilities… staying one-half step or a full step ahead of the game.
That said, Mom, her new second husband, and myself, knew what severe weather events can cause in Kerrville and the surrounding Hill Country. During those extreme storms Mom and Lloyd (husband) were sometimes locked in to their residential neighborhood sitting at the top of one of the highest hills in Kerr County, in Shalako Estates off Goat Creek Road or FM 1338. Goat Creek often flooded and was to high and powerful for them to exit the little spillway out of Shalako Estates.
Here is drone footage of the devastation at Buckhorn RV & Lake Resort close to us and caused by the early morning rise of surrounding creeks feeding into the Guadalupe River:
This same extreme creek-water rise to deadly rushing, powerful water carrying away even several (many?) White-tail Deer with it as well as cars, trucks, and RVs, all the way into the Guadalupe River is about 2.5-miles down FM 1338 and Goat Creek, south into the river. This low-ground toward the Guadalupe River runs under Junction Hwy or TX Hwy 27 only about 400-500 feet from our property. Here’s what it looked like at approximately 4:30am CST from a motorist on Junction Hwy/TX 27 right at the Mexican restaurant Taqueria Jalisco that has the bright neon sign at the entrance. Apologies if you are unable to view it; it was a private citizen on the spot atop his vehicle with his personal cell phone recording live:
Now, two years back-to-back (2025–2026) of extreme, deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country and Kerr County isn’t quite a frequent trend, yet. We’ve had our share of severe deadly floods going back many decades. However, the difference of those in past compared to now are different, significantly different in the meteorological systems then and now. What has changed are the upward trending weather systems of mesoscale convective vortexes that simply sit or stall in this part of Central Texas dumping upward of 7-10 inches or more of heavy rain in a matter of one hour, or one-and-a-half hours. Historically in previous flooding years in Kerrville the cause was 3-7 days and nights of rainfall, much more time for residents to prepare, evacuate, and get to higher ground. In July 2025 and again this July 16, 2026 that was not the case. One is a fool if you only look with horse-blinders on and conclude, ‘It was a rare phenomena that randomly happens. A one- or two-off.’ No. These sort of extreme weather events are happening not only across the United States, but around the globe. The evidence is piling up and piling up fast!
According to the Hays Trinity Conservation District (HTCD) and the NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System at Drought.gov over the last two decades in Texas, Central Texas Hill Country specifically, this area has experienced increase “weather whiplashes,” defined by NOAA as severe, alternating swings between intense droughts and catastrophic “1,000-year” flash floods compounded by a steady, long-term rise in baseline temperatures. The HTCD further reports:
Key Climate Trends (2006-2026)
Warming Temperatures: The Hill Country has seen its warmest summers and mildest winters on record, with average temperatures trending roughly 1.5 to 3 degrees warmer than mid-20th century averages. [citation]
Precipitation Volatility: Annual rainfall totals remain unreliable, but the intensity of rainfall events has increased. Federal precipitation models updated in recent years reflect a 30% to 40% increase in benchmark extreme rainfall estimates for the region just west of San Antonio. [citation]
Weather Extremes: The region is frequently pinned between prolonged La Niña-induced droughts (most notably 2011–2015 and subsequent mid-2020s dry spells) and record-breaking floods, such as the catastrophic Guadalupe River floods. [citation]
If there is just one or two things that I have learned in my many years in Kerrville, Texas, going back to 1997–to the present, and learned from my late mother it is this: everything here in Kerrville, and the Texas Hill Country is much more extreme than it was on average back in the late 1990’s, the 2000’s and up to now. Temperatures are noticeably more extreme, the wind and wind gusts are definitely more extreme—my outdoor plants and herb garden bare witness to the destruction—reaching some days up to 30-40mph! This has increasingly reeked havoc on my allergies and sinus problems. 🤧🤨 Of course the extremes in rainfall, or no rainfall, for extended weeks or months are noticeably more unstable, the UV indices are noticeably way up with more frequent UV warnings for outdoor activities.
And as a herb grower and small gardener what I’ve noticed every summer (July-to-mid-September) going back to 2020… the insects are very bad. The huge grasshoppers that feed on just about anything a gardener grows, aphids are on a significant rise every summer due to fewer and fewer ladybugs, beetles and other natural predators, and lastly but not conclusively, more and more weird fungi/bacteria on and in soils, then flies, mosquitos, and all the pesty insects that winter temps or freezes would typically reduce their numbers. They too are on the rise due to our (and the world’s) shorter and shorter winters. The tangible accumulating evidence has become overwhelming with each passing year.
But very sadly and worse still, the superpower and semi-superpower nations such as China, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, South Asiatic nations, many Eastern European nations, and the United States are still failing to do enough to slow Global Warming and Climate Change caused primarily by fossil fuel burning/consumption, rising CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane gas), N2O (nitrous oxide), fluorinated gases, then other less heating atmospheric gases, much less stabilize it by 2030 or 2050 from the point-of-no-return tipping point. I don’t know about where you may live and have lived for many years, but here in Texas where I’ve lived most of my life—the now super hardcore Red state where environmental regulations and Climate Change movements and/or policies are essentially non-existent—it is getting worse while most Texans just go on daily with their busy lives, redundant lives of working, spending-consuming, all in an invisible bubble around family, coworkers, and friends, not paying any attention to how Earth is changing.
Here in Red State Texas we are all just huge, obese bull-headed-frogs relaxing in the pot of gradually boiling water as if nothing is happening or has happened. Meanwhile, our elected officials just keep drawing a salary and pension for doing just enoughor less to keep the economy as one of the best in the entire Union; money, money, money! Spend, spend, spend!
What a sad, sad condition we will leave this Earth for our young children, grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren. 😢
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always – Do It Better Fast!
Yes, Earth has received a laser-beam signal from 8-billion light-years away! Who sent it? Or what sent the signal? How did it hit the MeerKAT Telescope array at the North Cape in South Africa and more astonishing it stayed needle-sharp for 4.7 hours!? That signal was with such extreme clarity from a hyper-extreme range that it puzzled scientists hinting that something else unusual was involved. It had to be because when the laser-signal originated at that distance, Earth was not even in existence! What was going on? What had gone on that long ago? Has extra-terrestrial life made contact with us?
The mega-maser coming from HATLAS J142935.3–002836 was detected by the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which is made up of 64 linked radar dishes. Credit: CSARAO/MeerKAT
Don’t jump to any conclusions yet. The Cosmos is our endless treasure trove of splendid weirdness and mind-boggling phenomena. It always challenges us and/or rewrites what we once thought was understood. Were we contacted, or was it something else?
After more extensive examination scientists determined that it was a hydroxyl megamaser which is a natural microwave amplifier triggered by two galaxies slamming together. Imagine our own Milky Way slamming into Andromeda, the nearest galaxy to us. In fact, cosmologists, astrophysicists, astronomers, etc., want to rename or make a new category for the phenomena called gigamaser. What is a megamaser or gigamaser?
“The word maser stands for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. It works like a laser but sends out radio waves instead of visible light. When galaxies collide, they crush vast clouds of gas into tight, turbulent pockets. Inside those pockets, molecules called hydroxyl—simple oxygen-hydrogen pairs—soak up energy from the crash.
As radiation passes through this excited gas, the hydroxyl molecules release additional photons at exactly the same wavelength and direction. The beam gets stronger. For this system, designated HATLAS J142935.3–002836, the signal arrived at roughly 18 centimeters in wavelength, near 1667 and 1665 MHz. Those are the standard lines astronomers search for when hunting hydroxyl masers.”
HATLAS J142935.3–002836 is only visible to us thanks to a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. These 2014 images, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope (right), show a partial “Einstein ring” of magnified light from the distant galaxy merger. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/NASA/ESA/W. M. Keck Observatory
What happens when a host galaxy looks distorted and stretched to astronomers and other scientists?
“That is the telltale mark of gravitational lensing. A massive foreground galaxy sits almost exactly between Earth and the distant merger. Its gravity bends the fabric of space, acting like a natural magnifying glass that redirects more of the background signal toward us.
This effect does not create new light. It simply focuses what is already there. The lensing boost explains why a source at redshift z = 1.027 stayed detectable. Previous hydroxyl surveys had only reached redshifts around z = 0.25, much closer to Earth in cosmic terms.“
Illustration of the distant galaxy 8 billion light-years away (red), magnified by an unrelated foreground disk galaxy, resulting in a red ring. Credit: Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA).
“The crash itself supplies the raw power. Smashing galaxies churn gas into dense regions where molecules build up and collide. Those conditions energize the hydroxyl into the state required for maser action. Earlier studies of the same system show signs of rapid star formation, exactly what you would expect from a merger burning through its fuel.”
In some 4.5 billion years our Milky Way galaxy will indeed collide, crash into the Andromeda galaxy—the gravitational pull is too great for us to escape it. It is already happening. When they do crash together it will form a new, giant elliptical galaxy, often nicknamed by scientists “Milkdromeda“. Here is a computer simulation of what that collision might look like from the outside of both galaxies… perhaps to another distant civilization monitoring their outer-space with highly advanced instruments:
Wow, talk about a non-stop fireworks show in the celestial night sky! Unless of course Earth is hit, wounded, or obliterated, vaporized. Yikes. 😧😬
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
Over the Easter, or Ēostre weekend I have often written about all those religious theological fallacies and rampant mistakes within Christendom that the ancient Greco-Roman Catholic Church covered up, changed, edited, omitted, etc., from the 1st-century CE Jewish reformer Yeshua bar Yosef and then passed down to 21st-century Protestant followers, churches, and seminaries. But this time I am going to skip all that. Why? Because verifiable, authentic history never changes. Why beat a dead horse into oblivion? Faith-followers will either be objective or not, equitable or not, brave and open-minded or not, or worse scared to death, or not. C’est la vie. 🤷♂️
No, today I want to write about things that really matter, pun intended. I want to share and comment on a few science subjects, in particular Earth’s physical status—another disruptive affect of Climate Change that is becoming disturbingly obvious—DNA sequencing discoveries, as well as recent atomic findings such as Quantum Entanglement.
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
Have any of you noticed that the days on Earth are getting longer now? Yes, it is factually true. You might ask, How is that possible? Believe it or not, Climate Change or a warming planet is contributing to a slower rotation of Earth. Scientists say that this slower rotation has not been seen for at least 3.6-million years. Many decades ago, perhaps century ago, earlier research established an increasingly warming planet affects sea levels and consequently, Earth’s rotation on its axis. However, this change is in a geological context. Geodesist Professor Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, states:
“This rapid increase in day length implies that the rate of modern climate change has been unprecedented at least since the late Pliocene, 3.6 million years ago. The current rapid rise in day length can thus be attributed primarily to human influences.
By the end of the 21st century, climate change is expected to affect day length even more strongly than the Moon. Even though the changes are only milliseconds, they can cause problems in many areas, for example in precise space navigation, which requires accurate information on Earth’s rotation.”
One of Soja’s colleagues, Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi of the University of Vienna, explains that the effect is similar to a figure skater spinning more slowly after extending their arms. This is simple high school Physics 101. Ice sheets and glaciers across the planet are more dense and therefore heavier; a slower rotating Earth. However, a warm planet and much warmer seas are less dense, thinner, molecularly more active so less weight has less gravity which means a faster rotating Earth. Despite the simple physics though, what has been uncertain or never before seen was whether or not climate had ever lengthened the day this quickly before. To answer that puzzling question, the research team reconstructed changes in Earth’s day-length going back millions of years.
Relying on fossilized remains of benthic foraminifera, i.e. single-celled marine organisms that preserve chemical signals of past ocean conditions. This method of study, like polar ice-cores, has proven to be highly revealing of Earth’s climate history for many of her past millennia. First, by analyzing these fossils, scientists were able to infer ancient historical sea-level fluctuations and calculate how those shifts would have affected Earth’s rotation. Second, the researchers then applied a type of deep learning algorithm to their findings, designed to reflect sea-level change while accounting for the uncertainty that comes with ancient climate data.
“From the chemical composition of the foraminifera fossils, we can infer sea-level fluctuations and then mathematically derive the corresponding changes in day length,” Kiani Shahvandi said. “This model captures the physics of sea-level change, while remaining robust to the large uncertainties inherent in paleoclimate data.”
These findings strongly suggest that Earth’s day-length has varied significantly over the last 2.6-million years, in particular during the Quaternary Period, when large continental ice sheets repeatedly grew and melted. Those ice-driven sea-level changes caused Earth’s rotation to speed up or slow down in different eras of Earth’s history.
However, that said, scientists have found that today’s increase in day length is exceptional. More specifically, they found only one period, around two million years ago, showed a rate of change that came close to present-day levels, and even that episode was slightly slower than what has been observed between 2000 and 2020. This only leads scientists to one most plausible conclusion: the current climate trend reflects a broader pattern of unusually rapid climate and oceanic change. And these scientists predict that by the end of the 21st-century accelerated climate-driven domino effects on our length of days could surpass the gravitational pull or slowing by our Moon. In other words, the further ripple-effects upon Earth will be catastrophic.
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
Through the methodology of DNA Sequencing paleoanthropologists and geneticists have discovered that the last known remaining Neanderthals stayed totally isolated from other human groups, including Homo sapiens as well as Neanderthals nearby, which alters human history.
Researchers used part of a root of one of Thorin’s molars to determine that he was male and to generate a whole-genome sequence, revealing that he was part of an isolated, previously unknown lineage of Neanderthals. (Image credit: Ludovik Slimak)
Ludovic Slimak, the paleoanthropologist who made the remarkable discovery at Grotte Mandrin, a cave in Rhône Valley, France, had the jaw bone of Thorinanalyzed by geneticists and then sequenced showed that Thorin’s lineage managed to stay totally isolated from the rest of the Neanderthal population, “in spite of the fact that other human groups lived close by.” Slimak goes on to say:
“The population of Thorin had spent 50 millennia without exchanging a single gene with the classical Neanderthal populations.” The analysis showed that Thorin had “high genetic homozygosity,” which indicates inbreeding in the lineage’s recent past. It also offers no evidence of interbreeding with modern humans of the time.”
With this discovery everything about the Neanderthals and their extinction, and by default human history must now be rewritten. Also, with this discovery it further proves that diversity among human populations is highly advantageous if not simply for better immune systems. And those groups of inclusive only religious populations—not marrying or procreating outside of a specific faith—is known to be highly risky and disadvantageous for retardations, weaker immune systems, and higher survivability rates.
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
At the Australian National University Research School of Physics, tangibly observed for the first time a pair of atoms existing in two different places simultaneously, i.e. at the exact same time known as Quantum Entanglement. Quantum physicists at ANU said, “It’s really weird for us to think that this is how the universe works. You can read about it in a textbook, but it’s really weird to think that a particle can be in two places at once” when you see it with your own eyes on atomic instruments, says Dr. Sean Hodgman.
Dr. Hodgman goes on to say, “This result confirms the predictions of over a century ago that matter can be in two locations at once, and it can interfere with itself even in those locations.” This means massive, better knowledge of examining how small-scale Quantum Mechanics interact with gravity and General Relativity at the universal scale. This means physicists are one step closer to the “Theory of Everything.” It isn’t as unknown anymore.
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
In an earlier blog-post, A Cure is Here, I wrote with much hope and gratitude about Dr. Jim Allison’s breakthrough discoveries and treatment for cancerous tumors by freeing our body’s T-cells to attack and kill cancer cells. For this accomplishment Dr. Allison was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Now those same T-cells and Helper T-cells are known to target the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Regrettably and remarkably there is a large portion of the American population who refuse to acknowledge the benefits and progressive advancements in medical science. In many cases, their disdain is over most all the sciences such as Earth science, geology, astronomy, oceanography, meteorology or climatology, geophysics, and the list goes on and on with their flawed reasons. They simply don’t trust (or understand?) humanity’s science advancements. That portion of the U.S. population would much rather delusionally exist in the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Ancient History of mythology, legends, fairy-tales, and ancient Abrahamic traditions of religion and prayer while trying to follow a highly erroneous Greek Septuagint, or Holy Bible. These faith-followers would and do discount or discard humanity’s accomplished sciences that save millions of lives. Why? What scares religious followers so much when it comes to proven, scientific truths and facts, the sciences and their equitable and endless examination of life’s fluid laws?
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
During the world pandemic of COVID-19 there surfaced a group of people (anti-vaxxers) who refused to get any vaccination or booster to combat the highly contagious COVID virus. They blindly believed the incomplete or completely bogus misinformation campaign over social media and then U.S. President Trump that one does not require the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to increase one’s odds of survival against COVID. In fact, the U.S. President even went so far as to claim that injecting Clorox bleach or disinfectant would eliminate the virus. Yes, I kid you not! 😧
Now for the actual scientific facts regarding the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations and follow-up boosters from real medical scientists and epidemiologists.
Vaccine Safety:
No increased all-cause mortality risk: Multiple studies, including a massive four-year French study of 28 million adults, found that vaccinated individuals were no more likely to die from any cause than unvaccinated individuals. In fact, vaccinated people had a lower overall mortality rate.
Specific adverse events are very rare: Rare cases of serious adverse events like myocarditis (heart inflammation) and anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) have been observed, but most patients recover, and an increased risk of death from these conditions due to the vaccine has not been established in large studies.
Comparison to COVID-19 Risk: The risk of death from the COVID-19 virus is vastly higher than any risk associated with the vaccine.
Studies show that people who received the COVID-19 vaccine were 74% less likely to die from severe COVID-19 compared to those who were unvaccinated.
One life was estimated to be averted for every 5,400 vaccine doses administered globally between December 2020 and October 2024.
In one Utah study, COVID-19 was the cause of death in 27.2% of unvaccinated deaths in 2021, compared to only 4.2% of deaths among the vaccinated population in the same year.
The mortality rate of deaths following the COVID-19 vaccinations was extremely minimal and rare, near non-existent among 8.2 million of the national population. The conclusion reached by the National Library of Medicine was “The benefits of COVID-19 vaccines far outweigh the potential risks in older frail populations, and our findings do not support actions to exclude older adults from being vaccinated.” And one must remember that there are far more other risks in daily life that claim lives, e.g. vehicular accidents, medical preconditions such as heart disease or cancer, combat in war zones, Alzheimer’s Disease, or diabetes or many other causes of death not related to COVID-19 infection. Fact. Truth. And yet…
Mandy Brown above was a Jesus-faith-based Children’s Hospital Dallas nurse who rapidly suffered and died from the COVID-19 virus after being diagnosed with it a 3-4 days earlier. She and her spouse and family did not believe in the very real effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations. This is also the case with many other viruses and diseases, all of which protect us from permanent impairment, disabilities, or death.
For Mandy Brown, out of her fear and religious “convictions,” died as a result of her “faith.” As a consequence by her ignorance the widowed husband and her family would not publicly admit their unfounded fears and why theologically Brown chose an anti-vaccination stance. But for the Browns the truth soon came out. She and her family attended an evangelical-fundamentalist church in east Texas that believed much more in prayer than medical science and survival. It begs the question, doesn’t God or Yahweh or Allah provide His dominion of medical advancement in epidemiology and medicine? After all, didn’t their Creator create their brains of intelligence to utilize medical sciences and vaccinations?
Measles rash shown on a young boy’s arm, 2025
After reaching a 30-year high in cases last year, measles is soaring again in 2026. In 2025, 2,267 measles cases were reported nationwide, the highest annual count in more than three decades. By February 19, 2026, already 982 confirmed measles cases were reported according to the CDC. Many of these confirmed cases this year stem from outbreaks in 2025. Why is a virus such as measles, that was once contained or near unheard of 20-25 years ago, returning with such high numbers and outbreaks?
Measles is a highly contagious virus, worse than COVID-19. UCLA Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA along with Dr. Sanchi Malhotra, M.D., medical director of pediatric infection prevention for UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and a professor in the division of pediatric infectious diseases, all report:
Like COVID-19, measles spreads through airborne particles. But measles is six times more contagious, she says. One person infected with measles can infect up to 18 others in an unvaccinated population. With COVID-19, that rate was one to three. Furthermore, when someone with measles leaves a room, the room remains infectious for two hours as airborne particles continue to circulate.
The best way to prevent measles is through vaccination. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, an estimated 3 to 4 million people in the U.S. were infected each year, 48,000 were hospitalized annually and 400 to 500 people died, according to the CDC. Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine are 97% effective at preventing infection, it says.
“The measles vaccine is incredibly safe and effective,” Dr. Malhotra says.
And yet, medical science in virology and epidemiology had proven back in the late 1950’s and 1963 when the vaccine was widely available to infants and toddlers, that the measles vaccine was 97% effective at preventing infection—the 3% had further health and immunity complications making the infection worse and the measle vaccine less effective.
Knowing this proven virology and epidemiology research and the very effective, successful measles vaccine, why are their increasing spikes in measles cases and deaths of American children? Answer:anti-vaxxers, disinformation by anti-vaxx groups, most of them religious-based, i.e. Christian fundamentalists and energized evangelicals, and their unfounded distrust in proven science. For more factual information go to this PublicHealth.org website:
A final summation. Everything on Earth and every day here is to some degree a legitimate unknown risk. Life is messy. Mistakes are made. Many, many things about this existence is imperfect, sometimes grossly imperfect. And we can’t know what we genuinely do not know. We rarely know what the near future holds for each of us, much less the distant future, right?
Neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman in the PBS documentary, The Brain
However, we can recognize and comprehend a day, a week or two in advance what will likely occur, or may not occur, in our immediate and extended social circles based on our learned accumulated experiences, our education levels (or lack thereof) both broad and specialized, and our environments or interactions with life on a macro level and micro level. This field is known as Agnotology. I wrote a 4-part blog-series on this field of study, “Games of Unknowledging,” or ignorance and excessive doubt. It is an enthralling field of science! If you have time I do recommend the series to better understand the depth, the intent of what I write here.
What is made clear from this scientific field is that our brains, perceptions, interpretations, extrapolations, interpolations, where we were born, where we were raised and by whom, and our belief system (religious or otherwise) are all quite biased. And they are biased like tunnel-vision or horse-blinders that we sometimes/often can’t realize it or acknowledge it. The good news is that we can reset this default mode so as not to be so ignorant and doubting, afraid of life that is in some/many ways paralyzes us mentally, emotionally, or physically.
Neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman did a remarkable PBS documentary on this subject called “The Brain with David Eagleman” that examines and explores our most newest discoveries on how our brains grow and function from infant, to adolescence, to adult, and finally into our geriatric years. This PBS documentary I highly recommend watching as well.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” — Stephen Hawking
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
The Professor's Convatorium 