Last year, for St. Patrick’s Day, Prince William formally turned over his honorary position as colonel-in-chief of the Irish Guards. The position was handed over to his wife, the Princess of Wales. In turn, William took an honorary position with the Welsh Guards, because I guess the Prince of Wales can’t do f–k all for both the Welsh Guards AND the Irish Guards at the same time. In any case, Kate was always supposed to attend the St. Patrick’s Day shamrock ceremony with the Irish Guards, except for the time she skipped because she didn’t feel like it. Well, she’s obviously still recovering from her abdominal surgery this year, so the Irish Guards’ royal patron will be MIA. Weirdly, it doesn’t sound like they’re sending anyone in Kate’s place?

Recuperating at Windsor, the Princess of Wales, who is off duty until Easter, will not be able to down a Guinness while presenting shamrock to the Irish Guards on St Patrick’s Day. Just over a year ago Kate replaced William as their Royal Colonel. She hopes to be fit in June when No 9 Company troop the colour for the King.

A week earlier she is due to take the salute at the Colonel’s Review, the first female regimental colonel to do so since Princess Elizabeth in 1951.

[From The Daily Mail]

Notice how effortlessly they’ve pushed back Kate’s comeback – we’ve gone from “after Easter” to “maybe we’ll see her in June.” Last year, King Charles handed Kate several other military patronages, and none of those units will probably see her for a full year. While last year’s Irish Guards parade was widely criticized online, the whole shamrock ceremony is something cute which has been done by a senior royal woman for decades. It seems weird that they can’t or won’t just send Anne or Sophie or even Camilla for just one St. Patrick’s Day.

Meanwhile, Page Six had some lukewarm tea about how Kate’s surgery was a big surprise to her closest aides:

Kate Middleton is “thrilled” to be home with her children — after even her closest staff were kept in the dark about her major abdominal surgery. The Princess of Wales, 42, returned home to Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate Monday after two weeks in the hospital.

Even her closest aides did not know what exactly was wrong, sources told Page Six, as she and Prince William wanted to protect her privacy.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said Monday that the royal “is making good progress.” The Princess of Wales is said to be extremely glad to get home.

“But for a twist of fate and meeting William, friends often comment she’d likely have preferred a quieter countryside life,” said a source. “Family and bringing up her children is the most important thing to her.”

[From Page Six]

A quieter country life is what Pippa ended up getting – after spending the first years of her marriage in London, Pippa and Terribly Moderately Wealthy James moved into a palatial estate in Berkshire with plenty of room for live-in nannies. Kate really made a Faustian bargain for the ring. As for Kate’s closest aides being kept in the dark… I don’t even know anymore. Again, wherever Kate is, I hope she’s okay.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.

With King Charles, Prince William and the Princess of Wales all out of royal commission for one to five months, it was looking like Queen Camilla was being left in charge for a lengthy period of time. I still believe that Camilla is going to enjoy her little solo daily events for the next month, but the royal press isn’t looking forward to it. Which is why they’re desperate to convince themselves that everyone has been dying to see what Princess Anne and the Duchess of Edinburgh are up to. Anne and Sophie will also be out and about in the next month – although Sophie only seems to have one event on her calendar – but don’t expect to see much of Prince Edward. He’s either on strike or he just needed a break after jetting around the world with zero attention.

With the King temporarily out of action and the Princess of Wales laid up recovering from surgery, there was only one thing for it. The women of Windsor, as ever, have stepped up to the plate. The Queen, Princess Royal and Duchess of Edinburgh are to hold the fort for the coming week as the only senior members of the Royal family on public engagements.

The Queen will be out and about every day on visits, the details of which will be kept under wraps until her arrival for security reasons. Princess Anne, whose reputation as the hardest-working member of the Royal family precedes her, is doing two or three engagements on most days, travelling from London to Moray in Scotland, to Cardiff in Wales and then Wiltshire, Nottingham and back again. Close to her home in Windsor, the Duchess of Edinburgh will do one engagement in Surrey.

The unexpected royal matriarchy will end only on Feb 7, according to plans, when the 79-year-old Duke of Gloucester enters the fray, followed by the Duke of Edinburgh on the 8th. Prince Edward is taking a short break from public duties after his trips overseas in January to South Africa and St Helena.

The Princess of Wales was also discharged on Monday and is now at home in Windsor and reunited with her three children. She is not expected in public until Easter, with a long period of recuperation from abdominal surgery. She will be able to complete some of her work at home, closely following her Early Years project, but will not be making any in-person visits until at least April in a major change to the Royal calendar. The Prince of Wales is due to return to his own public engagements after taking time off to be by his wife’s bedside, but only once when she is settled at home.

The Duke of Sussex and Duke of York, who years ago would also have been undertaking royal duties and would have stepped in to fill the gaps left by the King and Princess, are no longer working members of the family.

[From The Telegraph]

Gee, is the Telegraph going to mention why Harry and Andrew are no longer working royals? So eager to lump them together, never eager to explain why! Andrew isn’t a working royal because he raped teenagers who were trafficked to him by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Harry, on the other hand, married a Black woman who was good at her royal job, and four years later, none of these people have ever recovered from it. As for Edward… it’s not a permanent hiatus, and most of these royals believe that they need a month’s rest after a few days abroad. Anyway, Anne sounds busy. Sophie does not. Camilla isn’t busy either – she’s doing busywork stuff like “visiting a dollhouse” and “dropping off her son’s watch at a repair shop.”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Chloe Sevigny is currently promoting Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, and she finally sat down for a Vogue “15 Looks” video. I genuinely enjoyed hearing her talk about the ‘90s and her quirky fashion. You can tell how much she cares about it. [OMG Blog]
I’m still not ready to talk about the Australian Open men’s final. [Socialite Life]
Keanu Reeves took relatively small salaries for the John Wick movies because he had a backend deal on the whole franchise. [JustJared]
Dev Patel directed himself in Monkey Man & it looks so good! [LaineyGossip]
Yeah, Jonathan Glazer has been a well-known music video & commercial director for a very long time. That Jamiroquai video! [Pajiba]
Funny tweets from women! [Buzzfeed]
Calista Flockhart’s suit game is very good. [GFY]
Oprah Winfrey turned 70 years old on Monday! [Hollywood Life]
What’s Stephen Amell up to? [Seriously OMG]
Louis Vuitton made their brand ambassador Ana de Armas fly to Australia just to present the trophy at the Australian Open. [RCFA]

Well, Rebecca English at the Daily Mail has an exclusive about the Princess of Wales’s discharge from the London Clinic and her return home to Adelaide Cottage. While I believe that all is not as it seems, the conspiracy theories have gotten crazier and crazier in the past two weeks. As I’ve said before, you really have to watch what the other Windsors are doing – they don’t seem panicked, they’re carrying on like usual, and the king and queen are even using Kensington Palace’s crisis-mismanagement to draw a very pointed and vivid contrast. Enter Becky English and her “exclusive.” Again, no one saw William or Kate anywhere near the London Clinic yesterday and the British media is just itching to talk about that. So English insists that William was there, at the hospital, and he picked up his wife around 11 am on Monday, hours before Charles and Camilla left the same hospital and managed to do a full photocall.

The Princess of Wales has been reunited with her three children for the first time in two weeks after finally leaving hospital. Kate, who is said by Kensington Palace to be ‘doing well’, left The London Clinic in Marylebone yesterday morning after being admitted for surgery on January 16. King Charles was also discharged yesterday after surgery for an enlarged prostate, with the two royals leaving the central London hospital within hours of each other.

The King has been advised to avoid public engagements for up to a month, although he will be working through his red boxes of state papers almost immediately. Kate, 42, is unlikely to be seen in public until after Easter.

The Mail can reveal that Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis were not taken to visit their mother in hospital after she recovered from what has been described as ‘abdominal surgery’. As her children would have been in school when she arrived back at her Windsor home, it is likely they would only have seen her for the first time when they returned to Adelaide Cottage later in the afternoon from Lambrook School, a ten-minute drive away. It will almost certainly be the longest period the Princess has been away from them.

It is understood that Prince William, who had cleared his diary to be by his wife’s side throughout, was at the hospital when she was discharged and is likely to have driven her home. It is thought the princess left through a private exit at around 11am in a car with her husband. Kensington Palace staff were seen leaving half an hour later, one with an arrangement of white orchids in their car.

Kate will now recuperate at home and her return to official duties will depend on medical advice closer to the time. It has been suggested she might not be able to undertake public duties until after Easter, meaning all planned engagements – including two foreign trips – have been cancelled, although aides hope they can be rearranged. It is understood William plans to restart public engagements once his wife is settled and recuperating at home, with further details to be announced. He has had help from the couple’s nanny, Maria Turrion Borrallo, and his in-laws, Michael and Carole Middleton, who will continue to lend a hand.

Kensington Palace said they will not discuss the princess’ condition any further and that it is her ‘wish’ for her personal medical information to remain private.

[From The Daily Mail]

From what I’ve seen, English is the only one firmly claiming that Kate absolutely checked out of the London Clinic yesterday and William absolutely picked her up. Given the number of photographers outside of the hospital and the number of times Queen Camilla was photographed entering and exiting the hospital over the weekend, I just find that so unlikely, but hey, what do I know. I’m not even entirely convinced that Kate is currently recuperating at Adelaide Cottage either. As I’ve said before, the absence of Carole and Michael Middleton at the hospital might be explained if Kate was already recovering somewhere else, and I would totally believe that Kate would rather recuperate at her parents’ house than at Adelaide Cottage. Wherever she is, I hope she’s safe and doing well.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

We should just sit back and relax and wait to see which British outlet is the first one to “break.” One of them has to do it – they can’t wait to do some more critical stories about Prince William, Kate and Kate’s mysterious health crisis. This might be the calm before the storm, where they’re laying it on thick about Prince William’s caretaking duties and how William will wait on Kate hand and foot:

Grant Harrold, a former royal butler, told the New York Post: “Like any family, it’s always wonderful when a loved one is able to come back home. I’m sure the kids are really excited to have Kate back. It will also be great for William, because when your partner or your loved one isn’t home, it leaves a void.”

Harrold, who served Charles for seven years when he was the Prince of Wales, believes William will no doubt be waiting on his wife “hand and foot.”

He said: “He’s a very caring, very loving kind of character, and I noticed that a lot when I spent time with them both back in the day. I’ve no doubt that wouldn’t have changed; William will make sure Kate is cared for and that she has a quick recovery.”

Harrold speculated that once Kate swiftly recovers, the couple will resume their joint royal duties, which they both enjoy. He mentioned that the pair does not have a large household at their Windsor residence, and William will primarily be responsible for helping Kate in getting back on her feet.

[From The Daily Express]

Is it Opposite World or something? Even in the most generous assessment of William’s character, he is not a nurturing man and he does not fuss over Kate. It doesn’t even look like he bothered to visit her more than once during her hospital stay. And please, even if you believe that Kate has gone back to Adelaide for her recuperation, it will not fall on William to do everything. Speaking of, the Mail says that Nanny Maria is about to become even more important:

Prince William will take on additional parenting responsibilities and has cleared his diary of official duties as she recovers, supporting his wife and only returning to public engagements once she is settled. The family are also being supported by their staff, including loyal, long-standing nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, whose role could be crucial in the coming weeks.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘Kate has obviously had significant surgery. As a hands on mother when possible, she will need to rest as much as she can. This means she will rely on Maria a great deal in the coming weeks and maybe months. There is going to be very considerable speculation as to when William is able to resume royal duties. Obviously, especially given the temporary incapacity of King Charles, the sooner the better. This makes Maria’s contribution at this difficult time all the more invaluable.’

Mr Fitzwilliams said that Kate has embarked on what everyone hopes will be a full recovery, but added that there will be a long ‘convalescence’.

‘William will be with her and forgoing royal duties for as long as he feels it is necessary. He has always put his family first,’ he said. ‘Kate has been as hands on a mother as her role permits, but she has said that having a nanny is indispensable. Maria Teresa is, according to reports, extremely popular with the children but her training at Norland has meant she is ideal for whatever this role requires. She is of course a background figure, who is seen at some important royal occasions and who is indispensable at a time like this. Her training at the prestigious Norland College in Bath where she learnt a huge variety of skills and to work long hours if needed, will be particularly useful during the pivotal weeks of Catherine’s recovery.’

‘The coming weeks may be difficult and will be a test of this redoubtable figure, who is so trusted by the future King and Queen.’

[From The Daily Mail]

It feels like Fitzwilliams is telling William to get back to work and leave everything to the nanny? Interesting. The longer this goes on, the timeline gets more and more squishy too – Kate will be out until Easter, no, past Easter, well, we’ll definitely see her at Trooping the Colour in June. William was supposed to be out for a few weeks, and now it’s completely open-ended, just whenever he’s confident that Kate is being looked after? Hm.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Camilla Tominey at the Telegraph wrote a somewhat interesting – but mostly sycophantic – piece about King Charles’s workaholic habits. Charles has always been known as a voracious reader and someone who enjoys letter-writing and paperwork, but Tominey makes it sound like Charles spends 18-20 hours a day fussing with his papers and reading everything sent to him, and I can’t imagine that’s what he’s really like. Tominey also added something curious about how Charles basically has to be “staffed” 24-7 because no one knows when he’s going to need a note or letter sent out. No “5 am emails,” but 5 am phone calls and letters. Some highlights from “What does a typical day in the life of ‘workaholic’ King Charles look like?”

It’s a struggle to keep up with Charles: “The people who work for him are worried he is doing too much for a man of 75,” confirmed one well-placed insider. “It’s sometimes a struggle to keep up with him.”

He regularly works 18-hour days: No stranger to early morning starts and post-midnight finishes, the grandfather-of- five was once described by his sons Princes William and Harry as so obsessed with paperwork that he would regularly fall asleep at his desk. “He does need to slow down, this is a man who has dinner ridiculously late at night,” revealed Harry in a 2018 documentary to mark his father’s 70th birthday. “And then goes to his desk later that night and will fall asleep on his notes to the point where he’ll wake up with a piece of paper stuck to his face.” Even phone calls with his son and heir are scheduled, taking place every Sunday.

No cell phone or emails: Because the King does not own a mobile phone, he makes the calls on a landline. (If anyone ever needs to get hold of the monarch in an emergency, they invariably contact a member of his protection team, who are with him 24/7). [Later in the morning], the King will then typically sit at his desk and go through his non-red-box paperwork. Because he “doesn’t do emails”, he will either write to people by hand or dictate more formal letters to his “executive secretary” before signing them, with a fountain pen. As demonstrated during the signing of a visitors’ book at Northern Ireland’s Hillsborough Castle after the late Queen died in 2022, he prefers not to use a fountain pen when he can avoid it and instead is never without a felt tip, usually red, to annotate the reams of paperwork he pores over on a daily basis.

He doesn’t mind a stiff drink in the evening: He will then return to his desk to plough through more paperwork before eating a late supper, usually of fish (very seldom red meat) at around 9pm. He rarely drinks but if he does fancy a tipple, it’s usually a Dubonnet – the royal family’s favourite aperitif – or a dry martini, which he is said to mix “very generously” for visitors. While the Queen relaxes by watching television, the King prefers to read and will often return to his desk after dinner.

Late night calls & messages: Because he prefers to work late into the night, there is a special roster of evening executive secretaries so someone is always on duty to set up telephone calls, take notes and pass on messages. Often staff will wake up to receive correspondence that has been delivered in the small hours.

[From The Telegraph]

I can’t believe the royal press still screams and cries about Meghan’s “5 am texts/emails.” Remember that? Meghan has the audacity – the temerity! – to expect Kensington Palace staffers to complete tasks and she sent a few non-urgent reminder texts or what have you. She was ripped to shreds for it, and you would have thought those palace staffers had never met anyone who woke up early and expected them to work a full day. And then there’s Charles, who apparently works though the night and expects his staff to be on call 24-7 in case he needs a note sent at 1 am.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

In January 2019, during the Duchess of Sussex’s first pregnancy, she made a visit to her patronage, Smart Works. It was a great event for her – she met some of the women being helped by Smart Works and she helped style them for their job interviews. I think she sat in on some interview prep sessions, and she looked through the available clothes and accessories. Maybe that was when she came up with the idea for the Smart Works capsule collection, one of her wildly successful initiatives while she was being held hostage in the UK.

As you can see, Meghan was dressed in a simple black dress and trench coat. We heard, at the time, that her earrings were from Kimai, and they were a pair of artificial diamonds. What we didn’t know until now is the backstory of how Meghan came to wear those earrings. The story was told by the Belgian jewelry designers on the UK show Dragon’s Den, which is the UK’s version of Shark Tank. Small business owners go in and “pitch” for investment, and that’s when the Meghan story was revealed:

Meghan Markle accepted £1990 worth of diamond earrings from a female-founded jewellery business, the owners have revealed. The Duchess of Sussex, 42, was sent the jewellery by artificial diamond brand Kimai when she was still a working member of the Royal Family in 2019. The mother-of-two wore the brand’s Felicity earrings, which are sold separately for £995, when she visited the charity Smart Works’ headquarters in London.

It comes after Prince Harry revealed in his memoir that his wife would keep freebies sent to her at Kensington Palace and distribute them among her staff – despite the Royal Family usually sending back unsolicited gifts.

Earlier this month, Kimai’s founders Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch appeared on Dragons’ Den where they boasted about the Duchess of Sussex wearing their designs. The founders – who were looking for a £250,000 investment for a three per cent equity stake in their business – revealed how the royal endorsement boosted their business, just a two months after they first launched.

They explained: ‘We’ve launched without investment, and then two months after our launch we got Meghan Markle to wear our pieces, which enabled us to grow the revenue significantly, and from there we raised $1.2 million.’

Steven Bartlett – who ended up investing in the business – questioned the duo on how they managed to get the Duchess of Sussex sporting their jewellery.

Sidney said: ‘Cold emails.’ Jessica then added: ‘We’re big believers in cold emails!’

Despite also peaking the interest of dragons Deborah Meade, Sara Davies and Peter Jones, the pair ended up choosing Steven. The entrepreneur said he was convinced to make an offer after seeing that Meghan Markle had worn their designs.

‘The moment you told be about hounding down Meghan Markle, you had me,’ he said.

[From The Daily Mail]

As you can see, the British papers are picking this up and running it as a negative, like HOW DARE Meghan accept freebies, blah blah blah. Kate accepts freebies too, it’s just that the British media doesn’t climb up her ass when she does it. Instead of talking about the bloody freebies, talk about how Meghan received a cold email about lab-grown diamonds and she gave such a huge boost to female entrepreneurs!! She gave them millions in free advertising just by wearing their earrings once.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Brittany Mahomes completely changed her wardrobe after watching Suits. [Just Jared]
Colman Domingo is the moment! [LaineyGossip]
Review of Love Lies Bleeding (the latest Kristen Stewart movie). [Pajiba]
Britney Spears’ “Selfish” tops the charts after Justin Timberlake dropped his new single with the same exact name. LMAO. [Hollywood Life]
Would you drink Emma Watson’s espresso martini? [OMG Blog]
The GOP accidentally admits there are more than two genders. [Jezebel]
Naomi Watts’ fashion tour through New York. [RCFA]
This print is too busy on Lily Gladstone. [Go Fug Yourself]
Jojo Siwa replaced Nigel Lythgoe on So You Think You Can Dance. [Seriously OMG]
Who is Southern Hospitality’s Joe Bradley? [Starcasm]
Take this quiz if you want to feel ancient. [Buzzfeed]

Last Friday, a jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million. Carroll sued Donald Trump, decades after he raped her, and during a years-long campaign in which Trump defamed her. Even during the civil trial, Trump was still smearing her and defaming her on Truth Social. Worse yet, Trump’s unhinged supporters are targeting Carroll too. I was so pleased for Carroll’s victory but I didn’t have much confidence that she would ever get that money. It looks like her lawyer is on top of it though! E. Jean and her lawyer appeared on Good Morning America on Monday and there are some great quotes in here:

Three days after a jury awarded her over $83 million for Donald Trump’s repeated defamatory statements, columnist E. Jean Carroll vowed to use the money on “something Donald Trump hates.”

“If it’ll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent,” Carroll told George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” suggesting she would create a “fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump.”

Sitting feet from Trump in court for five days, Carroll described that her fears leading up to the trial about interacting with the former president washed away as soon as the trial began. “It was like he was like nothing, like an emperor without clothes,” Carroll said. “All my terror leading up to it, and there he is. He’s just something in a suit.”

Trump’s in-person attendance at the trial – after missing last year’s trial – briefly interrupted the proceedings, including when the former president muttered defamatory statements in earshot of the jury or walked out during the closing statement delivered by Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan. Kaplan, however, said Trump’s behavior only validated the central thesis of her case that Trump is “a bully who can’t follow the rules.”

“I definitely thought we got a few more million dollars immediately,” Kaplan said about Trump walking out of court during her closing statement. “I was like, well, that’s worth about $10 million.”

A few hours after Trump stormed out of court, the jury delivered their unanimous verdict and $83.3 million award. As the jury left the courtroom, Carroll and her lawyers held hands, exchanging smiles with some of the jurors. “It made me burst into tears because they met my eyes for the first time,” Carroll said about seeing the jurors.

Kaplan added that she is confident they will be able to collect the $83.3 million, explaining that Trump could either pay a bond or deposit the money in full until he appeals. “I’m pretty confident one way or the other. We might not get it right away. But one way or the other, he owns a lot of real estate. It can be sold. We will collect the judgment,” Kaplan said.

While Trump has not mentioned Carroll by name in the days since the verdict, Carroll said that she is not confident the former president will refrain from defaming her, and her lawyer said “all options are on the table” if Trump decides to defame her client again.

[From ABC News]

“One way or the other, he owns a lot of real estate. It can be sold.” As I said weeks ago, I want E. Jean Carroll to own g–damn Trump Tower after all of this. She can turn it into a center for immigration resources. She can turn it into a Planned Parenthood. While I love that she’s committed to giving the money away, I hope she keeps some of it for security, because she’s absolutely going to need it. Anyway, I love her lawyer’s confidence about getting the money! And it’s true, and it’s been true – the emperor has no clothes. He’s not some mastermind – he’s a racist moron and a serial sexual predator.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

Well, this is a bit troubling. According to the World Health Organization, the measles are making a comeback. Thanks to vaccines, the US declared the measles eliminated in 2000. However, the highly contagious virus, which can have serious complications, is once again spreading in the States. There’s already an outbreak in Europe, which saw 30 times more cases in 2023 than in 2022. This has led to the UK Health Security Agency to declare a “national incident” due to the significant public health risk.

So far, clusters of American cases have been found in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. Why, you may ask, is a disease that we can prevent the spread of suddenly popping up all over the world? Yeah, you guessed it: declining levels of vaccination plus international travel. Contact tracing has determined at least one outbreak has come from an unvaccinated individual who traveled abroad to a country with an outbreak. It’s almost like the medical and science professionals who have been globally begging people to get vaccinated against preventable diseases were onto something.

Nearly a dozen cases of measles have been reported in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia in recent weeks, according to local health departments. International travel, coupled with declining global vaccination rates, is probably behind this spate of cases, experts say.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has confirmed at least nine cases of measles over the past month after a person contracted the highly contagious virus outside the United States and exposed a parent and child at a children’s hospital, according to health department spokesperson James Garrow. That exposure then led to a Philadelphia day care outbreak that includes at least five children.

Health officials in Virginia are also warning people who recently traveled out of two D.C.-area airports – Dulles International Airport on January 3 and Reagan Washington National Airport on January 4 – of potential exposure to the virus after someone returning to the US from abroad traveled through Northern Virginia.
Additionally, a single case of measles has been confirmed in “an unvaccinated resident of the metro Atlanta area,” the Georgia Department of Public Health announced Thursday.

“The individual was exposed to measles while traveling out of the country,” a news release said. “DPH is working to identify anyone who may have had contact with the individual while they were infectious.”

It’s not only the United States. In the UK, a measles outbreak continues to widen: There have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases reported since October. The UK Health Security Agency has declared a national incident to signal the growing public health risk.

“It’s always concerning when we have a case of measles because of the probability that it’s going to spread to other individuals,” said Dr. Thomas Murray, a professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine who focuses on infectious diseases and global health.

“About 90% of susceptible people who are exposed will come down with signs and symptoms of the disease, so it’s very contagious.”

[From CNN]

According to the CDC, 92% of US children have been vaccinated against measles via the MMR vaccine, which is shy of the national target of 95%. It’s very frustrating to have the tools available to prevent harmful viruses like the measles from spreading, yet not be able to stop people from believing misinformation despite the evidence of their eyes and ears.

Since 2020, I have unfriended and muted a lot of former high school classmates, a couple of neighbors, and a handful of family members, all who suddenly believe that all vaccines, even the ones they themselves have gotten, were harmful and/or the government’s way of controlling us. At least eight of the Pennsylvania cases were in unvaccinated children, and several have resulted in hospitalization. Georgia’s cases involved unvaccinated individuals as well. It doesn’t have to be like this. I don’t know how to stop it or what we do to get back on track, but something needs to give. I really hope all of the children affected by this outbreak make a quick and full recovery. This is also a really good reminder for us sane folk out here that for all of our nationalism and individualism, we really are all connected and contagious diseases know no boundaries.

Photos credit: Oleksandr Latkun / ImageBROKER / Avalon and CDC via Unsplash