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MARYVILLE, Mo. – As people prepare to ring in the New Year, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is reminding the public to celebrate responsibly and plan ahead for a safe ride home.

“Go out, celebrate, have a great time, make wonderful memories, but make them responsibly,” said Tabitha Perkins, State Executive Director for MADD Missouri.

While the calendar may be turning, Perkins says MADD’s mission remains the same: preventing and stopping impaired driving.

This New Year’s Eve marks the 30th year MADD Missouri will host its annual awareness event at the Waterway Car Wash in Brentwood. Volunteers will engage with drivers and tie red ribbons to vehicles as a visible reminder of the impact impaired driving can have on families and communities.

“We’re going to tie a red ribbon on your car,” Perkins said. “We’re going to engage with you in a nice manner just to remind you about what the impact impaired driving has.”

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She added that the presence of victims and survivors is especially meaningful.

“The most important thing is for our victims and survivors to be able to speak firsthand to the general public and remind them about the impact that it’s had on them,” she added.

The event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Waterway Richmond Heights, located at 1200 S. Brentwood Blvd., Richmond Heights, MO 63117.

Law enforcement is also preparing for a busy night.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police said officers will be patrolling the roads looking for impaired drivers.

“Plan ahead,” said SLMPD’s Sean Mazzola. “Make sure you have a designated driver. Utilize rideshare.”

Perkins echoed that message, encouraging people to budget for a safe ride home.

“When you leave the house tomorrow night, and you have 50, 60 bucks, a couple hundred bucks to go out for the evening, set aside some money for a sober driver,” she said. “In today’s society, you push a button on your phone, and you can have a rideshare vehicle in front of the establishment within five to10 minutes—and that’s what we encourage everybody to do.”

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The U.S. surpassed 2,000 measles cases this year for the first time since 1992 under the public health stewardship of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

The ugly milestone comes a little more than a year after CNN’s Jake Tapper predicted the country would experience a surge in cases if Kennedy were to become the nation’s leading public health official.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that as of Dec. 23, the U.S. had 2,012 confirmed measles cases. Last year, the U.S. had just 285 confirmed cases.

Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who in February claimed that a measles outbreak in West Texas was “not unusual.” The HHS secretary alleged that the disease, whose symptoms may include fever, coughing, and a blotchy rash, could be treated with Vitamin A, which, according to actual doctors, is not a substitute for being vaccinated against the measles.

Shortly after the outbreak in West Texas, several children with measles needed to be treated for Vitamin A toxicity.

On Nov. 14, 2024, President Donald Trump nominated Kennedy as Secretary of HHS. The pick horrified virtually every public health official, and many laypersons, such as Tapper. On that day’s edition of The Lead, the host reacted to the nomination by saying, “Well, America – I hope you like measles.”

Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate 52-48 on Feb. 13

The parabolic rise in cases could mean the U.S. will lose its measles elimination status in 2026.

In 2019, a measles outbreak ravaged Samoa, where Kennedy had visited just months before. His nonprofit organization “helped spread misinformation that contributed to the decline in measles vaccination that preceded the lethal eruption.” Eighty-three people died in the outbreak.

In May, the CDC said it was no longer recommending vaccination against Covid-19 for healthy kids and pregnant women. Later, Kennedy ordered the CDC to remove language from its website stating that vaccines do not cause autism. Kennedy has baselessly maintained this to be the case. The secretary has also enacted massive personnel and research cuts at HHS. Moreover, in one particularly embarrassing episode, a “Make America Healthy Again” report cited several nonexistent studies.

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘I Hope You Like Measles’: U.S. Measles Cases Hit Three-Decade High a Year After Jake Tapper’s Prediction About RFK Jr. Leading HHS first appeared on Mediaite.