Outbreak at Church; Measles Outbreak Linked to Megachurch
BERMAN: Welcome back to our national lead, everyone. You hear about an outbreak of measles so rarely, you might think it's one of those diseases we have eradicated, like scurvy. But it's still very much out there and it is highly contagious, especially to the unvaccinated. At least 16 people linked to a mega-church northwest of Dallas have now contracted measles. Health officials say it began when a visitor brought the virus back from overseas. The ministry for the Eagle Mountain International Church is led by televangelist Kenneth Copeland, whose sermons, like this one you're about to see in June, have sounded pretty anti-vaccine in the past.</s>KENNETH COPELAND, TELEVANGELIST: Immunity, vaccination, spiritual- induced immunity from sickness and disease.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.</s>BERMAN: Now the church may have had an awakening of sorts since then. Copeland's daughter, a senior pastor at Eagle Mountain, had this to say to the congregation a few Sundays ago, quoting a medical adviser to the ministry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I believe it's wrong to be against vaccinations. The concerns we have had are primarily with very young children who have family history of autism and with bundling too many of at one time. There is no indication of the autism connection with vaccinations in older children.</s>BERMAN: As we said, the church has appeared to change its message over time. The church in fact began hosting its very own vaccination clinics. I want to bring now in our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, here. Elizabeth, you know, one of the things we hear out of this story is that a number of the victims, the people who have been stricken with measles, were not vaccinated. This seems to be a story we're hearing again and again.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, it is. Because there was this message put out there years ago that somehow there was a link between vaccines and autism, but study after study after study has been done, John, and there is no such thing as a link between vaccines and autism. So, one of the big issues here is that if you want to believe this, this untruth, and not vaccinate your own child, you're taking that risk for your own child and some people might say all right -- well, you're allowed to do that and your child might die. But you're also taking a risk that other children might die, because your unvaccinated child is going to play with other children and those children could die. So, many people would say, the decision not to vaccinate is just downright unselfish -- selfish, rather.</s>BERMAN: It does -- the decision that does go beyond your own family. So, we're talking about measles here, Elizabeth. And, frankly, you don't hear about people getting measles that often. How dangerous is it if you really do come down with it?</s>COHEN: You know, it's very dangerous. If you look at a thousand people who had measles, one or two of those 1,000 are going to die from measles. So, that's a pretty high mortality rate. And so, back when there wasn't routine vaccination, more than 2 million people a year would die from the measles. So this is a very deadly disease.</s>BERMAN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for being with us. I really appreciate it.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>BERMAN: Ahead on</s>THE LEAD: he saw a bright red dress, a weathered face and a gun bigger than the hand holding it pointing right at him. For the first time ever, we're hearing a sitting president testify about his own assassination attempt. And in the sports lead, the NFL players union stands up for Aaron Hernandez as he sits behind bars. Will the Patriots have to cut a check to the accused player? Stay with us.