Doctor warns dip in vaccinations could lead to measles outbreak

Our quick but unscientific poll conducted outside the Houston Zoo showed a 100 percent vaccination rate.

"She's up to date on her shots. She goes to school so she has to be up to date," said parent  Anthony Montelongo.

"I go with vaccines. I don't do the whole no vaccine thing," added parent Carla Cardenas.

"There's a lot of scientific evidence to show that it's far worse for your kids that they are not vaccinated," said mom Lyndsey Knight.

Yet the anti-vaccine movement remains strong enough that now less than 90 percent of Texas children are getting the measles vaccine. That doesn’t include children under the age of one who don't get vaccines anyway.

“There is absolutely no link between vaccines and autism," says Dr. Peter Hotez.

We spoke to the author of a Baylor College of Medicine study on the topic to tell us why these numbers are really bad news.

"So this is the terrible problem we face in Texas is a high risk and a high likelihood that we will see a measles outbreak in one or more schools and it will be the infant siblings who will suffer the most," Dr. Hotez says.

It's particularly bad here. According to the study, 592 children in Harris County got a waiver for the vaccine in between 2016-2017. That means it ranks number seven out of the 15 worst-vaccinated counties in Texas. But Dominque Briggs and her daughters visiting form Chicago don't worry.

"Well we won't because we're vaccinated. We're good," she said.