You're watching Southwest Florida in Focus coming up.

Florida joins the list of states impacted by the growing measles outbreak.

As medical professionals push for vaccinations.

Some parents look toward alternative methods to help build their child's immunity.

Nearly 7 million adults serve as a primary caregiver for their parents.

The physical and financial toll that comes with providing this support and building a better neighborhood through jobs.

An underserved community gets a major boost that will help residents earn a chance at a better life through better careers.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova thank you for joining us.

Florida has joined the growing list of states that are impacted by the current outbreak of measles.

A high school student in Miami-Dade County became the first confirmed patient in the state.

There are more than 200 confirmed measles cases with one confirmed death throughout the country.

A vast majority popping up in Texas and New Mexico.

But with a heavy spring travel season about to begin.

Health experts are warning people to be on alert.

And locally, the outbreak is causing concerns for both physicians and parents.

Beautiful love.

One more and you're finished.

Oh, look at it.

Look at it.

Oh, look.

Pediatric offices like Physicians Primary Care of Florida, say the measles outbreak is keeping their teams busy from parents who want to vaccinate their kids earlier, to others who just want reassurance that their child is up to date on the vaccination.

A lot of families are worried.

Especially the area we live in.

We have an international airport beside us.

With travel being so readily available, a lot of people are worried that it's going to come to our area.

Doctor David Butler says he's actually never seen a case of pediatric measles because of the effectiveness of vaccinations.

Still, the pediatrician says he saw the outbreak like the current one coming, based on parents growing concerns about the safety of vaccinations.

He blames that on social media.

We are seeing a lot less parents vaccinate now.

There's a lot of hearsay.

There's a lot of things that say, don't vaccinate, don't vaccinate.

And I hate to say it, but it's just a lot of bad information.

Doctor John Edwards, a chiropractor and a father who is in vaccinating his four children, says a growing number of parents are taking a closer look at the data.

The CDC data says that outbreaks of measles are cyclical.

You'll have them ups and downs about every few years.

The CDC expects about 300 some cases every single year.

And so when you look at the population of America being around 340 million people, that's like your chance of getting measles is like 1 in 1,000,000.

Edwards says choosing not to vaccinate his children is about weighing the benefits to the potential risk.

What we're looking at is that there's a cascade.

It's everything from the number of ultrasounds the moms have had during pregnancy, the use of pitocin, the use of antibiotics in their first year has been correlated with neurodevelopmental disorders, and then you start throwing the shots on top of that.

That's where we start getting our concerns raised up.

Well done.

Edwards says he believes building a child's immune system through nutrition, exercise and healthy living is the better way to fight illnesses like measles.

It's this vaccine hesitancy that Doctor Butler blames for the current outbreak, when he's concerned about as far as what it could do to our community.

Oh, absolutely.

It scares me.

25 years ago, health officials said that measles had been eliminated in the United States thanks to widespread vaccination.

So what has changed?

We are joined by Doctor Mary Beth Saunders, an infectious disease specialist with Lee health.

To learn more about this current outbreak, Doctor Saunders, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So we know this is not the first measles outbreak.

What is different about this one?

Well, the difference is that we are five years down the road from Covid, and we have a lot of vaccine hesitancy in the United States and throughout the world.

So the ability to protect everyone in our community, our herd, is lessened by the fact that there are fewer people or fewer children that have been vaccinated.

So my understanding is that the CDC says that we want or that right now about 90% of children have received the vaccine for measles, but that number isn't high enough to prevent outbreaks like this or issues like this.

Where do we want that number to be?

They like to see it around 95%.

And so with that decline in the number of children who have been vaccinated and that happening year over year, we can expect those numbers to go down.

And we have a greater risk for the overall population.

So since we're talking about some parents deciding not to vaccinate their children, you know, we've heard parents say that they are concerned that the risk of vaccinating their child is greater than the risk of their child getting measles.

Well, it's not.

We have a very long track record of the safety of the measles vaccine.

And so we know that the the vaccine over years has very minimal risk, very minimal complication.

But we haven't seen measles for many years in the United States.

And so people have forgotten how much risk can be associated with that disease.

So we can see hospitalizations.

We can see pneumonias.

And about 1 in 1000 children, especially children who are under two, have measles, can be at risk for serious neurologic complications.

And we can't predict who that's going to happen to.

So that risk is there.

And every year there are children who do die from the complications of measles.

It can also affect the elderly or, you know, women who are pregnant.

Anyone who is immune compromised.

So it's not only the risk of children, but those in the adult population as well.

We've heard about supplements being, you know, from some parents, parents saying that I can protect my child with supplements.

Your thoughts on that?

Well, supplements are intended to help boost your immune system.

And your immune system is what helps fight infection.

But vaccination is what we really need to do to combat measles.

So vaccine helps your immune system recognize measles if it's exposed to it and prevent serious illness from measles.

So while you may be able to boost your immune system response with supplements, it is not going to prevent you from having measles.

If I can end on this, we tend to think of this as a child hood illness, but adults can get it.

Can you tell us?

I assume that's for folks who haven't been vaccinated.

Correct.

What do you want adults to know about this illness?

Well, if if adults are were, born in 1957 or before, it's assumed that they have natural immunity.

There is kind of that gap, those gap years between the actual initiation of vaccination, in the late 60s.

So there may be some adults who did not have natural immunity, may have that gap, and then there is over time, people can have waning immunity.

So for instance, in health care systems, they are very they monitor or they check employees to see if they have immunity to measles.

Right.

We don't want our employees to have risk for measles or to, be at risk for others.

So there are certain age ranges where there may be of concern.

Talk to your primary care physician about that, and they may recommend that they do.

Check a titer to see if you have good immunity.

If you have no history of vaccination or natural disease and the concern is growing regarding outbreaks, they may actually recommend vaccination.

And there's also people who are doing international travel and may be traveling to areas that are higher risk, for disease.

They may recommend vaccination for those folks as well.

Doctor Sanders, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Have a great day.

Coming up, unraveling the mysteries of the unknown from aliens to Bigfoot, two experts help us understand why we are so fascinated by the mystical.

We often hear about families struggles to pay for affordable child care, but less attention is paid to the cost of caring for parents and older loved ones.

More than 9 million Americans rely on help at home for daily activities.

An estimated 35 million caregivers provide much of that care, and they are not paid for it.

To help us understand the costs that adult care is having on families and our economy, we are joined by Doctor Rachel Warner, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in the economics of health care.

Welcome, Doctor Warner.

We appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Nice to be here.

So let's start with this.

How common?

How often is it that health insurance does cover the cost of in-home caregiving for our parents or for older adults?

It is quite common.

There is no public long term care funding in this country.

And although Medicaid pays for the majority of long term care, you have to be either low income or have very few or low assets to qualify.

So most Americans end up having to pay for health care out of pocket.

And that can be quite expensive for the average person over the age of 65.

They'll spend about $120,000 on paid care for long term care.

That number is a huge number.

How does this look?

You know.

How do we see this financial burden playing out in a lot of these families?

So most people can't afford that, as you might guess.

And so what happens is the entire middle class of this country, can't really pay back.

And what they do instead is rely on friends and relatives to provide unpaid caregiving.

And so that's usually, as I said, a family member.

And if you try to monetize the amount of, care that is given through unpaid caregiving, it's about $100,000 per person who needs long term care.

For those of us who are not in that position yet, you know, taking care of a senior or a parent, why should we care about this?

You know, what is the impact to our economy?

Well, what I can tell you is that caregiving is incredibly common.

About 1 in 5 people care for an older adult.

And it's really costly to the caregivers.

They not only lose wages when they're caring for their relative.

They also lose long term benefits, including health benefits, pensions, social security, retirement benefits.

The total economic loss losses to an individual caregiver averages between 300,000 and $600,000 on top of that, there are physical and mental health consequences to caregiving.

And so I think we should care about this because our friends and relatives are the people who are providing this care.

And we may be ourselves as, our parents, and our loved ones age.

And it's really costly to the entire society.

So essentially, you're saying that a lot of folks are someone in the family is essentially having to step away from their jobs to take care of slowly.

Okay.

Yes.

So let me play devil's advocate a moment.

Traditionally, you know, decades, hundreds of years ago, when folks took care of the elders in their home.

So I ask, some people may say, well, why?

Why is today any different?

Well, like, what has changed that we should be so concerned about this?

Well, so I think that in the United States, we don't live in a country that values older adults as they age.

There are a lot of countries where, it is true that families are responsible for caring for their older adults, but in this country, most, parents don't necessarily live geographically close to their children.

Many don't.

Children often work full time jobs, as I said, and I have to step away in order to be able to provide this care.

And we just don't live in a society that values old caring for older adults the way we do.

For example, caring for children.

Policy conversations about how to care for child, how to pay for childcare are quite common, but we rarely talk about how to pay for elder care in this country.

Certainly we'll be watching this issue.

Doctor Warner, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate you joining us.

Yeah, thank you very much for having me.

Thank you.

I think.

People who study the regional economy generally agree on one thing.

Southwest Florida needs a lot more workers in health care and construction.

That's where some people in a low income part of Lee County come in.

They're starting a vocational technical school for adults to provide skills for good paying jobs.

WGCU's Mike Walcher has more.

Problem.

One is a shortage of health care professionals and building trades workers.

The second issue is the high cost of food and housing, and the fact that many Southwest Floridians are struggling to pay more for just about everything.

One solution could be the Career Tech Institute, when it opens on this land next to Harlem Heights and Lee County in 18 or so months, it will teach trades to as many as 432 adults at a time.

Year round, I think, though, they'll be confetti and balloons and a lot of cheering and crying.

And it'll be awesome.

Helping Harlem Heights is Katherine Kelly's life mission.

Historically, this has been a poor and minority community in the Iona McGregor area.

Kelly set up the Heights Foundation 25 years ago.

The foundation raised money for a community center and K to five charter school.

If there's a problem that we can help solve, why wouldn't we?

That's Doctor Deborah Mathinos the foundation's chief programs officer.

More simply put, she's Kelly's partner and helping people in need.

There's nothing better for me personally and professionally.

Than when a person has that light bulb moment and they realize.

They are worthwhile.

They do have skills they can contribute to the world.

Career tech will be open to adults from the entire region.

The Heights Foundation has raised about $26 million in private donations to make career tech happen.

Now the foundation is asking for 5 million from the state and 11 to 12 million from grants and other sources to complete the funding and start changing the lives of people like Martha Godot.

We met her as she picked up items at Interfaith Charities Food Pantry in San Carlos Park.

She says Career tech sounds promising because she needs work that pays more than her grocery store job.

I'm hopeful because I was thinking and look for different options to increase my income.

But you need some skills.

I need some skills, yes.

Right now we are living paycheck by paycheck.

Money comes on one side and goes on the other side and it's not fun.

Katherine Kelly believes career tech will give people in need better lives.

We are setting them up to be productive and purposeful citizens because that's what we want.

We want them to.

We want people to have a decent job.

We want them to pay their taxes, and we want them to take care of their families.

Rosa Valentine lives in the heights and provides care for her grandchildren.

She says they should go to career tech and have a future like that.

Of her 21 year old granddaughter, who just graduated from an existing vo tech.

I was so happy when I saw her in that uniform that, you know, for nursing, and then I was joined and I just keeps looking at my daughter.

All good.

She's doing something good.

Career tech will be associated with the Lee County School District.

But Katherine Kelly promises the new place will remain true to the Heights Foundation.

Then our mission is to build self-sufficient families and to be self-sufficient, you need to have a decent job.

For WGCU news, I'm Mike Walcher.

The state of Florida sets tuition rates for vo tech schools.

Career tech says some scholarships and grants will be available to help students.

The founders hope to open in late summer or fall of 2026.

Could the earth really be flat?

Does spontaneous human combustion really happen?

Was that Bigfoot going for a walk in the woods?

Those are some of the questions that are being answered in the new book, Pseudo Science An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We love them, and we are happy to be joined now by the book's authors, Doctor Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson.

And welcome to you both.

Thank you for joining us.

Thanks for having us.

So, Doctor Kang, let me start with this.

I know at the beginning of the book, you cite a New York Times study that says about 50% of the American population believes in at least one debunked conspiracy theory.

Is that why you wrote this book?

Well, it's part of the reason why we wrote the book.

We have been interested in the subject for some time.

Our first book, together, was quackery A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything.

So, this was just kind of an extension into a different type of quackery instead of medical stuff.

We went into a lot more pop culture and the things that sort of inhabit our our day to day lives in the realm of pseudoscience.

So, Nate, let me ask you this, you know, whether we're talking about Bigfoot or UFOs or anything else, is there?

Is there something like a common thread that ties all these theories together, how these series sort of got developed?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think one element of that is that pseudoscience often offers simple answers to what are actually pretty complex questions.

And I also think pseudoscience often plays with our sense of the mysterious.

You know, I think as human beings, we all want to have the world around us have an element of magic, an element of mystery, and a lot of pseudoscience plays into that very human desire.

So I don't you know, I'm thinking of the flat earth theory, right?

We've there's just so much science to prove otherwise.

Is there something that keeps these theories going for such a long time?

Well, I think there is a little bit of faith involved when it comes to science.

You know, like the science has made it really, really clear that the earth is round, you know, that it spins around on a tilt, that sort of a thing.

And these were discovered thousands of years ago, not just recently.

But to tell people to sort of just believe that this is true when they're looking out over an ocean and they're like, you know, that ocean is looking really flat.

Maybe there is a conspiracy here, and they're just trying to keep the actual truth from us.

So I think that there is sometimes this sort of distinct separation between, the actual data and what people perceive with their eyes and whether we like it or not, our eyes and our sensory abilities as a human are not very good at discerning the actual truth of science and the natural world.

So because of that, you know, that difference, there's a lot of people out there who want to say, well, I'm not going to believe it unless I see it with my own eyes.

And that's one of the big parts of pseudoscience is sort of anecdotal evidence of like, well, this is what I believe.

This is what I see.

So that must be true when it goes against, you know, thousands of years sometimes of science.

So I'm thinking here in Florida, we have our own version of, Bigfoot, the Swamp Ape.

And of course, the series about the Bermuda Triangle.

Are there certain areas are sort of prone to developing theories or these pseudoscience theories?

Is there an area?

That's a good question.

I thought that the I thought the Florida, like the famous Florida cryptid, was a snarly gaster.

Maybe that's another.

You're teaching me something new.

Yeah.

It's like a swamp creature.

Like this amphibious swamp creature that likes to eat people.

But.

Right.

It's like such a fun idea.

It's a fun idea to think that in your backyard, where everything has already been discovered, you know, every corner of the earth has been explored, that there are still these pockets of the unknown.

And that's everywhere, right?

I think everybody likes to think that there is a part of the world that is unexplored, that we don't have all the answers.

And, you know, going with what Nate had originally said about how, like, we still like mystery.

The other thing that humans also really like to do is that we like to look things up, and we like to try to find the answers as well.

And that's a universal thing.

So it's not geographic.

It's all over the place.

Well, I know our producer has had a thrilling time, reading this book.

So thank you so much for all that you shared with us on this.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for having us.

Coming up, a legend of Lee County is enshrined in a brand new art piece.

We follow the long journey to hope that is bringing a ray of sunshi Trailblazer Veronica Shoemaker spent decades fighting for civil rights in Lee County.

A colorful remembrance is immortalizing her life and her contributions to Dunbar on the boulevard that bears her name.

Three GCS Tara Halligan reports.

A new sculpture is bringing inspiration and pride to Fort Myers.

Journey of Hope, designed by artist Cecilia Louisa, stands in the heart of the Dunbar community.

The City of Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, commissioned the installation in 2022.

It's 20ft tall and made from aircraft grade aluminum, built to withstand the intense southwest Florida weather.

CRA Director Michelle Hilton Terry says the dedication of the public art piece represents years of effort.

Today was an incredible day because we have waited almost four years for the journey of hope to be completed, and we wanted it to be something that honored the community, and we actually went through probably a year long process of hearing from the citizens what they would want.

The sculpture was intentionally placed at the intersection of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr and Veronica Shoemaker boulevards.

The piece is inspired by Veronica Shoemaker, the city's first black councilwoman.

And it's in a perfect location at these two boulevards honoring such great people.

And I really hope that what this does it is it reminds us as a community how far we have come.

But more importantly, it reminds us on a daily basis how far we still have to go.

Every time I pass by, I look at the sculpture and it reminds me of her and what she stood for.

It encourages all who pass by to just keep the faith, keep the hope and keep moving forward.

Let's hope this forever is the past, the present and the years that are here.

11 years lived in our community and the rights to faith.

Hope on the journey never ends.

Her name says it all.

The journey of hope.

And it is a journey.

And something like this inspires us to move on, to leave our mark on this city that we all love.

A sculpture that stands still but speaks volumes.

A symbol of resilience, unity and a future still unfolding.

We have accomplished some, but we still have a lot to do.

So we just need to keep moving forward and keep working on progress here in the community.

For WGCU news, I'm Tara Calligan with Amanda Inscore Whittamore.

Coming up next week.

Adding a little sweetness to Florida's agriculture.

How the exotic vanilla bean could replace the orange and become an important part of the farming future in the state.

Join us for that story and much more next week, and be sure to like and subscribe to the WGCU news YouTube channel, where you'll find all of our stories, including extended interviews and much more.

Until next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!