Samoa says the infection rate in the nation's Measles Outbreak has been brought under control, and thus the state of emergency has been lifted.

It means that emergency measures such as school closures and travel restrictions are cancelled.  The government's mandated vaccinations policy pushed immunization rates towards 95 percent, which health experts say is effective in creating "herd immunity" that can contain the disease.  

But the measles spread rapidly since October, infecting more than 5,600 people and killing 81.  Most of the victims were very young children.

Measles cases have been on the rise around the world, and an outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this year made its way to Samoa. 

However, the seeds of the Samoan Measles crisis were planted months before:  In July 2018, two infants died in Samoa after receiving vaccinations against measles, mumps, and rubella.  The vaccine, of course, was not to blame.  It turned out that nurses accidentally mixed the vaccine with an expired muscle relaxant, instead of water. 

But anti-vaxxers were quick to pick-up on the tragedy, including the son of one of America's most famous historical figures:  Vice News reported, "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., perhaps the US's most well-known anti-vaxxer, visited the country in June and met with prominent Australian Samoan anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein.  Kennedy's anti-vaxx group mentioned the deaths of the Samoan babies in a post questioning vaccine safety, but he never updated the post after the nurses were found to be at fault."

By the time the measles arrived from Auckland, Samoa's vaccination rate among young children was reportedly as low as 31 percent.