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Let’s start with the numbers because numbers don’t lie – even if our collective memory does. As of March 13, 2025, the United States has reported 301 measles cases across 15 states, with 93% tied to outbreaks. 17% of those infected have been hospitalized. 1 (one) child is dead. And 1 (one) deceased adult tested positive for measles postmortem.
For context, measles was declared eliminated in the country in 2000, a triumph of science over a virus that once hospitalized 48,000 Americans annually and killed 400-500 mostly young children.
Today, we’re not just on the brink of resurgence, we’re inviting in (with open arms) a disease that should’ve been relegated to history books. The worst part? This crisis can be attributed entirely to human choices.
Welcome to 2025, where progress isn’t just stalled – it’s being thrown in reverse by a poisonous cocktail of misinformation, political theater, and a stunning disregard for the lessons of the past.
For public health workers, this fight against measles (and other vaccine-preventable diseases) is nothing short of a war being waged with one hand tied behind their backs.
Physicians, meanwhile, liken their efforts to medieval triage–patching up the collateral damage of a battle that shouldn’t exist in the first place. The reason? Measles isn’t resurging just because the virus evolved. It’s back because we’ve spent a decade dismantling the systems that kept it at bay.
The Government’s Schrödinger’s Vaccine Policy
If you’re confused about where the U.S. government stands on measles, you’re not alone. Officially, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insists vaccines are safe, effective, and the best way to prevent measles.
Unofficially, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spent the past month further muddying the waters. Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccine mandates, has swung back and forth between tepid endorsements of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot and nods to “personal choice,” even suggesting malnutrition – not lack of vaccination – might explain the Texas child’s death.
His remarks echo his past statements downplaying vaccine urgency. In a Fox News interview, Kennedy claimed that the vaccine “does not appear to provide maternal immunity” and that its protection “wanes” over time — a misleading take that ignores decades of evidence showing two MMR doses provided 97% lifelong immunity. Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently terminated more than 40 research grants studying vaccine hesitancy and mRNA technology, including critical work on improving vaccine uptake in rural communities and analyzing measles risks during pregnancy.
Dr. Jonathan Temte, a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin who studies vaccine hesitancy, warns of systemic threats to public health infrastructure. “It appears that there are forces intent on destroying our existing vaccine enterprise,” he says. “Defunding research on vaccine hesitancy is the latest example of this effort.”
We are left with more than a few questions. Namely: How can we solve vaccine hesitancy if we’re not allowed to study it?
Why Measles? Because We Let It
Childhood vaccination rates have slipped below 93% in 41 states. Anti-vaccine groups, fueled by pandemic-era distrust, have long peddled measles as a “rite of passage” and decried mandates as “government overreach.”
Social media algorithms, ever eager to monetize outrage, serve up an assortment of (debunked) claims: Vaccines cause autism! (They don’t.) Natural immunity is better! (Tell that to the 17% hospitalized.) Measles parties are a good idea! (They’re not.) The result? Schools in outbreak zones resemble field hospitals.
In Seminole, Texas, a tight-knit Mennonite community – where distrust of modern medicine runs deep – has become the outbreak’s epicenter. A 6-year-old girl died in February, her lungs ravaged by pneumonia which is a common measles complication.
Texas Department of State Health Services officials confirmed that her death marked the first measles fatality in the U.S. since 2015.
“We’re up against quite a bit of resistance in terms of getting people vaccinated as quickly as we would have liked,” admitted Dr. Oxiris Barbot, former New York City health commissioner, echoing frustrations from the 2018-2019 measles outbreaks.
Historical Echoes: From Polio Panic to Measles Madness
This isn’t the first time America has grappled with vaccine hesitancy. In the 1950s, polio paralyzed 15,000 children annually. After Jonas Salk’s vaccine debuted in 1955 and proved to be effective, lines snaked around blocks as families clamored for the vaccine not too long after. But even then, skepticism brewed.
Conspiracy theorists claimed the vaccine contained monkey viruses or caused cancer. Sound familiar? The only difference is that back then, leaders like President Eisenhower didn’t waffle. His continuous efforts led to polio being eradicated in the U.S. by 1979. Measles, too, was nearly wiped out – until complacency to fight against misinformation set in. The worst part is that, the backlash against these preventative vaccines isn’t coming just from fringe groups – it’s institutionalized.
“Continuing to sow doubt and confusion about vaccines from the most powerful office could profoundly impact Americans’ ability to make evidence-based decisions in an increasingly noisy world,” says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and author of the health newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist.
The parallels between the two diseases should be enough to drive similar action from the government as it had done years ago.
Like polio, measles preys on the young. Like polio, it can leave survivors with lifelong disabilities. And like polio, it thrives in communities where modern medicine and science are treated as optional.
The key difference is that we have the tools to stop measles today. We’re just choosing not to use them.
What Physicians Are Saying About Measles (Through Gritted Teeth)
The statistics are unambiguous: 94% of current measles cases are in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated individuals. Approximately 3 in every 1000 cases results in death.
Hospitalization rates for children under 5 approach 28%. Yet physicians find themselves trapped in a Groundhog Day of misinformation. Parents refuse the MMR vaccine because they ‘read online’ that it causes autism.
Meanwhile, pediatricians prepare, with heavy hearts, to treat encephalitis in toddlers. Having to watch as officials decline to emphasize that vaccines are the best defense against measles is not just frustrating, it’s soul-crushing.
Measles is not just dangerous for children, it can be deadly. 1 in 20 kids will get pneumonia and 1 in 1,000 will develop encephalitis, which can lead to death, deafness, or intellectual disabilities.
“I lived through the 1991 Philadelphia measles epidemic, where there were 1,400 cases and nine deaths over a period of three months,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “So I’ve seen children suffer needlessly because of the choice not to get a vaccine. So, please vaccinate your children.”
The CDC’s own data underscores the stakes: During the 2024 outbreak, 40% of measles patients were hospitalized, many for complications like pneumonia or dehydration. Compare that to the pre-vaccine era, when measles killed nearly 6,000 people each year.
It’s clear that the vaccine can mean the difference between life and death, so what’s the hold-up?
We realize that parents want what’s best for their children and I’m here to say that getting vaccinated is the only surefire way to achieve that.
Global Lesson: What Europe’s Outbreaks Teach Us
The U.S. isn’t alone in its blackslide. In 2024, Europe reported 127,350 measles cases – double that of the previous year. In 2023, The U.K., which had also once declared measles eliminated, saw outbreaks in London and Birmingham where vaccination rates had dipped below the ‘safe’ 95%.
Last year, Romania, gripped by anti-vaccine rhetoric, recorded the highest number of cases (30,000) in the European region.
However, many nations are fighting back. Germany began fining parents up to €2,500 (~$2,730) for refusing vaccines. Australia banned unvaccinated kids from daycare centers. Italy mandated 10 childhood vaccinations for children up til age 16, requiring proof for school enrollment with €500 (~$546) fine for non-compliance and barring unvaccinated students.
These policies show that proactive measures can turn the tide. No sensible person would debate fire safety while their house burns, they would rush to put out the fire. In this scenario, vaccines are the fire extinguisher.
Meanwhile, the U.S. responds with a patchwork of state laws. Some good and some half-hearted. In New York, schools and healthcare facilities face fines up to $2,000 per violation for failing to comply with vaccination mandates. California banned nonmedical exemptions, which resulted in a rapid increase in medical exemptions, suggesting inappropriate use.
Around half of U.S. states allow parents to opt out due to philosophical or personal reasons.
The result? A nation divided–not just politically, but also immunologically.
The Way Forward
Fixing this requires more than stockpiling vaccines, it demands rebuilding trust. Here’s how we can accomplish that:
Silence the noise and amplify the experts.
The federal government must stop equivocating. HHS should launch a unified campaign with doctors at the forefront and survivors and families in tow and counter misinformation without dignifying it. We also need to use PSAs, social media, and partnerships with trusted community leaders, much like we saw during COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
Restore research funding immediately.
Those axed NIH grants need to be revived. Studying why vaccine hesitancy spikes in certain communities will equip experts to counter it at a national level. We need to invest in mRNA-based measles vaccines that could offer greater immunity with a single dose. Science got us out of this mess once; it can do it again.
Exercise mandates with carrots, not just sticks.
Texas allows nonmedical vaccine exemptions for “reasons of conscience.” That’s code for “I saw a meme.” States should adopt stricter exemption policies, akin to New York. Pair mandates with incentives like tax credits for vaccinated families, free childcare for well-child visits, and even lotteries like Ohio’s “Vax-a-Million” which boosted COVID-19 shots.
Reach out to the parents
For physicians, it’s about meeting hesitant parents where they are because that’s us at the frontline, witnessing the loss and irreparable damage. Parents don’t want their kids to suffer and they need someone who can talk them through their worries without judgement.
The first step is to acknowledge their fears and how overwhelming it is to be bombarded by conflicting information. Next, simplify the science. Explain how vaccines work and how their child will be better off with them rather than without.
Remember to highlight not just the statistics but also the stories. The Texas child’s death was a wake-up call, and no one wants a repeat of that.
A Regression We Can’t Afford
There’s a grim irony in watching measles – a disease vanquished by a vaccine developed in 1963 – reclaim its foothold in 2025. We’ve spent billions on moon landings, AI, and quantum computing, yet here we are, backsliding into the germ-riddled dark ages. Measles parties. Vaccine exemptions scrawled on napkins.
Children dying of a disease that is preventable with a $25 shot. This isn’t just a failure of policy; it’s a moral collapse. When did we decide that “personal freedom” trumps a child’s right to survive kindergarten? When did “doing your own research” become code for “ignoring experts”? The bitter truth is that measles isn’t the real threat – it’s the apathy and arrogance that let it return.
The Choice Ahead
We know how this ends if we stay the course. More outbreaks. More hospitalizations. More tiny coffins. Or we can choose to relearn the lessons of the 20th century. Vaccines work. Herd immunity saves lives. And yes, science isn’t perfect, but it’s the best tool we’ve got.
To the vaccine-hesitant parent: your fear is understandable, but your child’s safety is non-negotiable.
To the politician: your rhetoric has consequences.
To the rest of us: this is what happens when we take progress for granted.
Measles doesn’t care about your ideology, what anti-vaxxers are saying on your Instagram feed or your personal hang-ups. It just cares about finding the next unvaccinated host. The question is, how many more chapters will we add to this preventable tragedy before we finally close the book?
