Utah Measles Outbreak Is Unlike Others in US

Utah has become the epicenter of the nation's measles problem, logging more than 600 cases in an outbreak that shows little sign of slowing. State health officials say 602 infections have been tied to a wave that began last year, with 405 cases recorded since the start of the year and 75 in just the past three weeks, the Guardian reports. Nearly one-third of patients have ended up in emergency rooms, largely because of severe dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea, and 49 people have been hospitalized so far.

• Early exposures were reported in preschools and elementary schools, and the list has now expanded to include grocery stores and a Latter-Day Saints meetinghouse, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. In Salt Lake County, which includes Salt Lake City, 62 cases have been recorded so far this year, compared to four in all of 2025. County authorities say school gatherings have caused numerous exposures.

Roughly 85% of those infected were not vaccinated against measles. About 90% of Utah residents are vaccinated overall—short of the roughly 95% coverage typically needed to block sustained transmission. Unlike outbreaks in Texas and South Carolina linked to tight-knit religious groups, Utah's cases appear more dispersed across the general population, the New York Times reports. Utah state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen says cases have been reported in 22 of the state's 29 counties, and most of the other seven are sparsely populated. She says measles has been spreading between under-vaccinated groups. Health authorities say that while vaccinated people sometimes get infected, they generally suffer less severe illness and are less likely to spread the disease.

• Parents in Utah can opt their children out of vaccine requirements. At the start of the 2024-25 school year, around 11% of kindergartners either had exemptions or didn't have vaccine documentation. A recent state bill that would have made it easier to opt out did not pass.
• Dr. Trahern W. Jones, a pediatric infectious disease doctor in Salt Lake City. tells the Times that he has treated children with measles who were gasping for breath. He says there is "so much misinformation out there" about vaccines, and frontline doctors were angered that the opt-out bill was introduced during an outbreak. "It's kind of like if you were a firefighter trying to put out a house fire, and somebody is standing on the hose trying to have a philosophical debate with you about whether water is good or not."
• Democrats confronted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a House hearing Thursday over the health secretary's response to measles outbreaks and his longstanding anti-vaccine stance. "Your dangerous conspiracy theories are undermining safe and effective vaccines," Rep. Mike Thompson told him.