US' Once-Robust Barrier Against Measles Is Faltering

Measles is back in a way the US hasn't seen in more than three decades. Federal data show that by July 23, the number of reported cases had already surpassed every year since 1991, with upward of 4,850 infections and three deaths since early 2025, including two unvaccinated girls in West Texas, per ProPublica. The disease is highly contagious yet preventable with a long-standing, widely available vaccine. Its steady spread, experts say, is a warning flare that the country's once-robust immunization shield is cracking. Reporter Patricia Callahan links the surge to eroding trust in public health and to policy shifts under President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who've questioned or recast long-held vaccine guidance.

Callahan cites a recently signed EO by Trump that seeks to break up the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—an example that doesn't seem to be taking hold with vaccine manufacturers. She notes that the CDC buried an internal forecast urging a stronger push for measles vaccinations, and that Kennedy has floated changes to a payout program for vaccine injuries that critics say could prompt vaccine makers to exit the US market. "If that were to happen, even parents who still want vaccines for their kids wouldn't be able to get them," she writes.

Ex-CDC officials and doctors describe a growing sense of dread as illnesses once taught as medical "history"— measles, rubella, diphtheria, polio—inch toward American exam rooms again. As it is, parents of US kindergarteners are now vying for exemptions in record numbers. "I think there always was a worst-case scenario," says Dr. Melinda Wharton, now retired after leading the CDC's immunization programs for three decades. "I don't think I imagined it could or would be this bad." More here.