More than 160 people in South Carolina are under quarantine as the state battles a growing number of measles cases. Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt Medical Center, joins CBS News to discuss.
A highly contagious disease once vanquished by vaccination is now on the brink of officially returning to North America. Canada is expected to lose its measles elimination status, and the U.S. might possibly soon follow.
This week, Canada reported new cases of measles tied to an ongoing outbreak—one that began 12 months ago. The year of continuous transmission means that Canada will almost certainly lose its measles-free designation, experts say. And though the largest outbreaks of measles in the U.S. this year have officially ended, the country could potentially still lose its status in 2026, too.
“As of today, it seems very, very likely that Canada will lose its measles elimination status, while the United States is also at substantial risk in the next 3 months,” Sten Vermund, chief medical officer at the Global Virus Network, a coalition of medical virologists focused on viral threats, told Gizmodo.
A resurgent enemy
Despite a highly effective vaccine for it, measles remains a serious public health threat across much of the globe. In 2023, it’s estimated to have sickened roughly 10 million people and killed over 100,000 worldwide, with most deaths occurring in unvaccinated children under five.
Some countries, through widespread vaccination programs, have kept measles largely at bay by stopping its local transmission. The U.S. officially eliminated endemic measles in 2000, while the Americas as a whole first achieved elimination in 2016. Canada earned its measles-free status in 1998.
But so long as measles is endemic somewhere, the disease can hitch a ride on infected travelers and threaten to regain a foothold in locally eliminated countries, especially when vaccination rates start to decline. It’s a threat that’s now hitting close to home in the U.S.
Canada’s latest outbreak first began in October 2024 in the province of New Brunswick. Since then, the country has reported over 5,000 cases, nearly all of which are linked to the initial New Brunswick cluster. And though the flow of cases has significantly slowed down over time, it hasn’t stopped. On Monday, Canadian health officials reported 19 new cases during the week of October 18 (the most current data) and 136 recent cases across five jurisdictions.
The World Health Organization regularly evaluates whether countries can be deemed locally free of measles. Travel-related outbreaks can and do still occur in these countries, but it takes more than a year of ongoing transmission for the WHO to even consider revoking a country’s measles-free card. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a subset of the WHO, will meet next month for its annual assessment of the region’s status. And given the current situation, Canada will probably lose its measles-free mantle.
What about the U.S.?
The immediate outlook is a bit less grim for the U.S., though still far from great.
Earlier this January, a large outbreak of measles began in Western Texas. More than 700 cases were ultimately documented before officials formally declared the outbreak over in mid-August. Another large outbreak occurred around the same time nearby in New Mexico, which saw roughly 100 cases before it appeared to die down in late September.
The trouble is, there have been many other measles clusters happening across the U.S. this year, and some are ongoing. All told, there have been roughly 1,650 cases reported—the largest tally seen since 1992—and dozens of outbreaks reported nationwide in 2025. At least three people died of measles in the U.S. this year as well, the first deaths recorded in a decade. There are current outbreaks in South Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, and Utah, with the latter two states sharing a cluster that’s now over 120 cases and counting.
Though the outbreak in Texas is over, it remains possible that health officials will link some of the current cases to it. This can occur if people in these states are found to be infected with the same or closely related strain of measles that sickened residents in Texas. If so, and if these cases last until January, the PAHO could very well decide to revoke the measles-free status of the U.S. early next year, too.
But even if this scenario doesn’t happen, experts are still worried about measles becoming endemic in America soon enough, given the sheer amount of transmission we’ve seen this year.
“I expect the US will lose its measles elimination status next year, as the U.S. in 2025 has already experienced almost 4 cases per 10 million, 87% of cases were related to an outbreak, i.e., not imported, and there have already been 43 outbreaks in less than one year,” Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told Gizmodo.
The country’s federal public health system isn’t exactly in steady hands either. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a man with a long history of misleading the public about the safety of vaccines, including the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. And during the height of the Texas outbreak, both he and his allies downplayed its impact and touted unsupported treatments for the viral disease.
How to stop the return of measles
Formidable as measles is, we’ve long known how to best curtail its danger: vaccination.
It might be too late to stop the official return of measles in Canada or even the U.S. But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Notably, Canada wouldn’t even be the first country in the Americas to have lost this status in the last few years, as both Brazil and Venezuela did recently. However, these countries have since regained their designation.
Though America certainly has a growing anti-vaccination problem, measles vaccination rates in the U.S. and Canada remain generally high (for now). The current outbreaks have occurred in regions where rates are much lower than average, such as Mennonite communities in Canada. In at least some of these communities, officials have said, residents aren’t necessarily opposed to vaccination but simply have less regular contact with doctors. And unlike the U.S., there are no major public health figureheads in Canada with a track record of anti-vaccination sentiment.
All of which is to say that a dedicated public health response can still convince people to get their measles shots. And Vermund expects that Canadian health officials will lay out a detailed plan to the PAHO to get things back on course.
According to Vermund, this plan should ideally include, among other things, stronger vaccination campaigns that target under-vaccinated regions like Alberta and Ontario; mobile clinics and school-based immunization drives; community engagement and public education to counter vaccine misinformation; and improved surveillance.
That same framework should also work to boost flagging vaccination rates in the U.S., too. But under the reign of RFK Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been turned into a shadow of its former self, and the ongoing shutdown of the federal government might further hamper any assistance that the CDC can provide to local and state agencies.
“A course correction for the U.S. will require an intensive vaccination campaign and funding to support the public health surveillance systems across all 50 states,” Justman said. “Neither of these seems likely in the current context.”
Though Canada will lose its status first, measles might have an easier time getting reestablished in its downstairs neighbor. If so, plenty more children and their families will suffer as a result.
Mesa County’s late-summer measles outbreak started with three children who brought the virus back from an out-of-state trip, ultimately passing it on to eight other people.
On Wednesday, the agency announced four additional cases from August, including the three who traveled and one person they infected directly. Those four previously unidentified people then spread the virus to the seven known cases.
All four of the new cases were unvaccinated children between 5 and 17, according to the health department. It didn’t release any other information, such as which state the children traveled to or whether any of them were related.
The department found their cases after the state they traveled to identified them as contacts of people who had tested positive there, spokeswoman Hope Shuler said.
Measles is most dangerous for people under 5 or over 20.
The newly identified people got sick in August, meaning they’re well past the contagious period. Most people who have measles are contagious for about four days before the rash appears and four days after.
The vaccine schedule calls for kids to receive their first dose at about 1 and their second around 5. Some children with compromised immune systems can’t receive the vaccine and rely on the rest of the community to protect them through herd immunity, where so many people have been vaccinated that the virus can’t easily reach new hosts.
The known cases included two unvaccinated adults who got sick in mid-August, three people who shared a household with one of them and two strangers who crossed paths with them and later tested positive. None of them needed hospital care.
This has been an unusually severe year for measles nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,596 cases as of Tuesday, including 197 hospitalizations and three deaths. The last time the country had more cases was 1992.
While a massive outbreak in Texas has ended, new ones have started in South Carolina, Utah, Arizona and Minnesota. More than 100 children in South Carolina are missing school because they have to quarantine for 21 days following exposure.
Two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97% effective in preventing infection.
Dakota County in Minnesota is reporting three new measles cases, bringing the state’s total number this year to 20.
The Minnesota Department of Health says each of the new cases involves unvaccinated children who likely caught measles from an unvaccinated adult.
When you look at Minnesota’s overall cases, most are unvaccinated children who have not traveled, but have been in close contact with an adult family member who had. Eighteen out of the 20 measles cases are children, the health department reports.
“Twenty cases is more than we would like to see in Minnesota,” said Jessica Hancock-Allen, director of infectious disease for the health department.
“We are very, very concerned about measles. We have been working closely with our public health providers, our school providers,” said Hancock-Allen.
Minnesota health officials say measles starts out like any other viral infection, with a fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. About two or three days after those symptoms, people typically get a skin rash. And for children, it can be serious. About one in five kids are hospitalized when they have measles. In rare cases, it can be fatal.
“It can cause encephalitis or brain swelling. And it’s very, very uncomfortable,” said Hancock-Allen.
Just like the cold and flu, measles are passed through the air. But unlike those viruses, it can hang out for hours after an infected person leaves the room. Hancock-Allen says the best prevention is the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
“It is an extremely effective vaccine, so about 93% on the first dose and 97% effective on the second dose,” she said.
Cases fluctuate. Last year, there were 70 in Minnesota, but the year before, none were reported. For health officials, the goal is to keep that number as low as possible.
“It can make people very sick. Rarely, but it can have serious consequences. Very preventable by a highly, highly impactful vaccine,” said Hancock-Allen.
The CDC says nearly half of all measles cases in the U.S. this year were reported in Texas, three of which were fatal.
WCCO spoke last month with Stacene Maroushek, pediatric infectious disease specialist with Hennepin Healthcare, who blames the outbreaks of the disease — once thought to be eliminated more than two decades ago — on misinformation spread online, namely, that vaccines can cause autism.
“I think we as physicians need to do a better job of promoting all of the stuff that we actually know from a scientific standpoint, and good data, to a level that people can readily access and understand,” said Maroushek.
The significance of calls to split up the MMR vaccine into separate shots – CBS News
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Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill is calling for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to be split into three separate shots. It comes as the CDC approves new guidelines for updated COVID vaccines. Dr. Celine Gounder explains.
Nearly a dozen new cases of measles have been reported this week to the Minnesota Department of Health, which includes one case involving a student at a Minneapolis school.
According to the department, the 10 new cases have been confirmed since Monday, Sept. 29, bringing the state’s total caseload for this year to 18.
The agency says all of the cases involve people who aren’t vaccinated and are tied to either domestic or international travel. Of the 10 new cases, seven are within families who had recently traveled within the United States. Those cases are related to three others that were reported last week.
Another three cases added this week involve people who traveled internationally.
A news release from Twin Cities International Schools says one of the new cases involves one of its students. School leaders are working with state health officials to make sure all other students, staff and community members are safe.
According to the school, parents and guardians have been given guidance from the health department, and staff are implementing “proactive measures to mitigate the situation.”
Leaders with the school and health agency say families will be updated as needed. No details about the student or how the student was exposed to the disease have been provided.
Measles, also known as rubeola, is caused by a virus and is extremely contagious. It can be spread through the air when anyone infected with the virus breathes and coughs. The state adds the virus can stay in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves.
Symptoms include a rash and fever, as well as a cough or runny nose, or watery eyes, according to health officials. Once you get measles, the agency says you’re immune.
Severe cases can cause a person to be hospitalized or even die.
This year, there have been more than 1,500 cases of measles across the United States, and three people have died from the disease. The number of infections across the U.S. is the highest since 1992, according to data provided by Minnesota’s health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That year, there were more than 2,100 cases across the country.
Three more measles cases have been reported in Minnesota in the past week.
The Minnesota Department of Health said the new cases all involved unvaccinated children, ages 5 to 17, who are all from the same family.
Health officials are working with local health departments to contact people believed to have been exposed.
These new cases bring the state’s number of identified cases this year to eight.
“Unfortunately, we still see kids die of measles and it is a vaccine-preventable disease,” said Stacene Maroushek, pediatric infectious disease specialist with Hennepin Healthcare. “Three is considered an outbreak and it is concerning because we know our vaccine rates have really dropped off since COVID.”
Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, and in some cases can cause severe infections in the lungs and brain that can lead to cognitive issues, deafness or death.
The best way to prevent measles, according to health experts, is through immunization.
Officials recommend children receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — the first at 12 to 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
Maroushek blames the current outbreaks of the disease, once thought to be eliminated more than two decades ago, on misinformation spread online — namely, that vaccines can cause autism.
“I think we as physicians need to do a better job of promoting all of the stuff that we actually know from a scientific standpoint, and good data, to a level that people can readily access and understand,” Maroushek said.
Earlier this summer, state health officials announced an unvaccinated child, also from Dakota County, exposed hundreds of people to measles during a visit to Mall of America’s Nickelodeon Universe.
Stephen Swanson is a web producer at CBS News Minnesota. Stephen was a floor director for a decade before moving to the WCCO-TV newsroom in 2011, where he focuses on general assignment reporting.
A federal vaccine advisory committee made up of members hand-picked by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended in an 8-3 vote on Thursday that the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine should not be given before age 4, citing long-known evidence that shows a slightly increased risk for febrile seizures in that age group.
Experts say that while frightening, febrile seizures—which are uncommon after vaccination—are usually short-lived and harmless, and removing the option for parents could cause a decline in immunization rates against measles, mumps, and rubella, some of the most dangerous childhood diseases.
Known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, the group provides recommendations to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine usage. These recommendations are typically adopted by CDC and have an impact on state vaccine requirements for school, insurance coverage of vaccines, and pharmacy access—something at least one member of the panel seemed to be unaware of.
Thursday’s vote is part of a new shift in vaccine policy being spearheaded by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist. In his short time as HHS secretary, Kennedy has implemented restrictions on who can receive Covid-19 vaccines and dismissed all 17 sitting members of ACIP, replacing them with 12 new members—some of whom were installed just this week. Several of the new advisers have a history of criticizing vaccines or denouncing public health measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kennedy said a “clean sweep” of ACIP was necessary to build back public confidence in vaccine science.
On Thursday, committee members were asked to evaluate whether to recommend against the combined MMRV vaccine before age 4, as well as whether to delay the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until the child is at least one month old.
Currently, parents have two options for vaccinating their children against measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella, also known as chickenpox. They can choose the combined shot, known as MMRV, or two separate shots—one for MMR and another for chickenpox. About 85 percent of children get separate shots.
In the US, the hepatitis B vaccine is given in the hospital shortly after birth, because the virus can be transmitted to children during delivery. A serious liver infection, hepatitis B can lead to cirrhosis and cancer. Each year in the US, an estimated 25,000 infants are born to women diagnosed with the hepatitis B virus. Without vaccination, up to 90 percent of them would develop chronic infections. The World Health Organization advises a universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
The topics of discussion at Tuesday’s meeting were not based on new data or evidence, and in fact, two ACIP members, Joseph Hibbeln and Cody Meissner, as well as several representatives from professional medical organizations who were in attendance, questioned why these changes were up for consideration.
Robert Malone, one of the more controversial new ACIP members, offered an explanation: “It’s clear that a significant population of the United States has significant concerns about vaccine policy and about vaccine mandates.” Malone is a former mRNA researcher who rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic by spreading falsehoods about the disease and the vaccines; he abstained from Thursday’s vote because he previously served as an expert witness in a lawsuit over the mumps vaccine.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to change its recommendation on the combined MMRV vaccine, saying “the combined MMRV vaccine is not recommended” before age 4, but that children in that age group can receive separate doses of the MMR and varicella vaccines. Dr. Celine Gounder explains.
More than 40 people have tested positive for measles in Colorado City since early August. The active outbreak in the northwest Arizona town is the worst measles outbreak the state has had in two decades…
67% worry about affording healthcare for themselves and their families.
61% trust government vaccine decisions; fewer trust chronic disease guidance.
New Yorkers worry about the next public health crisis, with 44 percent saying they don’t believe the U.S. is prepared. That’s according to the latest Mount Sinai South Nassau “Truth in Medicine” public health poll, which was released Tuesday.
Among those surveyed, 40 percent said the nation is prepared.
Still, a large majority worry about infectious diseases, with 77 percent citing measles, 75 percent bird flu and 65 percent the new COVID-19 variants.
“It’s not surprising that confidence in whether we are prepared for the next public health crisis has eroded,” Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of the Department of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau, said in a news release about the poll’s findings.
“Science has become politicized and the divisions we see across the country have an impact,” Glatt added. “However, healthcare providers and researchers remain committed to evidence-based study and reporting.”
The poll surveyed 600 adults on Long Island and New York City. Sponsored by FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, the poll was conducted from July 13-20 over landlines and cell phones.
Vaccine safety, accessible mental health services and care, addressing childhood obesity, treatment for substance abuse, and reducing reliance on processed foods all play key roles in improving the population’s overall health and wellness, respondents said. The poll also looked at access to and affording health insurance coverage.
Vaccine safety
“Immunization is key to primary health care and paramount to the prevention and control of infectious disease outbreaks,” Glatt said.
“Vaccines have proven that they are worth the investment to make them and the health insurance costs to cover them, as they are the safest, most effective way to protect the public from many preventable life-threatening diseases,” Glatt added. “I strongly encourage everyone to follow up with their physicians to get the recommended vaccines at the recommended times.”
Meanwhile, 61 percent said they trust government agencies to make important decisions about vaccines, and 45 percent said they trust government to make important decisions about medical research. Just 38 percent said they trust government recommendations to prevent chronic diseases.
According to the World Health Organization, vaccines can prevent more than 30 life-threatening diseases and infections, and 3.5 million to 5 million deaths every year, from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), influenza and measles.
Health insurance
The poll also looked at access to health insurance.
The findings come at a time when New York is preparing major changes to its Essential Plan due to $7.5 billion in federal cuts. To preserve coverage for 1.3 million residents, the state said it will overhaul the plan and tighten income eligibility, removing about 450,000 people. The changes are expected to take effect in mid-2026.
In the poll, 67 percent expressed concern about affording health care for themselves and their family. And 65 percent said they believe government should play a role in ensuring that everyone has access to affordable healthcare.
Affordable, accessible health insurance is vital to primary care and crisis preparedness, experts say. The American Hospital Association links insurance to lower death rates, better outcomes and higher productivity.
Just 8 percent of poll respondents were uninsured. Meanwhile, 36 percent had private coverage, 17 percent were insured through the Affordable Care Act and 25 percent had Medicare, Medicaid or both.
Overall satisfaction is high among insured respondents, with 80 percent satisfied with their coverage and 76 percent satisfied with prescription drug costs.
Among those without health insurance, 49 percent said it is too expensive, 26 percent said their employer does not offer it, 15 percent said they don’t need it, and 6 percent didn’t know how to get it.
Affordability of health insurance concerns 67 percent of respondents, many of whom worry about covering healthcare costs for themselves and their families. As a result, 65 percent support government involvement to ensure access to affordable health insurance.
“No one is immune to injuries or illnesses,” Dr. Adhi Sharma, president of Mount Sinai South Nassau, said in the news release. “Health insurance provides security and peace of mind in the event of a serious illness. It also plays an important role in preventive care.”
The worst Arizona measles outbreak in almost a decade keeps getting worse, as cases multiply in a small town on the Utah border where very few children have been vaccinated against the disease. Colorado City, a town of about 3,300 people not far from the Grand Canyon’s north rim, is the epicenter of Arizona’s worst measles outbreak since 2016…
(CNN) — Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.
The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.
The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.
Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
All 50 states have had school immunization requirements since the beginning of the 1980s, with incoming kindergartners needing shots to protect against diseases including measles, polio and tetanus. No states require a Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.
All states allow medical exemptions from these school vaccine mandates, and most also allow for exemptions due to personal or religious beliefs. Exemption rates have been on the rise for years in the US, with a record share of incoming kindergartners skipping the required shots in the 2024-25 school year.
“We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,” Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.
“For many kids, the best part of school is being with friends – sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together. Close contact makes it easy for contagious diseases to spread quickly,” she said. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun. When children are sick and miss school caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”
A study published last year by the CDC estimated that routine childhood vaccinations – such as those included in school mandates – will have prevented about 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1,129,000 deaths among children born between 1994 and 2003. They also were estimated to avert $540 billion in direct costs.
Ladapo said that vaccination should be an individual choice.
“People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” he said. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your god. I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right.”
But experts say that freedom comes with responsibilities.
“We’re all routinely subject to rules that enable us to live together safely, and I personally want those rules in place to protect me and the people I care about. We abide by speed limits, traffic lights, infant car seat and seatbelt laws – all requirements that have expanded over the years as safety technology and engineering has improved,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of immunize.org, a nonprofit organization focused on vaccine access.
“I share with many other people the belief that all children who are required to attend school should also have a right to the best possible defense from vaccine-preventable diseases while they are there,” she said.
Some vaccine mandates in Florida can be rolled back unilaterally by the state health department, Ladapo said, but others will require coordination with lawmakers.
Experts who oppose the move to end vaccine mandates emphasize that the change is not final and that timing is critical.
With the announcement coming after the start of the school year, Floridians will have a chance to experience and reflect on what a year of low vaccination coverage looks like, Moore said.
“This timing gives leaders several months to reconsider whether this is what’s best for Florida families. It’s quite likely that Floridians will have reasons to regret that decision as time goes by and outbreaks disrupt learning,” she said.
The American Medical Association “strongly opposes” the plan to end vaccine mandates, Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an internal medicine physician and member of the professional organization’s board of trustees, said in a statement.
“This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death,” she said. “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is at a crossroads. Last week, CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted less than a month into her tenure after resisting Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to align with his vaccine policy agenda. Within hours, three senior leaders — including the chief medical officer and the heads of vaccine safety and respiratory infections — resigned in protest. Their exits capped weeks of mounting tension: biased scientific reviews, the withdrawal of key documents, and a shooting at CDC headquarters tied to COVID misinformation. Hundreds of staff publicly applauded the departing scientists in a rare “clap-out.”
Into that vacuum stepped Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, now installed as acting CDC director.
O’Neill’s résumé breaks sharply with CDC tradition. A Bush-era HHS official turned Silicon Valley investor, he is neither a physician nor a scientist — an unusual profile for the agency’s top post. He is expected to retain his deputy role at HHS while leading the CDC. After his early government service, O’Neill spent nearly two decades in close partnership with billionaire Peter Thiel, managing his funds, directing the Thiel Foundation, and co-founding the Thiel Fellowship. He also led the SENS Research Foundation, a nonprofit focused on anti-aging science. In June, he returned to Washington as deputy secretary; he now holds that position alongside his role as CDC director.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., right, conducts the swearing-in ceremony of Jim O’Neill as deputy secretary on June 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Department of Health and Human Services via AP
Former colleagues on both sides of the aisle describe him as smart and diligent, with a deep knowledge of HHS mechanics. They also note his libertarian streak, which could align him well with Secretary Kennedy but set him at odds with school vaccination requirements. His most controversial stance, voiced in 2014, was that the FDA should approve drugs once proven safe, leaving effectiveness to be determined in the marketplace — a proposal widely criticized by public health experts as dangerous.
O’Neill insists he is “very strongly pro-vaccine,” but his recent post on social media — asking if “omicron is the best vaccine” and suggesting CDC could “redefine the word vaccine at will” — sparked new concerns about his grasp of vaccine science. Experts counter that infection is not the same as vaccination, which confers protection without the risks of acute illness or long COVID.
He could wear both hats for some time. The White House and Kennedy appear eager to avoid a bruising Senate confirmation fight. Until COVID, the CDC director was not a Senate-confirmed position; Republicans changed that in the pandemic’s aftermath. Leaving O’Neill in an “acting” role could paralyze major decision-making at the agency for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee — made up of all new Kennedy appointees — is preparing for a pivotal September meeting. On the agenda: the newborn hepatitis B dose, infant RSV protection, COVID vaccination for healthy children and young adults, and the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella shot. Revisiting so many long-standing childhood immunizations at once would be unprecedented. If recommendations are weakened, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Vaccines for Children program could restrict coverage, creating new barriers for families.
The stakes for CDC are profound. O’Neill has promised to “refocus CDC on infectious disease” and “restore trust,” yet staff and state partners say politicized decisions and budget cuts are already eroding core work.
The September vaccine advisory meeting will be the first real test for O’Neill. If he restores scientific processes, including transparent reviews, expert briefings, and evidence being vetted and posted before votes, CDC insiders say he could stabilize morale at the agency and preserve the credibility of its scientifically-based recommendations. If not, the resignations of senior scientists may prove the start of a broader exodus, leaving states and families without clear guidance just as flu, RSV and COVID converge this fall.
Dr. Céline Gounder, an internist, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist, is a CBS News medical contributor as well as senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. never asked to be briefed by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said a former CDC director who stepped down in the wake of the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to HHS via online form on Thursday for comment.
Why It Matters
The CDC is the primary public health agency for the United States. A federal agency under the HHS, the CDC is responsible for protecting the health of the nation through disease control and prevention. It is a global leader on infectious and chronic diseases and a go-to source of health information.
Kennedy’s views around vaccinations, raw milk and water fluoridation have faced staunch opposition from public health experts who warn of their health risks.
The revelation from Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in an interview with CNN that Kennedy never sought experts’ advice will compound concerns among critics of his leadership.
Former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials Dan Jernigan, Deb Houry, and Demetre Daskalakis smile as employees and supporters of the CDC line up outside its global headquarters on August 28, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia…. Former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials Dan Jernigan, Deb Houry, and Demetre Daskalakis smile as employees and supporters of the CDC line up outside its global headquarters on August 28, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
What To Know
Daskalakis, responding to a question about what Kennedy should be asked if he were to appear at a Senate hearing, said: “Has he ever been briefed by a CDC expert on anything? Specifically, measles, COVID-19, flu? I think people should ask him that.
“The answer is no. No one from my center has ever briefed him on any of those topics. He’s getting information from somewhere, but that information is not coming from CDC experts, who really are the world’s experts in this area.
“Perhaps he has alternate experts that he may trust more than the experts at CDC that the rest of the world regards as the best scientists in these areas,” he said.
This month, Kennedy announced a departmental decision to pull a total of $500 million in federal funding for 22 mRNA vaccine development projects “because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.”
In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with people who have expressed skepticism about the current immunization schedule and previously spread vaccine misinformation.
The upheaval at the CDC signals an extraordinary rupture between its scientific leadership and political leadership at HHS during a period of major policy change to vaccine advisory structures and funding.
President Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. to head the department, which he has since pushed forward under the campaign of Making America Healthy Again.
What People Are Saying
Kennedy said during a Thursday press conference with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott: “There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it’s going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self-esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it’s always been.”
Daniel Jernigan, who has resigned as director, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC, told CNN: “I’ve been at CDC for 30 years, I’ve been through multiple different administrations, we’ve been able to work with a lot of different folks, different ideologies, but we always focussed on the science. Right now, I’m not sure.”
Debra Houry, who has also resigned as told CNN: “When you can’t make things work, sometimes leaving is the statement to make.”
What Happens Next
The Trump Administration named Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to RFK Jr., as the new acting chief of the CDC after Monarez’s ouster.
A developing outbreak of measles in a notoriously poorly vaccinated Northern Arizona town is getting worse. Two weeks ago, Mohave County reported a single positive measles case in the town of Colorado City, which sits on the Arizona-Utah border…
As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows.
In the month after Donald Trump took office, his administration interfered with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention communications, stalled the agency’s reports, censored its data, and abruptly laid off staff. In the chaos, CDC experts felt restrained from talking openly with local public health workers, according to interviews with seven CDC officials with direct knowledge of events, as well as local health department emails obtained by KFF Health News through public records requests.
“CDC hasn’t reached out to us locally,” Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, wrote in a Feb. 5 email exchange with a colleague two weeks after children with measles were hospitalized in Lubbock. “My staff feels like we are out here all alone,” she added.
A child would die before CDC scientists contacted Wells.
“All of us at CDC train for this moment, a massive outbreak,” one CDC researcher told KFF Health News, which agreed not to name CDC officials who fear retaliation for speaking with the press. “All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.”
Delays have catastrophic consequences when measles spreads in undervaccinated communities, like many in West Texas. If a person with measles is in the same room with 10 unvaccinated people, nine will be infected, researchers estimate. If those nine go about their lives in public spaces, numbers multiply exponentially.
The outbreak that unfolded in West Texas illustrates the danger the country faces as vaccination rates drop, misinformation flourishes, public health budgets are cut, and science agencies are subject to political manipulation.
While the Trump administration stifled CDC communications, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fueled doubt in vaccines and exaggerated the ability of vitamins to ward off disease. Suffering followed: The Texas outbreak spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Mexico’s Chihuahua state — at minimum. Together these linked outbreaks have sickened more than 4,500 people, killed at least 16, and levied exorbitant costs on hospitals, health departments, and those paying medical bills.
“This is absolutely outrageous,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. “When you’re battling contagious diseases, time is everything.”
“The CDC is ‘stressed’ currently”
Wells was anxious the moment she learned that two unvaccinated children hospitalized in late January had the measles. Hospitals are legally required to report measles cases to health departments and the CDC, but Wells worried many children weren’t getting tested.
“I think this may be very large,” she wrote in a Feb. 3 email to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Wells relayed in another email what she’d learned from conversations with people in the community: “According to one of the women I spoke with 55 children were absent from one school on 1/24. The women reported that there were sick children with measles symptoms as early as November.”
A Feb. 3 email from Katherine Wells to a Texas state health official, Imelda Garcia, warning of a far larger measles outbreak than case numbers suggested. KFF Health News obtained emails throughFreedom of Information Act requests to local health departments. The emails have been redacted to protect the privacy of individuals and facilities.
Screenshot by KFF Health News
In that email and others, Wells asked state health officials to put her in touch with CDC experts who could answer complicated questions on testing, how to care for infants exposed to measles, and more. What transpired was a plodding game of telephone.
One email asked whether clinics could decontaminate rooms where people with measles had just been if the clinics were too small to follow the CDC’s recommendation to keep those rooms empty for two hours.
“Would it be possible to arrange a consultation with the CDC?” Wells wrote on Feb. 5.
“It never hurts to ask the CDC,” said Scott Milton, a medical officer at the Texas health department. About 25 minutes later, he told Wells that an information specialist at the CDC had echoed the guidelines advising two hours.
“I asked him to escalate this question to someone more qualified,” Milton wrote. “Of course, we know the CDC is ‘stressed’ currently.”
A Feb. 5 email from Texas health official Scott Milton, obtained through a public records request. He wanted to reach scientists at the CDC who could answer urgent questions about measles from front-line workers in West Texas. Emails have been redacted to protect the privacy of individuals and facilities.
Screenshot by KFF Health News
Local officials resorted to advice from doctors and researchers outside the government, including those at the Immunization Partnership, a Texas nonprofit.
“The CDC had gone dark,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the partnership. “We had anticipated a measles outbreak, but we didn’t expect the federal government to be in collapse when it hit.”
Technically, the Trump administration’s freeze on federal communications had ended Feb. 1. However, CDC scientists told KFF Health News that they could not speak freely for weeks after.
“There was a lot of confusion and nonanswers over what communications were allowed,” one CDC scientist said.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said the situation was not unique to measles. “Like most public health organizations, we weren’t able to get ahold of our program people in February,” he said. Information trickled out through the CDC’s communications office, but CDC scientists gave no press briefings and went dark on their closest partners across the country. “The CDC was gagged,” he said.
Through private conversations, Benjamin said he learned that CDC experts were being diverted to remove information from websites to comply with executive orders. And they were afraid to resume communication without a green light from their directors or the Department of Health and Human Services as they watched the Trump administration lay off CDC staffers in droves.
“It’s not that the CDC was delinquent,” Benjamin said. “It’s that they had their hands tied behind their backs.”
To work on the ground, the CDC needs an invitation from the state. But Anne Schuchat, a former CDC deputy director, said that during her 33 years with the agency, federal health officials didn’t need special permission to talk freely with local health departments during outbreaks. “We would always offer a conversation and ask if there’s anything we could do,” she said.
Lara Anton, a press officer at the Texas health department, said the state never prevented the CDC from calling county officials. To learn more about the state’s correspondences with the CDC, KFF Health News filed a public records request to the Texas health department. The department refused to release the records. Anton called the records “confidential under the Texas Health and Safety Code.”
Anton said the state sent vaccines, testing supplies, and staff to assist West Texas in the early weeks of February. That’s corroborated in emails from the South Plains Public Health District, which oversees Gaines County, the area hit hardest by measles.
“Texas will try to handle what it needs to before it goes to the CDC,” Zach Holbrooks, the health district’s executive director, told KFF Health News.
Responding to an outbreak in an undervaccinated community, however, requires enormous effort. To keep numbers from exploding, public health workers ideally would notify all people exposed to an infected person and ask them to get vaccinated immediately if they weren’t already. If they declined, officials would try to persuade them to avoid public spaces for three weeks so that they wouldn’t spread measles to others.
Holbrooks said this was nearly impossible. Cases were concentrated in close-knit Mennonite communities where people relied on home remedies before seeking medical care. He said many people didn’t want to be tested, didn’t want to name their contacts, and didn’t want to talk with the health department. “It doesn’t matter what resources I have if people won’t avail themselves of it,” Holbrooks said.
Historically, Mennonites faced persecution in other countries, making them leery of interacting with authorities, Holbrooks said. A backlash against COVID-19 restrictions deepened that mistrust.
Another reason Mennonites may seek to avoid authorities is that some live in the U.S. illegally, having immigrated to Texas from Canada, Mexico, and Bolivia in waves over the past 50 years. Locals guess the population of Seminole, the main city in Gaines County, is far larger than the U.S. Census count.
“I have no idea how many cases we might have missed, since I don’t know how many people are in the community,” Holbrooks said. “There’s a lot of people in the shadows out here.”
Public health experts say the situation in Gaines County sounds tough but familiar. Measles tends to take hold in undervaccinated communities, and therefore public health workers must overcome mistrust, misinformation, language barriers, and more.
About 450 people — including local health officials, CDC scientists, nurses, and volunteers — helped control a measles outbreak sparked in an Eastern European immigrant community in Clark County, Washington, in 2018.
Alan Melnick, Clark County’s public health director, said his team spoke with hundreds of unvaccinated people who were exposed. “We were calling them basically every day to see how they were doing and ask them not to go out in public,” he said.
Melnick spoke with CDC scientists from the start, and the intensity of the response was buoyed by emergency declarations by the county and the state. Within a couple of months, the outbreak was largely contained. No one died, and only two people were hospitalized.
In New York, hundreds of people in the city’s health department responded to a larger measles outbreak in 2018 and 2019 concentrated among Orthodox Jewish communities. The work included meeting with dozens of rabbis and distributing booklets to nearly 30,000 households to combat vaccine misinformation.
The effort cost more than $7 million, but Jane Zucker, New York City’s assistant health commissioner at the time, said it yielded immense savings. The average medical bill for measles hospitalizations is roughly $18,500, according to data from prioroutbreaks. Then there’s the cost of diverting hospital resources, of children missing school, of parents staying home from work to care for sick kids, and the lasting toll of some measles infections, including deafness or worse.
“I don’t think there’s a price tag to put on a child’s death that would otherwise be prevented,” Zucker said.
Local health departments in West Texas were understaffed from the start. About 18 people work at the South Plains health department, which oversees four vast rural counties. About 50 staff the department in Lubbock, where patients were hospitalized and health workers struggled to figure out who was exposed. In mid-February, Wells emailed a colleague: “I’m so overwhelmed.”
A death ignites a response
On Feb. 26, Texas announced that a 6-year-old child had died of measles. Wells heard from CDC scientists for the first time the following day. Also that day, the CDC issued a brief notice on the outbreak. The notice recommended vaccines, but it worried public health specialists because it also promoted vitamin A as a treatment under medical supervision.
In emails, Texas health officials privately discussed how the CDC’s notice might exacerbate a problem: Doctors were treating children with measles for toxic levels of vitamin A, suggesting that parents were delaying medical care and administering the supplements at home. A local Lubbock news outlet reported on a large drugstore where vitamin A supplements and cod liver oil, which contains high levels of vitamin A, were “flying off the shelf.”
Too much vitamin A can cause liver damage, blindness, and dire abnormalities during fetal development.
Milton worried that parents were listening to misinformation from anti-vaccine groups — including one founded by Kennedy — that diminished the need for vaccination by inaccurately claiming that vitamin A staved off the disease’s worst outcomes.
“How many people will choose Vitamin A and not a vaccine because it appears to them there are two options?” Milton asked in an email.
Scientists at the CDC privately fretted, too. “HHS pressed us to insert vitamin A into all of our communications with clinicians and health officials,” one CDC scientist told KFF Health News, referring to the agency’s notices and alerts. “If pregnant women took too much vitamin A during the outbreak, their babies could be profoundly disabled. We haven’t seen those babies born yet.”
Another CDC official said they’ve had to “walk a fine line” between protecting the public based on scientific evidence and aligning with HHS.
While CDC scientists held their tongues, Kennedy exaggerated the power of nutrition and vitamin A while furthering mistrust in vaccines. “We’re providing vitamin A,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News. “There are many studies, some showing 87% effectiveness,” he claimed, “against serious disease and death.”
The studies Kennedy referenced were conducted in low-income countries where children are malnourished. Evidence suggests that vitamin A supplementation is seldom useful against measles in the United States, because deficiency is exceedingly rare.
Kennedy deflected criticism from those who call him anti-vaccine, saying that any parent in Texas who wants a measles vaccine can get one. He followed this with numerous inaccurate statements. “There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year,” he said. “It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera.” There is no evidence that measles vaccines “cause deaths every year.” Scores of studies show that the vaccine doesn’t cause encephalitis, that most potential side effects resolve quickly on their own, and serious adverse reactions are far rarer than measles complications.
In another interview, Kennedy said, “The MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted fetus debris.” The measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine does not contain an iota of fetal cells.
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon and spokespeople at the CDC did not respond to queries from KFF Health News.
“Staff are exhausted”
Despite national attention after the country’s first measles death in a decade, West Texas was overwhelmed. In late February and March, hospital administrators and health officials exchanged emails about how to lobby for resources.
“Local hospitals are at capacity,” wrote Jeffrey Hill, a senior vice president at the University Medical Center Health System in Lubbock. “The state reports emergency funds that typically cover a response like the measles outbreak are not available from the federal government right now,” he added.
“I am writing to express our urgent need for additional staff and funding,” Ronald Cook, medical director for Lubbock, said in an email, drafted with other Lubbock health authorities, to the deputy city manager. “Our Capacity is Stretched Thin: The health department has been operating seven days a week since February 2nd. Staff are exhausted.”
The city of Lubbock fronted money to help the local health department hire temporary staff. The state did not provide money, but it asked the CDC to send epidemiologists. Some came to Texas in early March. Then Texas requested federal funds.
None arrived, even as the outbreak approached 500 cases. It spread to Mexico when an unvaccinated Mennonite child visited relatives in Seminole and returned home with an infection. This would fuel the largest outbreak Mexico has seen in decades, with at least 3,700 cases and 13 deaths in the state of Chihuahua.
In a rare moment of openness, CDC scientist David Sugarman mentioned the outbreak at a vaccine advisory meeting in late April. “There are quite a number of resource requests coming in, in particular from Texas,” Sugarman said. “We are scraping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions.”
Federal funds arrived in Texas on May 21, said Anton, the state health department spokesperson. By then, the crisis was fading. The outbreak seemed to have burned until every unvaccinated person in Seminole was infected, said Richard Eby, a doctor at Permian Regional Medical Center who treated some measles patients. Hundreds, if not thousands, of cases have probably gone undetected, he said. “A lot of people presumed their kids had measles,” he said, “and didn’t see the need to confirm it.”
On Aug. 18, health officials declared the West Texas outbreak over, but the consequences of the catastrophe will be lasting.
The outbreaks it sparked across the U.S. and Mexico are still spreading.
More are inevitable, Nuzzo said. A growing number of parents are deciding not to vaccinate their kids, alarmed by unfounded rumors about the shots. Misinformation is flourishing, especially after Kennedy fired vaccine experts who advise the CDC and replaced them with doctors and researchers lacking expertise in vaccines and infectious disease, including some who have expressed anti-vaccine views. One of his recent appointees, Robert Malone, blamed the deaths of children with measles on “medical mismanagement,” without evidence.
At the same time, states are downsizing programs for emergency response, disease surveillance, and immunization after the Trump administration clawed back more than $11 billion in public health funds earlier this year.
Amid Lubbock’s toughest months, Wells sent an email to the department’s exhausted staff. “The future is uncertain, and I know this is an unsettling time for many of us,” she wrote. “Every day we show up and do our jobs is an act of resilience.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Global immunization expert Dr. Peter Hotez says the federal government’s recent decision to slash $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccines is dangerous, and potentially deadly, for Americans.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced the cuts earlier this month, claiming that mRNA technology is unsafe and ineffective. The decision comes on the heels of a $700 million cut for Moderna flu vaccines.
“He’s pulling out all government funding for mRNA technology when it represents one of our best hopes for pandemic preparedness,” Hotez said. “When you have a brand new emerging viral pathogen, the mRNA technology has the advantage of being the first out of the starting gate in terms of immunizing a population that hasn’t seen that pathogen before.”
And it’s absolutely proven to be highly effective, the doctor added, noting that mRNA vaccines potentially saved 3.2 million lives during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RFK’s decision to cut funding “has deadly impacts,” Hotez said. “It takes off the table our most promising technology for new pandemic threats.”
Hotez, who serves as co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, developed a patent-free COVID-19 vaccine with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, and the two were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 as a result.
The vaccine they developed, a recombinant protein-based product that does not use mRNA technology, is only available in India and Indonesia because that’s where it was licensed, he said. “There was never a path offered to us to get it licensed in the U.S. through the [Food and Drug Administration],” he said. “They were very much affixed to the pharma companies.”
Hotez is now researching mRNA technology for a cancer vaccine but there’s limited access to funding, so he’s hoping some private-sector and biotech companies will step up.
“There are certain things that you need the government for,” he said. “The government had an important role for mRNA technology and now, by pulling out, it means that the U.S. won’t be in the lead on this. We’ll have to pick up the pieces through private sector funding, which will never be quite as good.”
It’s also a step backward for the federal government to withdraw its support and confidence in medical professionals, he added.
“The Department of HHS under Kennedy seems sort of impervious to criticism from the scientific community,” Hotez said. “The American Academy of Pediatrics recently criticized him for his position on childhood immunizations and COVID, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He seems to be moving forward without any White House or congressional oversight and just does whatever he wishes.”
Kennedy said data showed mRNA vaccines, developed during the first Trump administration, “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu”, and that the funding would be shifted what he maintains are “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
The HHS secretary is instead shifting the funding to older technology developed in China that “has a lot of problems” and did not work well during the COVID pandemic, Hotez said. “This is not the technology you want to use for virus respiratory pathogens unless there’s no other alternative,” he said.
“They did not stand up to the variants well, and if you remember, back in 1976 with swine flu they used that technology and it caused a high rate of [autoimmune disease] Guillain-Barré Syndrome,” he said.
Hotez claims that RFK is pulling the funding, not for scientific reasons but for ideological reasons. “He’s very much tied to the wellness and influencer industry which pushes a false narrative that says the mRNA vaccine technology is not safe, it doesn’t work and it doesn’t protect against respiratory infections, and none of those things are true,” Hotez said. “IIt increases the vulnerability of the U.S. population and it weakens our pandemic preparedness.”
The doctor said it’s been a battle to combat misinformation in RFK’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. The HHS secretary has focused on publicizing the dangers of processed foods and eliminating junk food from welfare benefits while pushing a destructive anti-vax narrative, Hotez said.
The federal government’s apathetic stance on childhood vaccines probably contributed to a deadly measles outbreak that began in a West Texas Mennonite community in January, Hotez said. State health officials announced recently that the measles epidemic appears to have come to an end following 762 reported cases, more than 100 hospitalizations, and two deaths.
Hotez said the Department of State Health Services reported that the measles epidemic is over because it’s gone through two complete 21-day incubation periods with no reported cases.
“If there were going to be new cases from this current epidemic, we would have seen it by now,” he said. “That’s a reasonable assumption. But take stock of what’s happened. This was an eight-month epidemic, a pretty devastating epidemic. The worry is that this won’t be the last one.” Measles is highly transmissible, and in the pre-vaccine era, it peaked in late winter/early spring, Hotez said.
“So we’re going to have to hold our breath again as kids are going back to school in the fall,” he said. “Don’t be surprised if we see another major measles epidemic. It’s not just measles. Others are likely to follow. Nationally, we’ve seen big increases in whooping cough and pertussis. I’m looking out for that, and I’m worried about polio.”
“We’ve entered a new era where the return of childhood catastrophic infections becomes more common,” he added.
The Texas Legislature passed a law earlier this year that makes it easier for parents to opt out of immunizations for their school-age children. About 100,000 Texas children already aren’t vaccinated, and there are many more who are homeschooled and not counted by county health departments.
People tend to gather data by looking at state immunization rates when it’s more useful to look at counties, said Hotez, who predicted in 2016 that there would be a West Texas measles epidemic. So how did Americans get to a point where people believe that vaccines are bad? The doctor said that’s a long story.
“What started out as false claims about autism became more of a political enterprise about a decade ago under this Libertarian concept of health freedom and medical freedom,” he said. “That’s when you started to see a rise in vaccine exemptions.”
“In the last few years, the most recent add-on is the wellness and influencer industry, which peddles supplements and low-cost generic anti-parasitic drugs that they can buy in bulk and jack up the price, and unfortunately they also use that as an opportunity to denigrate modern science. They’re particularly active in Texas.”
Officials say a traveler from out of state who visited two Wisconsin gas stations may have exposed others to measles.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said the potential exposures affect those who were at the Flying J Travel Center in Roberts and the Pilot Travel Center in Beloit on Aug. 4.
The exposure window for Flying J was 7:15 a.m. to 10 a.m., while those at Pilot may have been exposed between 11:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Health officials urge anyone who may have been exposed to confirm their immunization status. Symptoms of the disease include a runny nose, high fever, tiredness, cough, irritation and discoloration of the eyes and a red rash with raised bumps. Anyone exposed on Aug. 4 would likely see symptoms by Aug. 25, the health department said.
Anyone with symptoms is asked to avoid public places and notify their doctor.
Wisconsin has seen nine cases of measles so far this year, all of them in Oconto County in July.
Five cases have been reported in Minnesota this year. Health officials in that state say declining vaccination rates are leading to a rise in measles cases. In 2019, more than 92% of Minnesota kindergarteners were fully vaccinated. In 2024, that number had decreased to 87%. Last year, there were 70 cases in Minnesota, about one-third of the total cases in the state since 2010.
