The number of cases of measles in the United States in 2025 has surpassed 1,000, with the disease continuing to grow. In certain states, it is expected that the outbreaks will continue for months to come, with severe risks for unvaccinated people, especially children.
As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been three confirmed deaths so far, two in Texas, in two unvaccinated school-aged children with no known underlying medical conditions. The third one was in New Mexico in an unvaccinated adult. They are the first victims of measles in the US since 2015.
Also from the CDC, the cases as of May 8, 2025 number 1,001 across 31 jurisdictions. This is almost four times the number of cases in 2024, and it is on course to match (and unfortunately surpass) the record of 2019. Over one-third of the cases, 675 to be exact, are in children or teens. Unsurprisingly, 96 percent of the cases are in people who are either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Thanks to the effective measles vaccine, the United States officially eliminated measles in the year 2000. That incredible progress is now being walked back as vaccination rates have fallen, due to widespread misinformation on vaccines that has become prevalent across social media, leading to the avoidable deaths of children.
The US Health and Human Services secretary in the Trump Administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has been outspoken against vaccines for many years. While he eventually urged people to get the vaccine, he also made unscientific claims on alternative treatments for measles, as well as claiming that the MMR vaccine contains aborted fetus debris, which it doesn’t.
This is not the first time that Kennedy has become embroiled in spreading misinformation regarding measles. During Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) stressed the role Kennedy played in discouraging uptake of the measles vaccine in the Pacific nation of Samoa in 2019. Samoa too saw thousands of people infected, and 83 people, most of whom were children, died.
The continuation of this outbreak is concerning for the long-term prospects for infectious diseases in the United States. According to a recent study, if childhood vaccination rates stay at the current level, measles may become endemic again within 25 years, and we are looking at 851,300 cases over that period. In the worst-case scenario with vaccinations dropping to less than 50 percent, this might be a reality in five years, with tens of millions of cases.
Vaccination is safe and necessary to protect people, especially children, from this dangerous disease.
Source Link: US Measles Cases Pass 1,000, Speeding Towards Worst Outbreaks Since 2019
