Back in April I wrote a post discussing the spike in measles cases in the US. The infection had been considered eradicated in this country since the year 2000, but since the influx of the "Anti-vax movement", cases have begun to rise.
Measles is *highly contagious* and a bit of a 'sneaky' virus as sypmtoms don't begin to appear until 7-14 days past exposure. This makes it much harder to track from an epidemiology standpoint since so much time passes before infection. Obviously trying to locate everyone a patient has been in contact in the last 1-2 weeks is difficult.
The disease is especially dangerous for young children and babies. Infants should receive the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine at 12-15 months of age. Before then they are *highly* at risk since they have no immunity. The disease is also extremely dangerous. 1-3 out of every 1000 children who contract measles dies from either respiratory or neurologic complications.
About 5% of children who are infected get pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death from the disease. However, about 1 child out of every 1000 who are infected develop encephalitis which is a swelling of the brain. It can cause seizures, deafness, or intellectual disability.
About 1 in 5, or 20%, of unvaccinated people in the US who contract measles are hospitalized.
Needless to say, this is a very serious disease. For the last 15-20 years, there were few cases due to the vaccination rate being at 95%. However, vaccination rates have declined significantly. This is due to unfounded and unscientific fears of the vaccine. If you are interested in current data on the outbreaks that are occurring, the CDC has a webpage that lists Measles Cases and Outbreaks. There have been no reported deaths yet in 2026, but in 2025 measles killed three in the US.
On July 24, 2026 The New York Times published a good article on the recent outbreak, which I highly recommend reading.
While I'm a big supporter of personal freedom and giving citizens choices, there are limits on those things. Your freedom should not impact the lives... and especially the health of children. The choice to not vaccinate can have tremendous impact on the health of others. Sentencing an infant to death is not something to take lightly. Vaccination is the only way to currently prevent this situation. This situation is already bad and it's going to get worse unless vaccination rates increase immediately.
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