U. S. Measles Cases Hit 35-Year High, As RJK Jr. Fills Federal Health Agencies With Vaccine Skeptics - uPolitics
The United States has now recorded 2,318 confirmed measles cases so far this year, according to the CDC, surpassing all of 2025’s total and marking the worst stretch for the disease since 1991 — a full four months before the year even ends. That last criticism has centered heavily on Health and Human Services Secretary […]
The United States has now recorded 2,318 confirmed measles cases so far this year, according to the CDC, surpassing all of 2025’s total and marking the worst stretch for the disease since 1991 — a full four months before the year even ends. That last criticism has centered heavily on Health and Human Services SecretaryRobert F. Kennedy Jr. ,who has faced sustained pushback from epidemiologists for declining to issue an endorsement of the measles vaccine even as cases climbed, instead pointing at times to vitamin A as a treatment option. Kennedy has stack federal health agencies with like-minded vaccine skeptics. The tally already topslast year’s 2,289 cases, which itself had stood as the highest count in more than three decades since the country officially eliminated the disease in 2000. Confirmed infections now span 43 states and the District of Columbia, with the current outbreak tracing back to two imported cases identified in Texas in early 2025 before spreading nationwide. South Carolina’s Spartanburg County has emerged as a particular hot spot, logging the highest single-county case count anywhere in the country since elimination, while Utah has separately confirmed more than 500 cases of its own this year. The demographics behind the surge point squarely toward vaccination gaps: roughly 93% of this year’s cases involve people who are unvaccinated or whose immunization status isn’t known, and about one in ten children under five who’ve contracted the virus have required hospitalization. No deaths have been reported in 2026 so far, though three fatalities were recorded during last year’s outbreak. Subscribe To Our Cheat SheetOne week of political news in your inbox!Public health researchers now consider it highly likely the U. S. will formally lose its measles elimination status this fall, a designation the Pan American Health Organization is expected to revisit in November. Experts point to several converging factors behind the decline — falling vaccination rates nationally, diminished public fear of a disease many Americans have never personally witnessed, eroding trust in health institutions, and what several specialists describe as muddled messaging from federal health leadership. Kennedy has defended his agency’s handling of the outbreak before Congress,even as HHS pursues budget proposals that would cut funding to agencies including the CDC and NIH by roughly a quarter compared with 2025 levels— cuts critics argue could further hamper the government’s ability to contain the spread going forward. LikeLikeLoveHahaWowSadAngryRead more about: