In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
A deadly measles outbreak in Texas ended in August, but outbreaks in other parts of the United States continue to add hundreds of new measles cases to this year’s record national total.
There have been an average of 27 new measles cases reported each week since the end of August, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The annual total – now up to 1,563 cases since January – is the highest by a significant margin since measles was declared eliminated in the US a quarter-century ago.
There’s a new outbreak in Ohio, a recent surge in cases in Minnesota and more than 150 unvaccinated schoolchildren in South Carolina are in quarantine because of an ongoing outbreak there.
Before this year, the US had recorded only 10 large measles outbreaks – defined by the CDC as more than 50 related cases – since reaching elimination status in 2000. But an ongoing outbreak along the border between Arizona and Utah is already the third large outbreak this year.
But the true total could be even higher, says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"If you talk to people on the ground, including not only in Texas, but other states, they all say the same thing, which is that the numbers are much worse than that. Probably closer to 5,000 cases," Offit says. "And it's not done."
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The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. To protect communities against outbreaks, they need a vaccination rate of 95%, according to the CDC.
Nationwide, measles vaccination rates have been slipping for years — they're currently at 92.5%. The trend predates the current administration, but Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in New York City, says it doesn't help that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of criticizing vaccines. Ratner notes that acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill has suggested breaking up the standard measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots, which Ratner says is neither feasible nor is it backed by data.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Sunday.
"It's no wonder that parents are, you know, confused and frightened," says Ratner, the author of Booster Shots, a history of the fight against measles and its recent resurgence.
