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.
CDC:
As of May 14, 2026, 1,893 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 1,884 measles cases were reported by 40 jurisdictions: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 9 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.Bischops A, Hulland E, Patzakis M et al. Will the USA lose its measles elimination status?
The Lancet, 407, 1679-1681
Four of seven indicators of sustained measles elimination status have already been missed, and the remaining three indicators are unlikely to be achieved (pending further epidemiological and genomic analyses; figure). In the 53 outbreaks, over 93 cases per 10 million people were reported. 94% of cases were transmitted locally, and most sequenced cases shared the same virus genotype. Although national case numbers decreased after a surge in April, 2025, they increased steeply in January, 2026, resulting in 285 (75·8%) of 376 days since January, 2025, with a median Rt estimate above the propagation threshold of 1·0 (appendix p 4). This estimate suggests that transmission was likely ongoing in the USA for the majority of the previous year. Even though our most recent Rt estimate (Feb 16, 2026) was below 1 (median 0·60, 95% CI 0·51–0·70), our projections suggest that case counts might ramp up again before the PAHO decision (appendix p 7). Our findings remained largely unchanged in sensitivity analyses for both Rt estimates and case projections (appendix pp 4–11). Short-horizon back checks for the daily incidence projections are shown in the appendix (pp 12–14). A negative binomial model that accounted for overdispersion in measles case counts produced Rt estimates similar to those from the presented Poisson-based model (appendix p 15).
In 2025, the USA had the largest number of annual measles cases since 1991. Although the current outbreak initially started with imported cases, most infections resulted from local transmission. This pattern likely reflects declining vaccination coverage, which—for kindergarteners in the 2024–25 school year—remained below the 95% required to achieve herd immunity against measles (>95% threshold). With confirmed cases in 45 states and ongoing transmission throughout the majority of the year, current trends suggest that the USA is nearing the loss of elimination status.
