As of June 18, 2026, 2,104 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 2,093 measles cases were reported by 41 jurisdictions: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, 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 11 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.
After polls showed the political downsides of antivax policy, the administration took a lower profile on the issue. But at WP, Rachel Roubein and Lena H, Sun report:
But outside the public eye, a small circle of Kennedy’s allies has kept working to reshape the federal apparatus that guides vaccines. This account of the behind-the-scenes effort is based on interviews with more than 15 people familiar with the matter, in addition to medical experts and Kennedy allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations or internal deliberations, or out of fear of retaliation.
Federal health officials are exploring re-creating an influential vaccine advisory panel that was blocked by a federal judge, including discussions around adding new members, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
There is also an effort to create a new Office of Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reports to the office of CDC’s chief of staff, even though the agency already has a science office.
Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health urged scientists to take part in vaccine injury research and encouraged new research into vaccine schedules, vaccines’ long-term health effects and other issues that Kennedy has long wanted reexamined.
These moves, the extent of which have not been previously reported, suggest that political warnings and legal challenges from medical groups have not fully stopped Kennedy’s vaccine agenda, but shifted it largely out of public view. Kennedy’s allies are embedding his agenda in institutions that decide what gets studied, who does vaccine research and how these findings are translated into policy. This could keep the Trump administration’s questioning of vaccines’ safety alive for years to come.
Greg Jaffe and Maggie Haberman at NYT:
A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.
The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables.
A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak.
A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.
In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21, only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, which had long been mandatory, an Air Force official said.
In the aftermath of the outbreak, the Air Force issued an exception to the voluntary vaccine policy, requiring that all recruits at Lackland get flu shots — part of a broader effort to stem the virus’s spread.
