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.
It is only July, and we have reached the greatest number of annual cases in 35 years.
As of July 23, 2026, 2,318 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 2,302 measles cases were reported by 45 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, 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, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 16 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.
There have been 35 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 93% of confirmed cases (2,153 of 2,318) are outbreak-associated (782 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,371 from outbreaks that started in 2025).
For the full year of 2025, a total of 2,289 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States.
Measles cases have doubled in California so far this year compared to last year — and 2026 is barely half over.
California has confirmed 52 measles cases in the first 6½ months of the year; that’s more than double the 25 cases reported in all of 2025.
If this pace continues, the number of cases will be the highest since 2015, when there were 125 cases in the state and a portion of them were related to a large outbreak at Disneyland.
Of this year’s 52 cases, 49 patients were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination record. Four have had to be hospitalized. Many cases involve children or young adults — 27 cases involved those ages 5 to 19, and 15 cases involved children under 5 years old, according to the California Department of Public Health. L.A. County has tallied seven cases so far this year among its residents; Orange County has counted four cases.
