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. Last year, he lied about it under oath.
Since Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.
Measles continues to rip through unvaccinated communities across the United States.
The virus has sickened at least 4,410 people this year, according to a report today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The total number of measles cases grew by 8%, or 330 cases, in just the past seven days. That’s more than the total number of measles cases in all of 2024, when the CDC confirmed 285 cases.
There have been 42 new measles outbreaks across the country this year. Of the confirmed cases, 96% have been in people who are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status.
The true number of measles cases is likely to be substantially larger, according to public health experts. Pennsylvania has reported six measles deaths, a much higher number than experts would predict based on the 1,260 cases in that state.
That’s because the expected mortality rate from measles ranges from one to three deaths per 1,000 infections. Based on those historic rates, infectious disease specialists say the true number of measles infections in Pennsylvania could be 6,000 or more.
The discrepancy could be due to underreporting of milder cases in people who don’t need to be hospitalized. In traditional communities hit hard by the measles, including the Amish or Mennonite communities, parents often take care of children with measles at home, rather than bring them to a doctor, who would report the case to the health department.
“Our detection of disease is only as good as our reporting,” said Robert Hopkins, MD, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
