By Patricia Callahan, ProPublica
This story was originally published by ProPublica.
The U.S. has reached a grim milestone: as of July 23, more measles cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year than in any year since 1991. It took less than seven months to blow past the three-decade high recorded last year.
Measles is easily prevented by shots that are widely available and, in many cases, free. Still, since the beginning of last year, more than 4,850 people in the U.S. have been infected, and three have died, including two unvaccinated girls in West Texas whose deaths made national headlines.
Why It Matters: ProPublica reporter Patricia Callahan writes that it’s dangerous to shrug off the resurgence of measles. In earlier reporting, she found that in parts of the world that have let their guard down on vaccine-preventable diseases, long-forgotten scourges have roared back, killing and disabling children. Babies have been born blind, deaf and with intellectual disabilities because their mothers caught rubella in early pregnancy; parents have again seen why diphtheria used to be called “the strangling angel of children.”
The Backdrop: Callahan writes that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, and President Donald Trump have been transforming a government that for decades promoted the benefits of vaccines into one that sows doubt about their safety. Last week, according to the report, the president issued another executive order likely to fuel further hesitancy about the shot that has protected children from measles, mumps and rubella for decades.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the agency has not limited access to vaccines, telling ProPublica: “Secretary Kennedy believes that trust is rebuilt through an open review of safety data, the willingness to ask the hard questions, and ensuring the American people have all emerging information as soon as we know it.”
The Warning Signs: Dr. Melinda Wharton, who retired last September after more than three decades leading CDC immunization programs, told ProPublica: “I think there always was a worst-case scenario. I don’t think I imagined it could or would be this bad.” The report notes that Kennedy has also been considering changes to a little-known federal program that compensates people for rare vaccine side effects — changes that could prompt the few companies that make childhood vaccines to stop selling them in the U.S., leaving even parents who want the shots unable to get them.
Background: The reporting builds on a series of ProPublica investigations, including a 2025 finding that CDC leaders buried an internal measles forecast stressing the need for vaccination, and 2026 modeling by Stanford epidemiologists estimating how many people could die or be disabled over 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria became unavailable in the U.S.
Read the full story at propublica.org. Sign up for ProPublica’s newsletters to get their investigations delivered to your inbox.