Measles Update: The Cost of Vaccine Hesitancy

Measles infections in the US were virtually eliminated by 2002 with fewer than 100 isolated cases per year.  This success was due to vaccination rates of greater than 95% for children entering kindergarten, with only rare exemptions for personal or medical reasons.

We now have a serious epidemic of measles in unvaccinated children that began in western Texas and has spread to adjoining states. Two children have died of measles infection. Why? Vaccination rates have plummeted in many areas in recent years, fueled by misinformation and concerns about the COVID vaccines.

The MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine is given to children 2 years or older, and is highly protective against measles infection. This is a remarkable success story given how efficient the measles virus is at transmission. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently published a survey of vaccination rates in each state. The attached figure shows the sobering results. While only 3 states had kindergarten vaccination rates below 90% in the 2019-2020 school year, that number has now increased to 14 states (black in the figure). Moreover, 24 states had vaccination rates between 90 and 95% (dark grey in the figure). Only 11 states, including California, had vaccination rates of 95%, the rate necessary to reduce the risk of a measles epidemic (light grey in the figure; MT did not report results).

Since 2018, California has made it difficult to obtain a personal exemption for childhood vaccination, which has helped keep vaccination rates for our local public schools above 95%. But look at all the states surrounding us with vaccination rates lower than the protective 95%. They are allowing the current measles epidemic to spread westward.

The federal response has been more misinformation from our chief vaccine denier and head of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA division for vaccine evaluation, was forced to resign because he wouldn’t support Kennedy’s statements.

How is it that we have been able to turn a vaccine success story into such a looming disaster? Mistrust of experts, the ability to find any viewpoint on social media or Fox News, the revival of clearly fraudulent news that vaccines cause autism, and personal autonomy that values what is good for me versus what is good for my community. The unacceptable result is letting innocent children die from a preventable disease.