Measles outbreaks are here to stay

[marmar]

“People are choosing this fate”: Measles will get worse before it gets better
Normalization and apathy from the Trump admin is making health experts less hopeful measles can be contained

By Nicole Karlis
Senior Writer
Published April 8, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Measles has made a major comeback in the U.S. and the pace of infections does not seem to be slowing any time soon. Already, the country is on track to surpass last year’s number of measles infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated data indicating that the U.S. total has reached more than 1,600 measles infections as of April 3, 2026. Last year, the CDC confirmed 2,286 measles cases for all of 2025, the highest number of cases since 1991, but we’re already on track to beat that record. What’s more, the Trump administration has pushed a key review of the country’s measles-free status until after the midterm elections.

According to the CDC report, 17 new outbreaks were reported in 2026. Notably, 94 percent of confirmed cases are “outbreak-associated,” with a majority of cases stemming from outbreaks that started in 2025. An estimated 5 percent of cases have required hospital care already this year; in 2025, 11 percent required hospital care. No deaths have yet been attributed to measles in 2026, but the disease killed three people in 2025. Ninety-two percent of cases this year are in unvaccinated people.

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Before the measles vaccine was widely available in the U.S., around 400 to 500 children would die from measles and its complications each year. Public health experts told Salon they’re concerned that under the Trump administration, measles infections are already becoming endemic and normalized, and that we will see outbreaks as frequently as we did in the 1990s.

“I think we are just going to move backward before we go forward,” Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and author of the newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist, told Salon. “Sure, this has to do with the administration and lack of prioritization, but also because Americans find ourselves at the perfect storm of mistrust in institutions, general amnesia of vaccine preventable diseases, and on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic.” .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/08/people-are-choosing-this-fate-measles-will-get-worse-before-it-gets-better/