We’re setting records all over the place. The number of measles cases in the U.S. is higher than it’s been in 30 years:
This year’s surge in cases and prolonged outbreaks could cause the U.S. to lose its globally recognized measles “elimination status” for the first time in decades by the end of January 2026.
- The outbreaks come amid Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to downplay the risks of measles and spread misleading claims about the vaccine, while suggesting other alternatives without evidence.
There were 2,012 measles cases reported nationwide as of Dec. 23, per the CDC. Of those cases, 1,988 were reported across 44 jurisdictions.
- The CDC says 87% of those cases came from 50 different outbreaks, and some 93% of those infected were either unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
- Texas has reported the highest number of cases this year (803), followed by Arizona (187) and South Carolina (156).
Only 285 confirmed measles cases were reported in 2024.
Gee, I wonder what’s happened?
I’ll just leave this famous piece from Roald Dahl here. I just wish some of the fools who are refusing to vaccinate their kids would read it:
My eldest daughter caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.
“Are you feeling all right?“ I asked her. “I feel all sleepy,” she said.
In an hour, she was unconscious. In 12 hours she was dead.
The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was 24 years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.
On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.
It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness.
Believe me, it is. In my opinion, parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk.
In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles, like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.
Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year.
Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another.
At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections. About 20 will die.
LET THAT SINK IN.
Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles.
So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised?
They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million-to-one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.
So what on earth are you worrying about?
It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised.
The ideal time to have it done is 13 months, but it is never too late. All school children who have not yet had a measles immunisation should beg their parents to arrange for them to have one as soon as possible.
Incidentally, I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was “James and the Giant Peach.” That was when she was still alive. The second was “The BFG,” dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.
He wrote that in 1986. You’ll notice that he says in America measles was nearly eradicated because everyone got vaccinated. Sadly, not anymore. And it’s all because of this nonsensical “wellness and wingnut” coalition of antidiluvian fools who follow destructive know-nothings like RFK Jr and refuse to get their kids vaccinated.