The U.S. just shattered the record for measles cases, and experts say the surge is driven by anti-vaxxers.
As of late July 2026, the United States has officially recorded 2,295 cases of measles, eclipsing all of last year's total and marking the highest annual count since 1991.
Public health experts at Johns Hopkins University, who compiled the data, are deeply concerned by the speed of the transmission, noting that reaching this milestone so early in the year highlights a breakdown in community herd immunity.
Major outbreaks in states like South Carolina and Utah have driven the spike, proving that the highly contagious airborne virus can rapidly exploit gaps in local vaccination coverage.
The resurgence threatens the United States' official measles-elimination status, a designation the country has proudly held since 2000. For decades, the double-dose Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine successfully kept the disease at bay, but recent years have seen immunization rates slip below the critical 95 percent threshold required to prevent widespread transmission.
Epidemiologists warn that without aggressive efforts to combat vaccine misinformation and improve routine vaccination rates in under-immunized pockets, the U.S. will continue to see preventable pediatric hospitalizations and outbreaks spread through schools, households, and community spaces.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 24^th, 2026 at 5:20pm:


Measles and explosive diarrhoea.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 24^th, 2026 at 5:20pm:

Third worlders.

Same here.

The number of confirmed measles cases in the U.S. so far this year has hit 2,318, surpassing the total reported for all last year, according to data updated Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previously, last year's total of 2,289 was the highest number of recorded measles cases in more than 30 years, CDC data shows. The new figure marks the highest number of cases recorded since 1991.

A surge in measles cases during the past two years has coincided with a steady ​slump in MMR immunization rates for children since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Average U.S. vaccination coverage among kindergarten children dropped last year to 92.5%, well below the level of 95% considered necessary to achieve ‌effective "herd" immunity needed ⁠to prevent the spread of the virus, the CDC says.

In at least 16 states, some of them with the highest measles incidence this year, vaccine coverage rates have declined to less than 90%, the CDC said.

Many health officials have cited a public backlash to the government's pandemic response and blame U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine policies for further undermining trust in disease-preventing immunizations by embracing unproven theories about vaccine dangers.

Kennedy has repeatedly promoted the claim that measles vaccines are linked to autism despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. Last June, ​he fired all members of the CDC's expert ​vaccine advisory panel, which recommends how vaccines ⁠are used and by whom.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 26^th, 2026 at 5:29pm:


Makes you wonder how anyone could defend and support such an evil regime.

Yet, lee and Frank still do.

lee wrote on Jul 24^th, 2026 at 5:21pm:


I caught the measles in 1994, just before I went in to hospital for minor surgery. I had to be isolated from other patients for the time I was ill. And I was better upon the day before I was released.

It does not matter how "highly educated" you are. Airborne diseases do not discriminate. I have no reason to get vaxxed for measles now that I am immune to the disease. Chances are, there are probably a lot of Americans that experience the same and don't believe that they need to spend money getting their children vaxxed.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 27^th, 2026 at 7:16pm:


The measles vax for children in the USA is free.

Parents aren't getting their kids vaccinated because Trump and Kennedy are spreading lies about vaccinations.

It has nothing to do with money or immigrants - it's 100% the rapist's fault.