MEASLES, VACCINATIONS, AND THE POLITICS OF MEDICINE #1

I find it remarkable that measles are in the headlines. Isn’t their context on a BBC period drama or on a Little House on the Prairie episode? Turns out, no! It is not! The current number of confirmed measles cases is staggering. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (1) as of July 8, 2025, in the US there are 1,288 confirmed cases.

For a bit of perspective on that number, during the ENTIRE YEAR of 2024, there were only 285 cases of measles. Remember, it’s only July!

So what happened? Let’s back up a few years to 2019. There was a decrease in people getting their vaccination, resulting in the number of measles cases shooting up to 1300. Due to the COVID pandemic that following year, this number plummeted. Now that we no longer have the isolation the number of measles cases has sky rocketed yet again.

Vaccinations have not been a part of our society for much longer than 4 generations. The CDC started keeping records of measles cases in 1912. The rate was about 500,000 people per year, roughly 6,000 resulting in death. It’s difficult for us to imagine the world before vaccinations were widespread. Every person knew of a child who died before the age of 3, where now it is a rare tragedy. In today’s world everyone knows someone that is autistic, and the conspiracy theory connecting vaccinations to autism is much more real to a lot of people.

It was in 1963 that the measles vaccine became available and cases dropped 90%. By the year 2000, measles was completely eradicated from the US, meaning we went an entire decade without a new case.

So things were great! Why are they screwed up now?

Stay tuned for Measles, Vaccinations, and the Politics of Medicine, Part 2. We’ll dive a little deeper, discussing Individualism versus Collectivism and how that relates to our rising number of measles cases.

(1) cdc.gov