Outrage of the Month: Vaccine Chaos and the Resurgence of Measles
Health Letter, September 2026
By Robert Steinbrook, M.D.
Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention!
Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
As of Aug. 20, 2026, 2,777 confirmed measles cases had been reported in the United States this year; 2,289 confirmed cases were reported in all of 2025. The 2026 cases represent a 35-year high, were reported by 46 states and the District of Columbia, included 193 hospitalizations (7% of all cases), and most were associated with a measles outbreak. The continuing epidemic started in Texas in early 2025 with two imported cases and subsequently spread throughout the country.
Of the 2026 measles cases, 94% were in individuals who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, 3% had one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and 3% had two doses, which is the recommendation for children. The cases included 522 (19%) in children younger than 5 years and 1,314 (47%) between 5 and 19 years. To date, two deaths have been reported in 2026; three deaths were reported in 2025.
During the 2024-2025 school year, MMR vaccination coverage was 92.5% for kindergartners. Vaccine coverage has been decreasing and is well below the 95% threshold for coverage with two MMR doses that prevents outbreaks and protects communities against an exceptionally contagious disease that can cause serious illness and death.
In November 2026, the United States is likely to lose its measles elimination status, which it has held since 2000. Measles elimination status entails an uninterrupted and prolonged absence of endemic transmission — that is, no continuous transmission chain for measles for at least one year.
Against the backdrop of an ongoing public health crisis, it is mystifying that the Trump administration in August 2026 issued a tone-deaf executive order calling into question the childhood vaccine schedule. Among other troubling provisions, the executive order called for the MMR vaccine to be split into three separate, single-disease shots that should be administered at separate medical visits.
The MMR vaccine is one of the crowning achievements of modern medicine. A split version of the vaccine doesn’t exist in the United States, is not supported by evidence-based science, and manufacturers have no interest in making one. Splitting the vaccine would further decrease coverage at a time when uptake is already too low, subject children to more needlesticks, increase health care costs and leave more children vulnerable to infectious diseases that vaccines can prevent.
The first individual measles vaccine was released in the United States in 1963. Following the licensing of the mumps vaccine in 1967 and the rubella vaccine in 1969, the Food and Drug Administration approved the combined MMR vaccine in 1971. Of 194 World Health Organization member states, 179 use the combined MMR vaccine. There is no connection between the MMR vaccine or any other childhood vaccine and autism.
Creating vaccine chaos and confusion is exactly the wrong response to the resurgence of measles. Once again, states, medical professional societies and health insurers, now joined by vaccine manufacturers, must push back and protect public health.