America may be about to lose the measles-elimination status it has held since 2000, and the verdict could double as a referendum on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as Politico’s Sophie Gardner and Claudia Chiappa report. This week, eight public health officials advising the Pan American Health Organization will decide whether a single chain of transmission has persisted in the U.S. for at least a year.
The evidence isn’t flattering. More than 7,000 infections have been reported nationwide since January 2025, New York is under a state of emergency, and Pennsylvania’s Amish communities have logged more than 1,487 cases and six deaths. That death toll hints the real case count could be at least twice the official tally.
Containing measles requires about 95% vaccination coverage, but kindergarten rates have slid to 92.4%. That matters for a virus that causes complications in about 30% of those infected. HHS points to $100 million in extra funding and experts deployed to outbreak states. Meanwhile, Kennedy calls vaccination a “personal” choice and has launched an NIH center to study vaccine injuries. This summer, President Trump signed an executive order urging drugmakers to break up the MMR shot.
“We’ve never been in a situation where the head of a prominent government health agency was a science denier,” said James Colgrove, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Europe offers a contrast. Cases in the European Economic Area fell from more than 35,000 to fewer than 8,000 in a year, helped by tougher pro-vaccine policies. “In the U.S., there’s no consensus message, and that’s really a problem,” said Ben Kasstan-Dabush, assistant professor of global health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
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Jane Seward, a former top CDC official, warns that the country is now losing ground: “We’re on a path to have endemic transmission re-established and see more and more measles cases.”
