WSJ: US about to lose Measles Eliminated Status

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A relentless measles outbreak in Utah has been spreading for nearly a year, putting the U.S. on a path to losing the measles-elimination status it earned more than two decades ago.

Fueling the nearly 12-month outbreak: more parents opting not to vaccinate their children for school; infections hitting communities statewide; and lenient public-health policies on quarantining exposed students.

Utah’s streak of 679 cases is the latest and longest-lasting of a series of measles outbreaks in the U.S. since early last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in the process of assessing whether any outbreaks lasted more than 12 months, which is a determinant of whether the U.S. would lose its status as a country that eliminated measles as of 2000....

The highly contagious disease spread quickly across undervaccinated communities along the Utah-Arizona border last summer. Unlike in outbreaks in Texas, South Carolina and Arizona, the disease spread in Utah beyond close-knit communities to every state health district....

Dr. Trahern W. Jones, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Utah, said the outbreak was no accident: “This outbreak is the product of years of miscommunication and misinformation.”

Jones is interviewing families whose children were infected. They aren’t antivaccine crusaders, he said, but didn’t understand the severity of the disease, or believed vaccines could cause autism.

The state’s measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccinations among kindergartens fell nearly 10% over 13 years....

Exposures at a high-school wrestling championship tournament in February helped spread measles around the state. Utah officials reported exposures at elementary schools, churches, an aquarium, Walmart stores, a ski resort and a youth gymnastics meet.

Local health departments have alerted residents to the potential for measles exposures at doctors offices....

While several childhood vaccines, including the MMR shot, are required to register for school in Utah, parents can opt out for religious or personal reasons. Some 10% of Utah’s kindergartners received nonmedical exemptions for one or more vaccines during the 2024-25 school year—the second-highest of any U.S. state, behind Idaho, according to CDC data.

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Local health departments have alerted residents to the potential for measles exposures at doctors offices.

The county health department in Provo, Utah, told Aubrey Johnson, 28 years old, that her newborn might have been exposed to measles at her pediatrician’s office around Thanksgiving, she said. Just 1 week old at the time, Johnson’s son was too young to be vaccinated. So Johnson delayed visits from her parents, in-laws and grandmother to meet the newest member of their family as she monitored him for measles symptoms.

“Is that red spot on his head a rash or a birthmark I didn’t notice?” Johnson recalled thinking. “It just heightened the anxiety of it.” Johnson’s son recently turned 6 months old and received an early dose of the MMR vaccine, which pediatricians recommend for infants in outbreak areas.

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