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US Measles Cases Surpass 2,000, Highest in 30 Years: CDC 159

The U.S. has surpassed 2,000 measles cases for the first time in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From a report: As of Dec. 23, a total of 2,012 cases have been reported in the U.S. Of those cases, 24 were reported among international visitors to the U.S.
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US Measles Cases Surpass 2,000, Highest in 30 Years: CDC

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  • by stooo ( 2202012 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:03AM (#65892505) Homepage

    Jut suppress the statistics and pretend the problem does not exist.
    Chinese method.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:05AM (#65892517)

      The orange ape will get on it posthaste! If he can keep it together long enough...

    • Jut suppress the statistics and pretend the problem does not exist. Chinese method.

      Nah, this is the US. We'll have some half-dead zombie make a public speech saying that these people just need to toughen up and that if we hadn't turned ourselves into giant wusses by taking vaccines this wouldn't be happening. You forgot America's number one rule, never let a tragedy go to waste.

      • And I thought the number one rule was 'rich people need to make more money'.
      • Funny, a neighbor just recently made that argument to me about vaccines and kids. I imagine a fox news talking point. I don't even respond anymore. How does one respond to stupid?
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Jut suppress the statistics and pretend the problem does not exist. Chinese method.

      And endorsed by Trump in 2020.

    • The American way is to blame it on the immigrants.

  • What's next, re-introducing smallpox?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Perhaps they still keep some blankets at Mars-a-Lardo.

      • Oh, I see a religious nut with a grudge has mod points. Tell me, dear ISIS brother, what's the reason for the disappearance of the smallpox and how it relates to the vaccination policies of the current government that you helped to get elected.

    • What's next, re-introducing smallpox?

      Hey, anything to Make America Healthy Again - right? /s

  • 24 were reported among international visitors to the U.S.

    ..to avoid visiting the USA.
    It's bad for both mental and physical health (apart from the chance of lead poisoning).

  • by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:16AM (#65892555)

    Ideally an unvaccinated kid should not be allowed to attend public schools unless there is an overwhelming medical reason (known allergy in the child) for not being vaccinated. That particular boat seems to have left, so perhaps we need to see some cases where the parents of a child who is in the chain that leads to damage or death in another child is sued for the damages. This would only be just...

    • by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:25AM (#65892575)

      You mean like it used to be until recently?

      • You mean like it used to be until recently?

        AFAIK it has always been possible to get exceptions to the vaccination requirements. I know it was when I was in school (70s and 80s) and when my kids were in school (90s and 2000s). It's just that not very many people tried, and herd immunity is a real thing.

      • What changed? Where in the U.S. are measles vaccines not required in 2025?

        Has RFK, jr actually changed the measles vaccine requirement? No, he didn't.

        https://www.immunize.org/offic... [immunize.org]

    • by larwe ( 858929 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:29AM (#65892583)
      It is incredibly difficult to prove just where the links of that chain led to, though. Such lawsuits have been filed but to date, there is apparently not a single one that has been successful. Sure, you may have a really damn good idea that UnVaxedBobby was the kid who infected your child, because UnVaxedBobby was the only positive case you know of - but the defense will argue "your child was out and about in the environment, walking through supermarkets, licking doorknobs, who knows where in the world they acquired the specific dose that infected them?"
      • It might be an extreme one: unvaxxed Billy bursts into immuno-compromised Johnnie's otherwise sterile hospital room without a facemask because he's his best friend. Johnnie dies of measles and Billy had it at the time. Once the story started to roll, it would send the message.

        • by larwe ( 858929 )
          Pretty sure this exact scenario has played out and _still_ not led to a victory in court. Hospitals are not completely sterile; they're not AMRIID isolation rooms. Infections do occur. Personnel move to and fro through them. Enough to create doubt.
          • ... Enough to create doubt.

            This, however would be a civil case not a criminal one. Reasonable doubt is only the standard in criminal cases. In a civil case like this, the standard is the preponderance of evidence. That means that the jury is supposed to judge for whichever side is more likely; 51% is supposed to be enough.
            • by larwe ( 858929 )

              I understand that indeed, but preponderance of evidence means preponderance of _actual_ evidence. And this is kind of an "absence of evidence may or may not be evidence of absence" thing. As I understand it, the play was:

              Side A: Timmy McVulnerable was happy in his isolation bubble. Then Bobby Unvaxxed came in. During the expected incubation period of measles, Timmy started showing symptoms. Bobby was diagnosed with measles at a time that overlaps his infectious period with the day he visited Timmy. Ergo, he

      • by Targon ( 17348 )

        When you have people in government creating doubt about the effectiveness of vaccines in general, then those people in government are fully responsible for the drop in vaccination rates. The US government even has it in the preamble to the US Constitution..."...to promote the general welfare...", and that says government should be doing things to improve things for the overall population. While some doubt might be reasonable for NEW vaccines, the idea of vaccines overall has been proven to be a good thin

        • by larwe ( 858929 )
          You're not going to get any argument out of me. Last wellness visit when my son needed shots, the Dr. was kinda skating around language saying things like "Well, the general recommendation is ..." - it took me a bit to realize that I live in Indiana and she was not sure what kind of person she was talking to. So I cut through the whole thing by saying "Doctor, this is a factory fresh baby, he is on the factory maintenance schedule". She looked visibly relieved.
  • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:16AM (#65892557) Journal

    When you have Republicans saying they want things to be like their were in the 50s, then put an anti-vaxxer in charge of the nation's top health agency, what would you expect?

    Whooping cough cases are also seeing a similar increase as well as deaths.

    • by 0xG ( 712423 )

      When you have Republicans saying they want things to be like their were in the 50s, then put an anti-vaxxer in charge of the nation's top health agency, what would you expect?

      Whooping cough cases are also seeing a similar increase as well as deaths.

      Let's bring back Thalidomide while we're on this nostalgia kick!

    • by rskbrkr ( 824653 )
      TIL Mark Carney is a Republican. It's about 21 times higher if you calculate the per capita value btw.

      Canada lost its measles elimination status on November 10, 2025, after more than 12 months of sustained transmission of the highly contagious and deadly viral disease. The decision by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – which is the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO) – comes as Canada faces a large, multi-jurisdictional outbreak of measles with over 5,200 cases year to date, leading to two deaths. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/canada-loses-measles-free-status/ [globalcitizen.org]

    • When you have Republicans saying they want things to be like their were in the 50s, ...

      Which is also before Medicare and Medicaid were enacted (1965),
      but they'll have to revert us back to before 1935 to get us back to before Social Security.
      Pretty sure they'd love that too.

    • Except the MMR (measles) vaccine is currently required, maybe dig a little deeper into the science, rely a little less on political talking heads?

      https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/h... [cdc.gov]

  • It gets better (Score:5, Informative)

    by gtall ( 79522 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:21AM (#65892567)

    Apparently vaccination rates are dropping by quite a bit: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

    And parents will not know the extent of their stupidity because the CDC won't be collecting data like they did in the past. Immuno-compromised kids will lose.

    • Re:It gets better (Score:5, Interesting)

      by larwe ( 858929 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @10:30AM (#65892593)
      When I came in for a vax a few weeks ago, my pharmacist said "you should get everything you can while it's still on the market... I advise you get [xyz] ASAP". So yeah my arm hurt like a mofo that day :)
      • by necro81 ( 917438 )

        So yeah my arm hurt like a mofo that day

        Yup, but small price to pay compared to experiencing any one of the diseases you are now immunized against. And also a small price to pay for the consolation that you won't be the link in a chain of infection that leads to some else's death. So, all in all, worth it for both purely selfish and for social-contract reasons. If only everyone could be so enlightened.

        • by larwe ( 858929 )

          small price to pay compared to experiencing any one of the diseases you are now immunized against

          Oh of course. I am not afraid of vaccines, just occasionally lazy enough not to get them. I usually get the routine ones but this time my pharmacist pointed out that things are weird at the moment and for a mere $0 (plus $20 in free store credits) I could get several other vaccines NOW before the insurance companies stop covering them. He was Vietnamese. We compared our dates of birth and smallpox vaccine scars. He told me "You probably get too many shots, since you can recognize which vaccine that was".

          Sid

      • by antdude ( 79039 )

        Which vaccines and how many? Shouldn't it just be one vaccine on each arm like COVID19 and flu shots?

        • by larwe ( 858929 )
          Covid, flu, RSV, Hep A+B first dose (second A dose is next week), and some kind of pneumonia.
    • From Ten countries in the Americas report measles outbreaks in 2025 [paho.org] we can see that Mexico and Canada already had more cases back in August than the US does now at the end of the year despite them having much smaller populations than the US.

      Countries with the highest case numbers include Canada (4,548 cases), Mexico (3,911 cases), and the United States (1,356 cases).

      I find it interesting that ABC chose not to mention this pertinent information, makes me wonder what other news they're suppressing.

      • by nickovs ( 115935 )

        Well, it's a US news outlet, and US news reporting does tend to be rather parochial; I think it is more myopia than new suppression. The news here is the huge leap up in cases in the USA but I'm sure the RFK will be upset that you're not #1 yet.

        It's worth noting that there are some strong similarities between the US and Canadian outbreaks in 2025. Both started in Mennonite communities with very low vaccination rates and spread through close community contact. The Canadian outbreak appears to have started

        • by SpiceWare ( 3438 )
          Maybe, but based on the responses seen here on Slashdot, ABC's coverage is fanning a political conflict despite the US fairing significantly better than our immediate neighbors during the current global outbreak of measles. [cdc.gov]
        • Well, it's a US news outlet, and US news reporting does tend to be rather parochial; I think it is more myopia than new suppression. The news here is the huge leap up in cases in the USA but I'm sure the RFK will be upset that you're not #1 yet.

          So, roughly, Canada had what, 4x as many cases of measles as the U.S.? OK, those are absolute numbers, let's factor in population - Canada has 38M residents, US has 338M, or about 1/9the population of the U.S. That means Canada had about 40x the number of measles cas

      • Comparing yourself with other countries that is also doing it wrong does not make you more right. This is a really strange cope.
      • by necro81 ( 917438 )

        we can see that Mexico and Canada already had more cases

        Saying that other countries are doing worse is no excuse for the US not doing better. That's like doing poorly in the SATs because you were out partying the night before, then crowing how awesome it is that you're still above the median. [slow clap]

        Or, to up the stakes to life and death (because, for vaccines, it is): that's like doing the Hunger Games and saying "Well, I got killed off, but there were 7 others that got killed before me - suckers!"

      • Whataboutism.

        • Canada had 3x the measles case count in a country with 1/9th the population compared with the U.S.

          That's a comparison that merits attention, not dismissal - it means a person in Canada is 27x more likely to get measles than someone in the U.S., and this is despite Canada's single-payer, better than the U.S., healthcare system...

          I'd be curious to know the trend in Canada over, say, the past 5-10 years and compare it to the trend in the U.S. over the same time period, if both spiked at about the same time, th

    • The USA does not have a monopoly on stupid, merely a controlling interest. MMR vaccination rates are down 12% in Canada over just 3 years ago. To calculate the herd immunity rate to prevent a virus from spreading you taken the R value of the virus (measles infects 15 people per infected person) and type it into the formular ( 1 – (1/R) ). 93% vaccination rate is required to keep measles from spreading. Canada had that in 2018, it's now down at 80%.

  • Likely in the new year, the CDC and WHO will remove the US from the list of countries that have "eradicated" measles.

  • by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @11:06AM (#65892671) Journal
    Remember when Trump said that we're going to win so much, we'll get tired of it? If this is winning, I'm well past tired of it.

    Or when he pulled RFK Jr. from the nutso bush league, made him the face of federal health policy, and told him to "go wild on health"? Wild indeed.
  • by Wheres the kaboom ( 10344974 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @02:04PM (#65893147)

    Canada is reporting far more measles cases (5400) than the U.S. (2000) despite Canada having a much lower population:

    https://health-infobase.canada... [canada.ca]

    • Canada is reporting far more measles cases (5400) than the U.S. (2000) despite Canada having a much lower population:

      https://health-infobase.canada... [canada.ca]

      I was too conservative in my estimates. It’s more like 20X.

    • Interesting. There's certainly something going on with Measles. The U.S. has seen significant spikes(2014 & 2019) and lows(only 13 cases in 2020. 49 in 2021).

      To what does Canada attribute their numbers? Is it anti-vaccination? Do they blame Trump, as everyone likes to do here on Slashdot?

      • Blaming Trump or his cult is usually reasonable guess.

        • Blaming Trump or his cult is usually reasonable guess.

          I struggle to see how anyone could reasonably argue that Trump is to blame for Canada's 20x measles rate.

          But, yuck yuck yuck. I guess.

      • Interesting. There's certainly something going on with Measles. The U.S. has seen significant spikes(2014 & 2019) and lows(only 13 cases in 2020. 49 in 2021).

        To what does Canada attribute their numbers? Is it anti-vaccination? Do they blame Trump, as everyone likes to do here on Slashdot?

        The problem in Canada is the same thing it is in the US, and it's not Trump's fault that it started, though Trump choice of RFK Jr for Secretary of HHS is definitely contributing to not stopping it (in the US). The problem, of course, is resistance to vaccination.

        In the US, anti-vaxx sentiment was largely left-coded until COVID when it shifted to being right-coded -- and expanded significantly. In Canada, anti-vaxx sentiment isn't so political. Instead, it's more religious-based, with large groups of Me

  • Next year's measles numbers will be even "better". Polio is showing up in wastewater in some of the few places where this surveillance is done. Welcome to the 1950s. If we keep this up, preventable childhood disease deaths could rise from 3 last year to take the crown from the over 1200 gun deaths of children a year in the U.S. in a few years thanks to the power of exponentials.
  • If there was ever a vaccine that cured autism, these morons would be more screwed than a jehovas witness child needing a blood transfusion.
  • leopard, meet face.

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