Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Pediatricians and public health official have sounded the alarm on declining vaccination rates — and the return of the diseases they prevent — for more than two decades. Measles, a once-controlled illness is now present in 17 states.
Recently release data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the United States is on pace for about 400 measles cases this year. (There have been nine cases in Florida’s Broward County this year — largely linked to local spread among kids at Manatee Bay Elementary.) The national number will surpass the total number of cases in the last four years. Not since the 2019 outbreak (more than 1,200 cases) in New York or the 2014 outbreak at Disneyland in California have more children been infected. Together, these three outbreaks threaten the America’s status as a measles-free nation.