EDITORIAL: Measles vaccine policy, public health prudence

Read entire editorial at the Marblehead Current

At one point in our nation’s history, measles infected millions of Americans. Later, in the year 2000, the U.S. declared a milestone success in effectively eradicating the disease. In 2025, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the U.S. is seeing the most reported cases in decades. As of July 15, the Centers for Disease Control identified 1,309 confirmed cases in 39 states, including our very own New England neighbors, Rhode Island and Vermont. To put this in context, the CDC identified only 285 cases in 2024.

These worrying numbers — fueled in part by confusing signals from Washington, it would seem — reflect a disturbing unraveling of a public health success story and could reintroduce a highly preventable and highly communicable illness. There may not be an immediate cause for concern here in Marblehead, as The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts has high vaccination rates compared to the nation at large. But those rates are declining among kindergarteners, which create pockets of measles vulnerability often found in specific schools. So, while it is true that measles is not yet Marblehead’s problem, the “yet” is the key.