The United States achieved one of modern medicine’s greatest triumphs when measles was officially declared eliminated in 2000. This milestone marked the culmination of decades of effective vaccination programs and evidence-based public health policy.
Yet today, that hard-won victory is being squandered as measles cases surge to alarming levels, with two major outbreaks occurring during each of President Donald Trump’s terms that have put our elimination status at risk.
The timeline of this public health failure is documented in official CDC data. In 2016, the final year of the Obama administration, the U.S. recorded just 86 measles cases nationwide.
By 2019 – Trump’s third year in the White House- cases exploded to 1,274, the highest number since 1992.
After temporary declines during pandemic lockdowns, cases are surging again in 2025 to 1,197 and counting.
This dramatic reversal follows a clear pattern of political interference with public health.
Multiple peer-reviewed studies have directly linked this resurgence to three key factors: the Trump administration’s systematic weakening of public health infrastructure, the president’s personal amplification of anti-vaccine rhetoric, and the Republican Party’s increasing embrace of vaccine skepticism.
Medical records show Trump repeatedly promoted dangerous misinformation, including pushing the thoroughly debunked autism-vaccine link during a 2015 GOP primary debate, hosting prominent anti-vaxxers at the White House, and making public statements suggesting vaccines cause “a lot of bad things.”
The human cost of this political meddling with science has been severe.
Hundreds of Americans have been hospitalized with preventable measles complications. Multiple deaths have occurred, primarily among unvaccinated children too young for immunization.
State health departments have wasted millions in emergency funds containing outbreaks that should never have happened.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the U.S. risks losing its measles elimination status – an unprecedented backward step for a developed nation.
“The paradox of the pandemic is that while vaccines against COVID-19 were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunization programmes were badly disrupted, and millions of kids missed out on life-saving vaccinations against deadly diseases like measles,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Public health experts universally agree that this crisis was avoidable but in today’s interconnected world, health threats spread faster than ever.
A new virus can cross continents in hours. An outbreak in one country can escalate into a global crisis in days. This reality requires constant innovation to protect lives and prevent the next pandemic.
Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses, but it is almost entirely preventable through vaccination.
The measles vaccine has been proven safe in hundreds of studies involving millions of recipients and is estimated to have prevented 56 million deaths worldwide since 2000.
Coverage of 95% or greater of 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine is needed to create herd immunity in order to protect communities and achieve and maintain measles elimination.
Republican leaders continue undermining vaccination efforts by blocking school immunization requirements in red states, spreading conspiracy theories about “government overreach,” and courting the anti-vaccine vote despite overwhelming scientific consensus.
As former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden stated, “Politics has no place in public health.
When leaders choose conspiracy theories over children’s wellbeing, Americans pay the price in preventable suffering and death.”
The measles resurgence stands as a stark warning of what happens when evidence-based medicine is sacrificed for political gain. Unless we restore respect for science and rebuild our public health infrastructure, more preventable disease outbreaks will follow.