The government doesn't trust vaccines... US loses measles-free status after 26 years

Soaring during Trump's term... Health Minister 'Causes Autism' Skeptics

Distrust spreads, vaccination rate drops… National effort and time are needed to restore status.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Oh Soo-jin = The New York Times reported on the 13th (local time) that the United States, which has succeeded in controlling measles infection for a long time through consistent vaccination, has recently lost its status as a 'measles-free country' after 26 years with thousands of cases.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the American headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO), recently revoked the United States' status as a measles-free country.

Public health experts have predicted that the United States will soon fall out of the measles-free category as the number of measles cases in the United States has soared to the highest level in decades over the past two years. The United States has maintained this status since 2000.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that there were more than 5,400 measles cases this year alone. Over the past 30 years, the annual number of measles cases in the United States has been only a few dozen cases each year.

The NYT pointed out that the surge in measles cases in the United States coincided with the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the period in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. served as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Secretary Kennedy Jr. has expressed skepticism about the efficacy of all vaccines, including the measles vaccine, and has maintained that vaccinations cause autism. Additionally, federal funding for some vaccine research was reduced.

As distrust in vaccines is rising again, the vaccination rate of infants and toddlers in the United States is gradually decreasing. As of last June, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination rate for kindergarten students was 92.4%, lower than 95.2% six years ago.

In order for the United States to regain measles-free status, it must prove that the measles virus has not spread for at least 12 months.

The NYT said that it was a shocking reversal in the United States, which had managed measles, which can be prevented with vaccines, well for decades, and that several countries had lost their measles-free status, and some had regained it, but it took time.

Canada and the United Kingdom lost their measles-free status last year and early this year, respectively. Brazil lost its status as a measles-free country in 2019, but regained it in 2024 after national efforts to increase vaccination rates.