What is measles?
- Measles is a highly-contagious respiratory virus that infects as many as 90 percent of non-immune people exposed to its pathogens, which can exist in the air for up to two hours after exposure.
How bad is it?
- One in five unvaccinated people who contract measles require hospitalization.
- One in 1000 people develop encephalitis, or brain swelling, which can cause convulsions and permanent brain damage.
- As many as one in twenty children who get measles also contract pneumonia, which is also the most common cause of death from measles for young children.
- One to three of every 1000 children who contract measles die from complications stemming from the infection.
- Measles also has potential (though rare) longterm consequences, including risk of a deadly progressive form of encephalitis known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). SSPE only occurs in about two of every 100,000 measles cases, but is an incurable neurological disorder that can begin showing symptoms six to eight years post measles infection and initial recovery.
Who is most vulnerable?
- According to the World Health Organization, “Any non-immune person (not vaccinated or vaccinated but did not develop immunity) can become infected. Unvaccinated young children and pregnant persons are at highest risk of severe measles complications.”
What’s the solution?
- The measles vaccine has been approved in the United States since 1963, with an updated version of the vaccine achieved in 1968. The vaccine is a two-dose course with one shot administered between the ages of 12 to 15 months and the second usually administered between ages four and six. The first shot is about 93 percent effective, and the second is about 97 percent effective. Due to a highly successful measles vaccination program, and the safety & efficacy of the vaccine itself, measles was declared “eliminated” in the United States in 2000.
What’s going on right now?
- The measles vaccine, though safe, proven, and effective, requires a 95 percent vaccination rate to achieve “herd immunity” against the disease. Unfortunately, only eleven U.S. states achieved herd immunity-level vaccination rates amongst Kindergarteners for the 2023-2024 school year, rendering school-aged populations extremely vulnerable to the disease across the country.
- As of June 13, 2025, there are at least 1,197 confirmed measles cases across thirty-four U.S. states. Three people have died related to the outbreak including two school-aged children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico. All were unvaccinated for measles, and are the first measles-related deaths in the United States in more than a decade.
Where have measles cases been confirmed in 2025?
As of June 13, 2025, confirmed measles cases (broken down by state) are as follows:
| State: | TX | NM | AK | AR | AZ | CA | CO | FL | GA | IN | IA | HI | IL | KS | KY | LA | MI | MN | MO | MT | NE | NJ | NY | ND | OH | OK | PA | SD | RI | TN | MD | WA | VA | VT |
| Cases: | 744 | 81 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 14 | 15 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 71 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 34 | 34 | 20 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
Texas
- The epicenter of the 2025 measles outbreak continues to be West Texas, where 744 cases have been identified so far this year, and ninety-three people have been hospitalized from the outbreak. The Texas outbreak is the worst measles outbreak in thirty years. One unvaccinated school-aged child died from the outbreak in Texas in February, and another school-aged child died from a measles-related illness in April.
New Mexico
- New Mexico is experiencing a significant outbreak on its shared border with West Texas. As of June 13, 2025, New Mexico has documented eighty-one cases, one of which was fatal, in the state and has further warned that “additional cases are likely to occur in Lea County and the surrounding communities.”
Alaska
- Alaska had one confirmed case of measles in January 2025 of an unvaccinated adult, and confirmed a second case in Anchorage on May 21, 2025.
Arkansas
- Seven cases of measles have been identified in Arkansas since April 2025. These are the state’s first documented measles cases since 2018.
Arizona
- Arizona reported its first measles cases of 2025 in June, with four individuals testing positive for measles as of June 9.
California
- California has confirmed fourteen cases of measles, including in Los Angeles County and the Bay Area.
Colorado
- Colorado reported its first confirmed measles case of the year on March 31, 2025, in Pueblo and that number has since grown to at least five confirmed cases in Pueblo, Denver, and Archuleta County, Colorado. Six additional cases have been confirmed in the state connected to an international flight. As of June 13, Colorado has confirmed 15 cases of measles in the state.
Florida
- Florida has had at least eleven cases in 2025. That includes nine cases in Broward County in February, and an additional case in Polk County the same month. There are additional reports of another case as of March 5, 2025 in Miami-Dade county.
Georgia
- Three cases of measles were reported in metro-Atlanta involving unvaccinated members of the same family. One case was reported in January, with an additional two reported by the state in February. In May, another case was confirmed in an unvaccinated adult following travel abroad.
Indiana
- Indiana has reported an outbreak of at least eight cases as of May 8, 2025.
Illinois
- Illinois reported its first case of measles of 2025 on April 23, and has since confirmed ten cases in the state.
Iowa
- Iowa reported its first measles case since 2019 in May 2025, involving an unvaccinated adult. Two additional cases were reported by the state in June.
Hawaii
- Hawaii reported its first case of measles of the year in an unvaccinated infant, and confirmed an additional case in the child’s parent on April 17.
Kansas
- Measles cases in Kansas have continued to grow, with the state reporting at least 71 cases and at least one hospitalization as of June 4, 2025.
Kentucky
Louisiana
- Louisiana has now confirmed two measles cases as of April 22, 2025.
Michigan
- Michigan confirmed the state’s first measles case since July 2024 in February 2025, and is now reporting a total of ten confirmed cases in the state since February.
Minnesota
- Minnesota confirmed its first measles case in late March, 2025. The individual flew during their contagious period to Washington, D.C., and traveled via Amtrak while there. A second confirmed case in the state was reported in April 2025 and two additional cases were reported by the state in June.
Missouri
- Missouri confirmed its first measles case of the year in April 2025 and confirmed a second in May.
Montana
- In April, Montana had a significant outbreak of five confirmed measles cases reported and confirmed in Gallatin County, that has since grown to 17 confirmed cases across Flathead, Yellowstone, and Hill Counties in addition to cases reported in Gallatin. Two people have been hospitalized.
New Jersey
- New Jersey has reported three confirmed measles cases in the state from February 14 – February 20, 2025.
New York
- There have been thirteen confirmed cases of measles reported in New York in 2025. Six of those cases were confirmed in New York City, and seven of them were in New York State.
North Dakota
- North Dakota confirmed thirteen cases of measles in the state between May 2, 2025 and May 16, 2025. The second half of May saw North Dakota’s measles rates skyrocket, with an additional twenty-one cases confirmed between May 16 and June 4.
Nebraska
- Nebraska reported its first measles case in eight years on May 27, 2025.
Ohio
- Ohio confirmed its first case of measles since July 2024 in March 2025, and the state’s outbreak has increased to at least 34 confirmed cases in the state since the start of the year.
Pennsylvania
- There have been fifteen confirmed cases of measles in Pennsylvania in 2025.
Oklahoma
- Oklahoma has reported twenty cases of measles as of June 13, 2025. Most of the cases can be traced back to the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, the state reports.
Rhode Island
- There has been one confirmed case of measles in Rhode Island, which occurred in January of 2025. It is Rhode Island’s first confirmed measles case since 2013.
Tennessee
- Tennessee has confirmed six cases of measles in the state this year, including three as of April 1, 2025.
Maryland
- There have been four confirmed cases of measles in Maryland in March 2025.
Washington
- There have been six confirmed cases of measles in Washington state since February 2025.
Virginia
- Virginia has so far reported two measles cases, including one in April and one in May.
Vermont
- There has been one confirmed case of measles in Vermont in March 2025.
Has the Trump Administration responded?
- RFK Jr., the Trump Administration’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has responded to the crisis by pushing the benefits of “good nutrition,” Vitamin A, steroids, and cod liver oil. This response is idiotic, and has been heavily criticized by doctors and the American Pediatrics Association, for refusing to state plainly that the “best defense” against measles is vaccination. This is unsurprising given that RFK is a prolific and notorious vaccine skeptic whose disinformation campaigns related to the measles vaccine are partially responsible for the catastrophic and deadly rise of measles in Samoa in 2019.
- As the measles epidemic continues to worsen, some doctors are seeing measles patients made more ill, and subsequent treatments made more complicated, by the use of Vitamin A as an unproven (but RFK Jr. backed) measles treatment alternative. As the New York Times reported on March 25, some patients are being given such high doses of the vitamin that they are showing signs of liver damage.
- In March, the Trump Administration also canceled billions of dollars in grants to state-level health agencies, including funds earmarked to support states in “tracking infectious diseases, [providing] mental health services, [and administering] addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.” The move is likely to severely impede the ability of already-struggling state level public health infrastructure and personnel to adequately address the worsening measles epidemic, as well as that of the slate of other crucial public health issues these institutions are relied upon by the public to address.