RFK Jr. and MAHA’s measles report

By most indicators, measles in the United States is out of control. In the last week alone, cases jumped 8%, with 330 infections reported, surpassing the 2024 case total, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 285 cases. There are large outbreaks in Texas and South Carolina, but Pennsylvania has been particularly hard hit lately, with more than 1,300 cases and 250 hospitalizations reported this year so far. Due to underreporting, public health officials warn the true number of cases is likely higher, possibly as high as 6,000.

“We’ve seen more cases of measles in this report than in the last quarter century — combined,” Noel Brewer, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, told POLITICO this week. Brewer served on a key vaccine advisory committee to the CDC before Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted believer and propagator of anti-vaccine conspiracies, reshuffled the committee.

A highly contagious viral disease, measles is characterized by a distinct skin rash. Although most people recover, it can cause pneumonia, blindness and brain swelling, and erase the immune system’s memory, leading to easily acquired secondary infections. About one to three people in 1,000 die from measles, with children most at risk. Measles vaccines are very effective and safe. According to the World Health Organization, between 2000 and 2024, approximately 59 million deaths worldwide have been prevented through measles vaccination.

CDC data shows 42 outbreaks this year and at least 4,410 confirmed cases of measles as of Oct. 15, almost double the 2025 total. But critics say the CDC isn’t giving the whole story. The agency’s measles dashboard lists three deaths, including one on Wednesday, but Pennsylvania alone has reported five deaths this year, with a sixth under investigation. The CDC still has not named the state where the latest death occurred, although health experts say there is no reason to withhold that information.

Why this gap? That’s what Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra Bogen wants to know. Late last week, Bogen sent a letter to CDC Director Erica Schwartz calling for deaths in the state to be counted and demanding answers about how the agency tracks measles deaths. “By failing to recognize these deaths, the CDC is obscuring the seriousness of this disease and the toll of measles in the United States,” Bogen wrote. Schwartz has only been CDC director since August, replacing acting director Jay Bhattacharya.

This is not the first time Bogen has sent such a letter. In September, she asked Schwartz to acknowledge the deaths when the number was four. Later that month, Reuters reported that Kennedy asked Schwartz to remove two measles deaths from the CDC dashboard, which she implemented “without objection,” according to three sources familiar with the matter. Although the deaths have since been added back to the count, they are marked with an asterisk indicating that the “number is subject to change.”

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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also took issue with the CDC’s response, publicly accusing Kennedy and the Trump administration of sowing doubt about vaccines. Kennedy denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the outbreak as a global problem and saying: “We have done better, and in particular, my administration has been more successful in controlling the outbreak than any other country in the world.” »

Kennedy has made this claim before. It is true that other countries have seen measles cases skyrocket, including Indonesia, Guatemala, India and Bangladesh, the latter of which recorded more than 65,000 infections in the past 12 months. This does not change the fact that the United States is experiencing a serious failure in protecting the public from measles, with vaccination rates continuing to decline. Yet Kennedy has been reluctant to promote vaccines, continues to question their safety and supports unproven remedies to treat measles, such as vitamin A and cod liver oil. This advice has been associated with an increase in calls for poison control for vitamin A exposure, according to a study published in June in JAMA Network.

Kennedy attempted to turn the situation around by accusing Shapiro of “politicizing” the epidemic and refusing federal aid. But that aid was only initially denied because the CDC was not counting deaths accurately, with Pennsylvania requesting emergency aid in September. The state and federal government are now working together. Last week, the CDC sent a “disease detective” to the agency’s epidemic intelligence unit in Pennsylvania.

All of this comes as the WHO is set to review the United States’ measles elimination status, achieved in 2000 and achieved when a country goes a full 12 months without continuous transmission of the virus. But when the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the WHO, meets in November, it is expected to revoke the United States’ status, just as it did for Canada last November, 25 years after our northern neighbor eliminated the disease.

Measles is just one of countless self-inflicted crises at the heart of the Make America Healthy Again movement, which Kennedy led during his 2024 presidential bid before supporting Trump and joining the administration. As such, Kennedy has been busy lately fighting for Republicans in the midterms, sometimes hopping aboard military planes to do so, while MAHA-aligned groups have spent nearly $2 million supporting candidates associated with health secretary. POLITICO reported last week that “MAHA PAC and MAHA Action PAC, two political action committees supporting candidates committed to the Secretary of Health’s agenda, announced they have made a combined $1.65 million donation to support Republican Zach Lahn’s campaign for governor of Iowa.”

Besides the election, Kennedy’s main goal lately is to redefine junk food, but the public is apparently increasingly losing faith in the MAHA movement. Recent data from an Axios-Ipsos poll suggests that only one in four people trust health information from Kennedy. Although he has become a prime target for Democrats to investigate or even impeach if they gain a majority in Congress, replacing the health secretary likely won’t be enough to restore public health. As health policy experts Steven Grossman and Michael Miller recently wrote in MedPage Today, “even an outcome that would bring more pro-vaccine members to Congress would leave vaccines facing long-term existential threats, both at the federal and state levels, through regulatory and legislative proposals and actions. Significant work by policymakers and pro-vaccine advocates will be essential over the next two years, but this need will likely expand until 2029 and beyond.

Amid the barrage of scandals sweeping the Trump administration, corruption, war and soaring costs of living, the return of measles may not be a priority for most voters. But every day that public health leaders ignore a growing crisis results in more people hospitalized, disabled and dead. If the midterm elections do not bring accountability for MAHA and its attacks on public health, we can expect to lose much more than the WHO’s elimination status.