Opinion: In the wake of measles outbreaks, vaccine guidelines must be updated
“With measles resurging, we cannot rely on guidelines designed for an era when the virus was eliminated from American communities. Protecting infants demands policies that reflect today's reality.”
A quarter-century ago, the United States celebrated a victory over measles, a highly contagious illness that once infected millions of American children each year. In 2000, after decades of hard work and widespread vaccination campaigns, public health officials declared measles eliminated in the U.S.
Today, that success is at risk. Fueled by growing mistrust in vaccine science and years of small but meaningful declines in routine childhood vaccinations, measles has made a troubling comeback. Less than three months through the year, the number of measles cases reported in 2025 has already exceeded all those recorded in 2024, as well as the annual case counts of all but three of the past 25 years. This year has also already documented two fatal cases of measles, the first U.S. deaths from the disease in over a decade. With vaccination rates declining, cases rising, and health care providers encountering their first cases of a disease once eliminated, we believe it is time to reevaluate national measles immunization guidelines, particularly to safeguard a vulnerable group still not fully accounted for in vaccination recommendations: our youngest infants.
