Measles cases in the U.S. are already triple last year

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The number of measles cases recorded this year is more than triple the total from all of last year — with five months still to go.

According to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 188 cases have been reported in 26 states and Washington, D.C. No deaths have been reported, but 93 people have been hospitalized — mostly children under 5 years old.

The U.S. has seen 13 measles outbreaks this year, the largest of which took off at a migrant shelter in Chicago in March and was linked to more than 60 cases.

This month, measles cases have been reported in Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Vermont. Massachusetts’ case was the first in the state since early 2020.

Last year, there were only four measles outbreaks in the U.S. and 58 cases in total.

This year’s tally is the highest since 2019, when the country nearly lost its measles elimination status. Most of the 1,200-plus cases that year were associated with outbreaks in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York.

“Having this year be even worse than 2019 — there’s definitely potential for that,” said Dr. David Hamer, a professor of global health and medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health. CDC models suggest that’s highly unlikely, however.

Experts attribute this year’s uptick to two main factors: declining vaccination rates in the U.S. and a rise in measles cases worldwide.

Around 85% of the people who got measles this year were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to the CDC. Many of the cases have been linked to international travel, meaning the disease was brought into the U.S. by travelers who were infected in other countries.

“We live in a global community where vaccination rates everywhere affect diseases that are transmitted in the United States,” said Dr. Erica Prochaska, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “But the main issue is that in the United States, our population isn’t at the threshold of vaccination that we should be.”

As of the 2022-23 school year, 93% of U.S. kindergartners had received two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, down from 95% in the 2019-20 year. Twelve states and Washington, D.C., had rates below 90%.

It's because of the antivaxxers and their political/religious brain rot. Idiots.

They should just wrap their heads in foil. Then their brains will be just like a moldy leftover.