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US measles epidemic.

ponderingturtle said:
Now we have record whooping cough.

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/11/texas-pertussis-whooping-cough-disease-infectious/
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My older brother had whooping cough, in his sixties, for six months before it was diagnosed.

On my brother's recommendation, I went to my Doctor and requested a vaccine.

The Doctor agreed, because it was known to be spreading in the general population, and ended up giving me the DPT vaccine (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus).

It's nice having an older brother out there finding things out for me.

(He's unlucky though, had Covid three times, all thankfully mild. We're assuming the mildness is down to him being fully vaccinated, eight boosters so far (IIRC).)
 
Measles & pertussis: Thanks to ICE, it's not just for Mennonites anymore!
ponderingturtle said:
Now we have record whooping cough.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/11/texas-pertussis-whooping-cough-disease-infectious/
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Another record!
Well, you were warned!
"We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning.
And you'll say, 'Please, please, it's too much winning. We can't take it anymore!'"

What's behind the surge in whooping cough cases across the U.S.? (CBS on YouTube, Nov 13, 2025 - 2:00 min.
0:16--> Good morning, Dr. Good to see you. All right, so what's behind the surge and what symptoms should people be looking out for?

– So, Texas is not unique in this. We're seeing cases increasing across the country and there are really three main factors that are driving this.

One, we've seen an increase in non-medical exemptions to vaccination. Texas, in fact, starting this school, year has made it much easier to claim those non-medical exemptions. On top of that, I was speaking to the health director in Dallas County yesterday. He was saying normally their back-to-school vaccination clinics are packed. This year, they were very sparsely attended and part of that is fears about ICE. So about 40% of Dallas County is Hispanic and they think that's what's driving some of that drop.
Secondly, there is waning immunity with the pertussis/whooping cough vaccines that we use. This is related to a change made a few years ago, several, over a decade ago, to have vaccines that cause fewer allergic reactions or side effects. But at the same time, the immunity doesn't last as long.

And thirdly, we're just testing more aggressively with PCR tests.
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States across the country report first measles cases of year (CIDRAP, Jan 28, 2026)
US measles outbreaks enlarge; Nebraska logs its first case of year (CIDRAP, Jan 29, 2026)
US measles cases soar to 588 so far this year as South Carolina confirms 58 new infections (CIDRAP, Jan 30, 2026)
At least 2 measles cases confirmed inside Texas detention center (CIDRAP, Feb 2, 2026)
South Carolina measles outbreak hits 876 with 29 new cases (CIDRAP, Feb 3, 2026)
Campus measles outbreak grows in Florida (CIDRAP, Feb 5, 2026)
At least 20 students at Ave Maria University in Florida now have confirmed measles infections. The Collier County outbreak still has 14 cases pending testing, according to local news sources.
(...)
During a press conference yesterday, South Carolina’s State Epidemiologist Linda Bell, MD, told reporters that at least 19 people have been hospitalized in her state during the current outbreak, with an untold number of patients suffering from measles-related encephalitis, or brain swelling, that has been linked to several severe measles outcomes, including loss of hearing.
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Seven cases here in South Australia (reported in 2025).

Anti-vax for the win!


And six cases so far this year in Victoria.

Increased travel-related measles cases in Victoria

A new measles case in a returned overseas traveller has been reported in Victoria. There has been a recent increase in cases linked to overseas travel, with a total of six cases to date in 2026.
www.health.vic.gov.au www.health.vic.gov.au

Always the same as far as I can see.

Someone gets measles outside of the country and brings it back here, and it's the non vaccinated that are most at risk.

Astonishingly, when you read the locations that one of these people has visited, it always reads like they've done their best to spread it around while they were sick. (i.e. multiple bars, cinemas, restaurants, etc.)

Such is life I guess.
 
That is not really astonishing! Who is more likely to spread it? Somebody who doesn't visit "multiple bars, cinemas, restaurants, etc." or somebody who does?
And much like in the case of COVID-19, people are infections both before and after they're symptomatic:
According to Google's AI:
The measles incubation period (time from exposure to symptom onset) is typically 10 to 14 days, ranging from 7 to 21 days. Initial, prodromal symptoms (fever, cough, coryza) usually appear about 10 days after exposure, while the characteristic rash appears roughly 14 days after exposure.
Key Details on Measles Timing:
  • Incubation Period: 7–18 days to initial symptoms, up to 21 days for rash.
  • Infectious Period: Infected individuals are contagious from 4 days before the rash appears until 4 days after.
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Measles Is Great Again
Jonathan Howard:
MAHA Leaders Are Recycling COVID Myths to Minimize Measles (Science-Based Medicine, Feb 8, 2026)
Dr. David Gorski previously coined the phrase “everything old is new again” to describe how disinformation agents plagiarized “old school” anti-vaccine balderdash to minimize COVID. These techniques were dishonest, but effective. As a result, people died of COVID, and MAHA doctors were catapulted to power.
However, with the geniuses who “would have” perfectly controlled COVID in charge, the headlines read:
Competent leaders would use their authority and soapbox to promote the MMR at every opportunity. MAHA leaders are not doing that, and we are allowed to judge them on their silence now. Instead, they have been recycling COVID myths, which were themselves recycled from pre-pandemic anti-vaxx myths, to minimize measles and fear monger about the vaccine. Here are 6 examples.
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The examples are:
1. People Die With COVID/Measles, Not of COVID/Measles
2. Only Sick Kids Die
3. It’s All Going Away
4. The Vaccine is Dangerous
5. Doctors Are to Blam
6. Infections Are Beneficial

As always, Jonathan Howard's articles are extremely well documented. The receipts are all there, e.g. this one from RFK Jr. about #6:
I went to measles parties when I was a kid. I went to a chicken pox party, and I had natural immunity. And there's a lot of studies out there that show that if you actually do get the wild infection, you're protected later. It boosts your immune system later in life against cancers, atopic diseases, cardiac disease, etc. It's not well-studied. It ought to be well-studied because we ought to understand those relationships … but I would never advise somebody to get sick. But … what we need is good science on all of these things so that people can make rational choices.
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USA:
2026 US measles total nears 1,000 as South Carolina confirms 11 new cases (CIDRAP, Feb 20, 2026)
South Carolina has been by far the hardest-hit state this year, with 632 CDC-confirmed cases, followed by Utah (117), Florida (64), Arizona (36), and Washington state (24).
The rise in measles cases comes amid a tepid federal response to outbreaks and following lower uptake of measles-fighting vaccines. In its update today, the CDC said only 10 states and Washington, DC, have maintained at least 95% coverage of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine among kindergartners, which is the level considered to provide “herd immunity” to protect the larger community. Idaho has the lowest reported coverage, at 78.5%.
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England:
Measles: 34 new cases confirmed and children admitted to hospital amid London outbreak (BMJ, Feb 20, 2026)
A total of 130 measles cases have been confirmed in England so far this year, with 34 cases reported in the past week, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
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Measles elimination status
🇨🇦:
Canada loses its measles elimination status. Will the U.S. be next? (NBC News, Nov 10, 2025)
Canada has lost its measles elimination status, the country’s Public Health Agency announced Monday. It’s the first country in the Americas to do so since the pandemic, and it could serve as a warning sign for others.
There are multiple criteria for losing an official measles elimination status, including declines in vaccination rates. The most significant factor is the ongoing spread of the same strain of the virus for a full year.
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🇬🇧:
Rapid Reaction: UK loses measles elimination status (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Jan 26, 2026)
LSHTM expert highlights failure to reach 95% measles vaccine coverage target and need for secure funding for vaccine outreach efforts
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🇺🇸:
U.S. closes in on 1,000 measles cases in first two months of 2026 (NBC News, Feb 20, 2026)
The U.S. could lose its elimination status as soon as this year as vaccination rates fall and the virus regains a foothold.
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🇫🇷

Less than the recommended 95% vaccinations (around 90% in 2025)

https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/...e-en-france-du-1er-janvier-au-31-janvier-2026

Since January 1, 2026, 12 cases of measles have occurred and been reported (i.e., 12 new cases in January). The number of reported cases is very limited and lower than in January 2025 (68 cases).
Of these cases, 4 were hospitalized (including 1 in intensive care), 1 case presented with complications (including 1 case of pneumonia and 0 cases of encephalitis). No deaths have been reported.
The median age of cases is 21.9 years. The three age groups most affected are adults aged 20-24 (3 cases), infants under one year of age (2 cases), and adults aged 25-29 (2 cases).
Among the subjects targeted for vaccination (aged over one year and born since 1980) for whom vaccination status was known (n=7), five were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated, and two were vaccinated with two doses.
 
If natural infection with measles protected against cardiac disease, cancers and so on, how come people of my parents' generation (and indeed mine) had such high rates of these conditions? Pretty much everyone got measles back then. When I went for a series of travel vaccinations the nurse noted that I'd never had an MMR, and said that the assumption made was that everyone born in the year I was born in had had these infections in the wild. I confirmed this, as I remembered being ill with them.

We've gone from virtually everyone having the wild-type infections to practically nobody having them, in the space of a very few decades. I'm going to take a lot of convincing that overall population health in respect of cardiac disease, cancers etc. has declined in that time.
 
Trebuchet said:
I had measles 70 years ago but never had mumps or rubella. May have had a mumps vaccine in my teens.
I wonder if I still have any measles immunity.
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It's easy to find out.

I recently enquired about getting a measles vaccine or the MMR, because I didn't get any of those vaccines when at school, and the GP had me tested for immunity.

Apparently I still have immunity.

:)

(NB. The MMR vaccine didn't come into common use here until 1989, and I finished school in 1979.)
 
Rolfe said:
If natural infection with measles protected against cardiac disease, cancers and so on, how come people of my parents' generation (and indeed mine) had such high rates of these conditions? Pretty much everyone got measles back then. When I went for a series of travel vaccinations the nurse noted that I'd never had an MMR, and said that the assumption made was that everyone born in the year I was born in had had these infections in the wild. I confirmed this, as I remembered being ill with them.
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This has nothing at all to do with the measles, but ... trans fat!
Trans fat: History (Wikipedia)
There were suggestions in the scientific literature as early as 1956 that trans fats could cause an increase in coronary artery disease. Studies in the early 1990s brought renewed scrutiny and confirmation of the negative health impact of trans fats. In 1994, it was estimated that trans fats caused at least 20,000 deaths annually in the U.S. from heart disease.In the 1990s, activist organization Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) called for reducing trans fats in foods, and later lobbied for them to be disclosed on product labels and menus. Several lawsuits were launched against high-visibility restaurants and food manufacturers with the objective of supporting a broader phase-out of trans fats.
Mandatory food labeling was introduced in several countries and Denmark was first to mandate limits on industrially produced trans fats in 2004.
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Rolfe said:
We've gone from virtually everyone having the wild-type infections to practically nobody having them, in the space of a very few decades. I'm going to take a lot of convincing that overall population health in respect of cardiac disease, cancers etc. has declined in that time.
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Trans fat again:
Danish ban on trans fat saves two lives a day (ScienceNordic.com, Oct 21, 2015)
Ban on trans fatty acids in food have caused a drop in cardiac deaths in Denmark, shows new study.
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Since then, most other European countries have followed suit.
In most countries, people also don't smoke as much as they did 40-50 years ago.

See the graph of cvd death rate (deaths per 100,000) in the USA towards the end of this article:
Graphing cardiovascular disease mortality data (Feb 19, 2019)

This graph from Our World in Data shows that there has been a considerable drop in the cvd death rate in most Western countries since 1950:
Death rate from cardiovascular diseases per 100,000 people, 1950 to 2023

I asked Google, What has caused the cvd death rate to drop in the last 70 years?
The substantial drop in cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rates over the last 70 years—a roughly four-fold decrease in the United States since 1950—is primarily driven by a combination of public health initiatives (smoking reduction), better management of risk factors (blood pressure and cholesterol), and, in roughly equal measure, advanced medical interventions.
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Considering the rising level of obesity, it's even more astonishing!
 
novaphile said:
My older brother had whooping cough, in his sixties, for six months before it was diagnosed.

On my brother's recommendation, I went to my Doctor and requested a vaccine.

The Doctor agreed, because it was known to be spreading in the general population, and ended up giving me the DPT vaccine (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus).

It's nice having an older brother out there finding things out for me.

(He's unlucky though, had Covid three times, all thankfully mild. We're assuming the mildness is down to him being fully vaccinated, eight boosters so far (IIRC).)
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You need to get out more😜
We got shot before travelling to Peru from Aus a few years ago. Timely, as a niece with a newborn at the time “banned” visitors, including family, if they had not been shot recently.
 
I think Measles was one of the things I got a shot for when I joined the US Army. You got so many.Three of four in each arm and then a grand finale in the buttocks.
 
novaphile said:
I believe it is still out there, but no big deal these days, because it is easily treated with anti-biotics.

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When I was at Grand Canyon the posters all assured us that the most dangerous animals in the park weren’t cougars or coyotes, but the rock squirrels because they will bite, and they often carry the plague
 
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