US Measles Status: Experts Weigh ‘Tremendous Step Backwards’
A panel of eight independent experts is meeting in Washington this week to decide whether the United States has lost its measles elimination status, as the country records more than 5,400 cases in its worst outbreak since 1991.
The United States could lose its measles elimination status this week, as a panel of eight independent experts meets in Washington, DC, amid the country's worst outbreak since 1991. Dr Paul Offit, a prominent vaccine expert, called such a loss "a tremendous step backwards."
The nation has recorded more than 5,400 confirmed cases this year, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, as of November 6. Nearly every state has an active outbreak.
What the panel will decide
The experts advise the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional office of the World Health Organization. They are examining whether measles has spread without interruption for at least a year, the threshold for losing the status.
The PAHO director makes the final call. The US achieved elimination in 2000. Losing it would put the country alongside Canada and several European and Asian nations where the disease returned.
Offit, who directs the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the label matters less than the reality. "Independent of what PAHO says, measles is now endemic in the US," he said. "Measles has a foothold in the US."
Deaths and falling vaccination
Eight people have died of measles in the US this year: six in Pennsylvania, one in New York and one in Wisconsin. Measles kills one to three of every 1,000 people infected and hospitalizes about one in five unvaccinated patients.
Two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine are 97% effective. Public health experts say about 95 percent coverage is needed to protect communities. Coverage among US kindergarteners fell to 92.4 percent in the 2025–26 school year.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has repeatedly cast doubt on vaccine safety. He has urged parents to "do your own research" before vaccinating children, and has promoted the claim that the measles vaccine contains "aborted fetus debris." Experts say such rhetoric undermines confidence in a vaccine backed by decades of research.
Effects on everyday life
Dr David Margolius, Cleveland's director of public health, is urging residents to locate their vaccination records. "Now is the time to go and find that evidence, because now this is a real day-to-day life thing that could happen to you," he said.
Without proof of immunity after an exposure, patients face either a blood test or a 21-day quarantine.
The profile of patients has also shifted. Offit said two-thirds of infected people in Pennsylvania are adults, and mothers have given birth to babies with congenital measles, "something we just didn't see at all" before.
Jane Seward, a former senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned of the direction ahead. "We're on a path to have endemic transmission re-established and see more and more measles cases," she said.
