The CDC published grim news on Friday: A total of 4,080 measles cases have been confirmed in the U.S. this year. That’s nearly 2,000 more than the 2,318 cases confirmed in July, which was already the highest number in 35 years. That number will almost certainly go higher as there are three months left in 2026.
Many more cases have likely gone unreported. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong told ABC News that “the number of deaths and hospitalizations suggests that there are many more people who are infected but unaccounted."
This is a spectacular failure by the Trump administration and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the unqualified hack, former heroin addict, and anti-vaxxer in charge of our public health system.
RFK Jr. released a plan last year to “very, very quickly” “Make Our Children Healthy Again.” But “The majority of measles cases in 2026 have been confirmed among children and teenagers aged 19 and younger, according to the CDC. About one in 10 children under age 5 have been hospitalized, CDC data shows,” ABC reported.
That said, despite the measles vaccine's effectiveness, the U.S. reached elimination status for the disease in 2000.
Yet, I could find no mention of concern for the skyrocketing cases from either Kennedy or Donald Trump.
While cloaking themselves as “pro-life," and "pro-health," Trump and Kennedy are working to do the exact opposite. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC National Center for Immunization & Respiratory Diseases, told ABC that the anti-vax “misinformation that we're hearing from the secretary of health as well as other public health leaders in the U.S.” has created “chaos” that has confused parents and resulted in fewer vaccinations.
The result, Dr. Daskalakis explained, is that small outbreaks can suddenly become “larger and larger outbreaks” that “become harder to handle” and “very costly.”
“We should have zero tolerance for bad outcomes from vaccine preventable diseases,” Dr. Daskalakis said.
Instead, we’re getting the opposite from Trump and Kennedy.
Whether it’s robbing people of health insurance to give tax cuts to billionaires or promoting anti-vaxxism, the needless disease, deaths, and costs caused by the Trump administration could not be more predictable. Or preventable.
