Measles has been spreading for a year, and it’s ‘in a growth phase’

It’s been one year since a case of measles was identified in Texas, and the number of new cases keeps growing.

South Carolina is the epicenter of an increasingly disturbing outbreak. South Carolina health officials say more than 200 new cases have been identified over the past week, raising the total number of cases in the outbreak to 646. On Tuesday, the South Carolina Department of Public Health reported 88 new cases since last Friday.

Nationwide, more than 2,200 cases were reported in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were three fatalities tied to the measles last year, health officials say. Until last year, there had been no deaths attributed to measles since 2015. (Through Jan. 13, the CDC reports 173 confirmed measles cases in the new year.)

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a webinar Tuesday that there’s no evidence to suggest the measles outbreaks are contained.

“We are nowhere close to the place that we would need to be to be able to say that this is coming under control,” Daskalakis said, adding, “This is in a growth phase, and it is in a very aggressively fast growth phase.”

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HHS ‘should be down there’

Daskalakis appeared at a webinar organized by Protect Our Care, a group that has criticized many of the policies championed by Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Daskalakis left the CDC last summer after President Trump fired Susan Monarez, the agency’s director.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, MD, a family doctor and emergency physician, and Annie Andrews, MD, a pediatrician and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, also participated in the discussion.

“What’s happening today with measles is absolutely public health malpractice, and it’s completely preventable,” Green said.

He said the health department should be doing more in South Carolina in wake of the mounting cases.

“The Department of Health and Human Services should be down there setting up every possible vaccination clinic,” Green said. “They should be providing extra support for inpatient pediatrics. They better get ready for the run on care at the rural hospitals.”

As a South Carolina resident, Andrews says she’s seeing the impact of the outbreak. She has also seen more families say they haven’t had the measles vaccine.

“The thing about the outbreak happening in South Carolina is the cat is already out of the bag, and now we have to do damage control,” Andrews said. “It's important to note that this has been a slow and steady decrease in vaccination rates across the country and here in South Carolina.”

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Elimination status at risk

A recent Washington Post analysis found that only 28% of U.S. counties had measles vaccination rates of at least 95%, a threshold doctors say is needed for herd immunity. Before the pandemic, half of the nation’s counties met that level.

Daskalakis pointed to the United States possibly losing the designation of having eliminated the measles. The disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2020.

But Daskalakis said the Pan American Health Organization, part of the World Health Organization, could change that status (he also noted that status is not decided by the HHS or CDC).

“Measles elimination status is more than a technical metric,” Daskalakis said. “It's a vital sign for our public health system. It reflects our ability to maintain high vaccination coverage, conduct effective surveillance and respond swiftly to outbreaks.”

“This loss would not just be symbolic. It would indicate that our public health infrastructure is failing to protect Americans from preventable disease,” he said.

Lasting damage

The panelists all faulted Kennedy and federal health agencies for not responding more aggressively to the measles outbreak, especially in South Carolina.

They all called for Kennedy to step down, denouncing changes in vaccine policy and misinformation that’s contributing to declining vaccination rates. Other healthcare leaders have called for Kennedy’s resignation or for Trump to fire him. Medical societies also blasted Kennedy for cutting down the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, although the revised guidance still recommends that all kids should get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

There’s no indication whatsoever that Kennedy is in danger of losing the support of President Trump, and even if he did step aside, Andrews and others said the damage to public health programs and confidence in vaccines won’t be easy to rebuild.

“The damage he has done will still take public health professionals and physicians decades to recover from, and that is deeply worrying to me,” Andrews said.

(Here’s the full video of the discussion from Protect Our Care.)