At least 126 people have contracted measles in South Carolina. 122 of them were unvaccinated, while three were only partially vaccinated. Hundreds of people are in quarantine after being exposed to measles.
Forbes reports that “South Carolina health officials recorded 15 new measles cases over the past four days as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles cases in more than three decades and vaccination rates have declined. The new cases were recorded between Tuesday and Friday centered around Spartanburg County, bringing the total number infected to 126 since October. More than 300 people are in quarantine and 13 in isolation.”
“Utah and Arizona are also experiencing outbreaks: Mohave County, Arizona, has logged 172 cases and the Southwest Utah Public Health Department has logged 82 cases, both since August.”
Back in 2000, measles had been eradicated, and was declared eliminated. But that was a time when more Americans got vaccinated against measles.
Over the last 25 years, vaccination rates have plummeted (especially over the last 5 years), and people with measles sometimes cross the border into the United States. By 2013, U.S. vaccination rates for measles had fallen to 91% for 1-year-olds, similar to the vaccination rate in Mexico, and lower than the vaccination rates of Canada, England, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine. Now, the vaccination rate for American 1-year-olds is closer to 80%.
So a lot more people are unvaccinated, and can catch the measles, in the United States.
By contrast, 22 nations have eliminated measles and rubella by vaccinating at rates of over 90%.
Unvaccinated children have died this year of measles in Los Angeles and Texas.
Measles vaccination has saved 94 million lives globally since 1974. Of those, 92 million were children”, says Our World in Data. But measles vaccination rates have fallen in the U.S., and as a result, an unvaccinated child died this year in Texas.
After vaccination rates fell, whooping cough cases jumped 14-fold in Michigan, resulting in a few deaths. Many more people are getting the disease, which makes you feel awful, as if you are coughing your lungs out. For babies, the disease can be deadly. “Cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, have jumped 14-fold since 2023, alarming state health officials. As of Dec. 8, there were 1,578 confirmed cases of pertussis in Michigan, compared to 110 for the full year of 2023,” notes Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA Commissioner in the first Trump administration.
