In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea persists and can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
Since the start of 2024, the US has seen a steady march of measles infections nationwide. As of May 31, the CDC has recorded 146 cases across 21 states. Of those cases, 64 were part of a large outbreak in Chicago, which was declared over on May 30.
Among the national cases, 45 percent were in children under the age of 5. Fifty-five percent of all cases required hospitalization, including 65 percent of the cases in children under the age of 5. The highly infectious virus mostly struck the unvaccinated—85 percent were unvaccinated or had no documented status, while 12 percent had only received one of two recommended doses.
The 146 cases in the first five months of this year have easily surpassed the 58 cases in all of 2023 and the 121 cases in 2022. CDC experts have cautioned that the US is at risk of losing its measles elimination status, attained in 2000 after a decades-long fight against the airborne virus. The US will lose its status if the virus circulates continuously over a 12-month period. In 2019, the US was close to losing its status amid two prolonged outbreaks in New York, which helped the year's case count hit 1,274. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, measles is having a global resurgence, and vaccinations in the US have fallen below target rates that would protect against continued spread.
