Measles Makes a Comeback; Why We Should All Care
- Edwin S. Rubenstein
- March 25, 2025
- Forum Papers
- Forum Paper
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An NPG Forum Paper
by Edwin S. Rubenstein
March 2025
In 2024 there were 285 measles cases reported in the U.S., nearly a five-fold increase from the 59 cases in 2023, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The rise should “alert us rather than alarm us,” says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC. Most communities have vaccination rates high enough to have robust protection against the measles virus, he said. Even after the spike, the number of cases is significantly lower than it was in 2019, when more than 1,200 people were infected – more than two-thirds of them children.
But other health experts – including several of Dr. Daskalakis’s colleagues at the CDC – don’t share his optimism. They see the 2024 surge in reported cases as a distressing reminder that even though there is an effective vaccine against the virus, measles remains a persistent threat.
Measles is an airborne disease which spreads easily through coughs and sneezes of infected people. Symptoms may include fever (often greater than 104°F), cough, inflamed eyes, and a red rash that usually starts on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body. Symptoms usually develop 10 to 12 days after exposure to an infected person, and last seven to ten days.
The disease is extremely contagious: nine of ten people who share living space with an infected person will be infected. Furthermore, newly infected people are infectious to others from four days before to four days after the start of the rash.
While usually regarded as a childhood disease, it can affect people of any age. Unlike avian flu, measles is not known to occur in other animals.
WHAT FORCES ARE DRIVING THE SPREAD OF MEASLES? (LET US COUNT THE WAYS)
1. OPEN BORDERS
Measles had been on the verge of being eliminated in the U.S., but thanks (in part) to mass immigration, keeps being reintroduced by migrants from countries with rudimentary healthcare systems. American children are particularly at risk, as U.S. law requires local public school districts to educate children of illegal immigrants… Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.
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Ed Rubenstein, president of ESR Research, is an experienced business researcher, financial analyst, and economics journalist. He has written extensively on federal tax policy, government waste, the Reagan legacy, and – most recently – on immigration. He is the author of two books: The Right Data (1994) and From the Empire State to the Vampire State: New York in a Downward Transition (with Herbert London). His essays on public policy have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Newsday, and National Review. His TV appearances include Firing Line, Bill Moyers, McNeil-Lehr, CNBC, and Debates-Debates. Mr. Rubenstein has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins and a graduate degree in economics from Columbia University.
