The U.N. Is About To Decide If America Loses Its Measles Elimination Status
It’s now been nearly two straight years of embarrassment for America as measles has come back from the dead. As a reminder, America achieved elimination status for this disease 26 years ago and kept that status for more than two decades. It was only when the anti-vaxxer movement gained steam, culminating in the appointment of RFK Jr. to Secretary of HHS, that measles gained a foothold in early 2025. The way a country can lose its elimination status is supposed to be continuous spread of measles over the course of a calendar year. We have, obviously, experienced exactly that the last two years as evidenced in this CDC chart.
The United Nations is meeting soon to decide if America loses its elimination status. I can’t imagine in a world where it doesn’t decide that we have.
According to Politico, a U.N. body will convene this week. They must decide whether America maintains its measles-eliminated status. This pivotal choice will deeply impact the health secretary’s reputation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a known vaccine skeptic. Now, he leads the nation’s response to this massive crisis. As Politico notes, this is a “legacy-defining moment” for him. The situation comes at a very challenging political time. The Make America Healthy Again movement wants to stay relevant. Politico highlights that this movement is “fighting to maintain its political relevancy.”
When we do lose our elimination status, that might be the one silver lining in what is otherwise a national embarrassment. If it takes the U.N. pointing out that our country is so broken politically that we’ve allowed charlatans and fake science to usher measles back into our lives in order to destroy the MAHA movement, or at least the anti-vaxxer portion of it, so be it. Progress isn’t linear, as the saying goes, and perhaps a kick in the teeth is exactly what we need to reinvest in science and health. It’s a shame people had to get sick and die to make it happen, of course, but that’s where we are.
This is a problem that is currently getting worse, not better. And that is due to waning vaccination rates. This map will give you an idea of just how big a problem this is. Note that measles is so infectious that herd immunity protections require roughly 95% of the population to be inoculated against it.
If we lose elimination status and Trump still doesn’t fire Kennedy, he must be impeached when the next Congress is in session. If that isn’t done, the future measles deaths and infections will be on all of their heads.
