Don’t wait; vaccinate
There’s good news and bad news on the measles front.
First, the good news: Of the 12 confirmed cases of measles in Pennsylvania, none, thankfully, were in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties.
Now for the bad: It’s only a matter of time before the highly contagious, once-eradicated disease surfaces in our corner of the state.
Not surprisingly, none of the 12 patients had been vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health.
That is both unfortunate and inexcusable.
Readers of a certain age might recall contracting the once-common childhood disease back in the day. The airborne virus spread like wildfire through school buildings, sending entire classrooms full of children home to quarantine until the symptoms – including the characteristic rash – disappeared.
Until a vaccine became available in 1963, nearly everyone had endured a case of the measles by the age of 15, with an estimated 3 million to 4 million people in the United States alone becoming sick every year. Sadly, 400 to 500 of those – mostly children – died as a result of complications.
But thanks to a rigorous vaccination program, the measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.
Fast forward a quarter-century, and measles infections have spiked. Across the United States, 1,136 cases were reported in the first two months of this year – four times the number recorded at the same time in 2025.
Why the resurgence?
Dr. Adam Ratner, director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at New York University, cites the anti-vaxxer movement and vaccine hesitancy – while not new – among the reasons.
In a podcast interview last year, the pediatrician and author of “The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health,” said he finds it “mind-boggling that we’re in the situation that we’re in right now,” noting that the measles is “so very vaccine preventable.”
“Kids don’t die of lots of things that they used to die from,” he said. “Death in childhood is much less common now than it used to be, and that’s in large part, but not exclusively, due to vaccination. And the thing that I want to communicate is that those gains aren’t guaranteed. We’re still at risk. We’re at risk of backsliding, if we’re not careful about things like vaccine rates and vaccine confidence.”
While children entering school in Pennsylvania are required to have two doses of the MMR vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella, exceptions are permitted for religious or strong moral or ethical convictions.
The state’s MMR vaccination rate has fallen below the 95% herd immunity threshold. Prior to the 2024-25 school year, Washington County’s rate among kindergarteners met that threshold at 95.6%, but Greene and Fayette counties did not, both hovering at around 92%.
Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, chair of the Common Health Coalition, was quoted recently in this newspaper, “Vaccination is one of the most powerful investments we can make for the health of our children, but when we fail to maintain high vaccination rates, we all pay the price.”
Our children’s lives are precious.
Get them vaccinated.