TRACKING EMERGING VIRUSES – May 21, 2025 – MEASLES
Person may have spread measles at Shakira concert in MetLife Stadium, health officials say
By Scott Fallon
“A person who attended a Shakira concert at MetLife Stadium on May 15 was infected with measles and may have spread the highly contagious virus at the event, health officials said Tuesday.
Anyone who was at the stadium in East Rutherford from 7:30 p.m. through 1 a.m. may have been exposed to the virus, according to the state Department of Health.
Although viruses tend to spread more quickly indoors, measles can live in an airspace for up to two hours and is still highly transmissible, especially among the unvaccinated. No measles cases associated with the concert have been reported, but symptoms could develop as late as June 6, health officials said.
Anyone who suspects they have measles should call their health care provider ahead of time so doctors and nurses can set up a special treatment section to limit any potential spread, health officials said Tuesday.
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“More Americans Now Believe MMR Vaccine Causes Autism vs 2021”
By Ashley Gallagher
“Approximately 67% of adults in the US know that vaccines do not cause autism in children, declining significantly from 74% in 2021.
Approximately 67% of adults in the US know that vaccines, such as measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), do not cause autism in children; however, that number declined significantly from 74% in 2021, according to a survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Additionally, approximately 83% of Americans are not worried they or someone in their family will contract measles in the next 3 months.”
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https://www.drugtopics.com/view/more-americans-now-believe-mmr-vaccine-causes-autism-vs-2021
“Why Measles Is Making a Comeback Despite Available Vaccines”
By Dr. Chinta Sidharthan
The resurgence of measles is not a failure of science but of communication, trust, and policy. Vaccine hesitancy, which is the refusal or delayed acceptance of vaccines despite availability, has emerged as a key driver of the re-emergence of measles.
Misinformation about vaccine safety, particularly false claims linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) combined vaccine to autism, has fueled public fear and skepticism.4 Social media platforms have amplified anti-vaccine narratives, often more rapidly than public health agencies can counter them. The result is a decline in vaccine confidence, especially among parents making decisions for young children.6
Growing distrust in the government and medical institutions, compounded by the politicization of public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, has eroded vaccine uptake.8 Religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination have similarly contributed to under-immunized clusters, thus facilitating measles outbreaks in regions where overall vaccine availability is not the limiting factor.5,9
“Energized by Kennedy, Texas ‘Mad Moms’ Are Chipping Away at Vaccine Mandates”
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
“Rebecca Hardy and Michelle Evans helped found Texans for Vaccine Choice with a group of like-minded women in 2015, as measles was spreading in California. They defeated legislation tightening Texas school vaccine requirements, and helped oust the lawmaker who wrote it, earning a catchy nickname: “mad moms in minivans.”
Now, as a measles outbreak that began in West Texas spreads to other parts of the country, the “mad moms” have a slew of new allies. The 2024 elections ushered in a wave of freshman Republicans who back their goal of making all vaccinations voluntary. But no ally may be as influential as the one they gained in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic.
More than five dozen vaccine-related bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature this year. Last week, the Texas House passed three of them. Those bills would make it easier for parents to exempt their children from school requirements; effectively bar vaccine makers from advertising in Texas; and prevent doctors from denying an organ transplant to people who are unvaccinated.”
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“When measles struck, a surge of parents stepped up to vaccinate their children”
By Erika Edwards and Joe Murphy
“The moms represent a recent surge in Texas parents opting to get their babies and toddlers the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination as soon as possible. Hunter said that her child’s doctor assured her that the second vaccine dose was safe.
“I trust my pediatrician,” she said. Neither kid has had side effects like fever or rash from the shot, Hunter and Montes said.
New data from Truveta, a health care and analytics company, shows that the percentage of 6-month-old babies in Texas getting their measles vaccination in April increased by more than 30 times the prior year’s average.
“That means parents aren’t just getting the vaccine early, they’re getting it as early as they can,” Nina Masters, a senior scientist at Truveta and part of the research team, said in an interview with NBC News.”
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“In El Paso, measles is infecting more adults than children”
By Eleanor Klibanoff
“As soon as measles started spreading in West Texas, El Paso health officials began preparing schools and day care facilities for the day the virus would inevitably arrive.
But now that it’s here, it’s not kids who are making up the brunt of the cases — it’s adults. Two-thirds of El Paso’s cases so far are among people over the age of 18, and only 7% are among school-age children.
Anyone unvaccinated can contract measles, but it tends to hit children first and hardest. Most children are not fully vaccinated until they are five years old and they spend more time than adults in congregate settings where the virus can spread quickly. More families of young children are opting out of vaccines, leaving them exposed.
Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, followed this traditional path, starting with school-age children before spreading to adults. Almost six months into what is now the country’s largest measles outbreak since 2000, Texas’ 722 cases are about evenly spread between the three age groups the state divides them into: under four, 5-17 and adults.”
These surprising initial statistics have required public health officials to change their outbreak response on the fly. They’re aiming more of their vaccination events specifically at adults, especially as many health care providers who serve adults do not have the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine on hand the way pediatricians do.”
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https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/21/texas-el-paso-measles/
“TX Measles Outbreak Is Starting to Slow. The US Case Count Climbs Slightly to 1,024 Cases”
By DEVI SHASTRI
“Texas’ measles outbreak shows signs of slowing, with fewer than 10 newly reported cases in the last week, but experts say it’s not fully over.
“This outbreak does appear to be leveling off, but the affected states remain hypervigilant, and that’s because it’s travel season,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention incident manager Dr. Manisha Patel said Thursday of the southwestern outbreak, which also affects New Mexico and Oklahoma. “There is a lot of global measles activity right now.”
Across the U.S., there are 1,024 confirmed measles cases as of Friday — an increase of 23 in a week. Texas still accounts for the vast majority of cases.
There are three other major outbreaks in North America. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,622 cases from mid-October through May 13, which rose by 182 cases in a week. Another in Alberta, Canada, has sickened 409 as of Thursday. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 1,306 measles cases and one death as of Friday, according to data from the state health ministry.”
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curated by
Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai