Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – February 16, 2026 – Measles
(Measles)… “And this week, a case was reported in New York City, the first in 2026.
The patient is an infant who had recently returned from traveling overseas. The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Michelle Morse, said the child had not been vaccinated. She also said that because of privacy restrictions, she could not make public how old the child was, what part of the city he or she lives in or where he or she had traveled.” (1)
“The NYC Health Department said it is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed. Officials emphasized that the risk to the public remains low due to high vaccination rates across the city.
As of June 30, 2025, 93% of NYC children ages 24 to 35 months had received at least one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine by their second birthday.” (2)
“At least seven more students at a Florida university are battling measles, health officials confirmed this week, as outbreaks of the virus continue to grow nationwide.
The students at Ave Maria University recently contracted the highly contagious virus, the school said in a statement this week, bringing to the total number of cases there to at least 57.” (4)
“The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Thursday it is requiring its students to disclose their vaccination status for certain diseases after a measles case was discovered on campus last month amid a spike nationally.
The new policy states students must tell the university their vaccination status for measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap); chicken pox; meningococcal; and hepatitis B, though they aren’t required to be vaccinated against the diseases.
“This requirement services two main purposes. First, access to these data gives public health officials a better understanding of immunity among our campus community. Second, it helps us support individual students’ health by ensuring faster, more specific support for students who are at a higher risk when exposed to communicable diseases,” the university wrote in its announcement. “ (5)
“Anti-vax activists often argue their decision to forgo life-saving medicine is a personal choice, and in some ways, it is. It is their choice to deny decades of research from leading health organizations, Nobel Prize winning scientists and the overwhelming majority of the medical world. It is their choice to accept missing weeks of work and school, urgent care bills and long recoveries for something preventable. It is even their choice to face the possibility of extreme symptoms and hospitalization, but in the words of Forrest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does.”
However, when you share air on a campus of 50,000 other students, most of whom you do not know, and whose medical histories, vulnerabilities or past exposures you cannot possibly account for, your “personal choice” extends beyond your own health and safety.” (6)
“A nine-year-old unvaccinated child died of measles on Friday, the Health Ministry announced, in the 15th recorded death of an unvaccinated child caused by an ongoing measles outbreak.
The child was hospitalized in critical condition and was declared dead after several attempts by the medical staff to resuscitate him.
The ministry noted that the previous 14 children who died from measles were not vaccinated, with most of them being healthy before the disease and without underlying complications.” (3)
This Is How a Child Dies of Measles, By Elizabeth Bruenig, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/child-dies-measles-vaccines/685969/
Doctors bear the burden as ‘medical freedom’ fuels worst US measles outbreak in 30 years, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/doctors-bear-burden-medical-freedom-fuels-worst-us-measles-outbreak-30-years-2026-02-13/
1.Baby Who Had Traveled Overseas Is City’s First Measles Case of Year, By James Barron, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/nyregion/measles-baby-nyc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
2.NYC confirms measles case in unvaccinated infant; health officials urge MMR vaccination, By NBC New York Staff, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-measles-case-unvaccinated-infant-health-officials-urge-mmr-vaccine/6461191/
3.(Israel). Unvaccinated child dies of complications from measles disease, 15th death since outbreak started, by AVICHAI HAIM, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-886578
4.Students hit by measles outbreak at Florida university, by Natalie Neysa Alund, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2026/02/13/measles-outbreak-nursing-students-florida-university/88658944007/
5.UW-Madison requiring students to disclose measles vaccination status, by Lexi Lonas Cochran, https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5737395-uw-madison-measles-vaccination-status/
6.Stop treating vaccines like an opinion, By Brady Ahler, https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2026/02/stop-treating-vaccines-like-an-opinion
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai