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"We didn't do enough to get a mother on camera to say 'my child died of measles' or had brain damage from measles. While anti-vaxers circulated videos on social media of mothers citing false claims about vaccines, public health groups failed to tell the stories of the ravages of diseases like measles. , an infectious disease pediatrician at Johns Hopkins, agrees. "I think this was not our finest hour," Schaffner said. Those "good guys," he said, include groups such as the CDC as well as doctors' groups. While anti-vaxers were busy spreading their false propaganda, "the good guys," as Schaffner calls them, failed to effectively communicate how dangerous diseases like measles can be. Looking back, public health experts see lost opportunities for combating that problem. I think she actually illuminates the problem." She may be a bit of an outlier - but maybe not. "This was a college educated woman out in the business world and she hadn't come across the concept of polio. At one of these meetings I was talking about polio, and a mother asked me - and this is a complete quote - 'Why are you suddenly talking about shirts?' It took me a minute, but I realized she thought I was talking about polo shirts," Schaffner said. Schaffner said when he's spoken to parent groups, there's been considerable ignorance about even basic facts about infectious diseases. While social media is a part of parents' everyday lives, the ravages of vaccine-preventable diseases are in the distant past. These parents tend to live in clusters, such as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in New York, which helps encourage measles to spread. Lost its measles elimination status in 2018, followed by Brazilįor those countries, economics and political upheaval were at play.įor the United States, it was Facebook and Twitter.Īs anti-vaccine sentiment has grown on social media - some of it propelled by Russian bots and trolls - more and more parents have opted to not immunize their children. , then director of the Pan American Health Organization, a part WHO, said at the time. "This is a historic day for our region and indeed the world," Dr.

It was just three years ago that WHO declared Measles can also cause blindness and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain. In 2017, there were 110,000 measles deaths globally, mostly among children under age 5, according to WHO When vaccine rates plummet, death and disability from measles increases. "If we are not able to take care of our own backyard, how can we tell others what to do?" he said. Spiegel, a former senior official at the UN Agency for Refugees, said it could undermine longstanding US efforts to convince other countries to double down on vaccinating their citizens. It also could have ramifications worldwide. , director of the Center for Humanitarian Health Losing measles elimination status "is a big deal in terms of reputation and prestige," said Dr. Schaffner said things will likely only get worse when children there go back to school early next month and begin congregating again in close quarters. , an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said he thinks it's highly unlikely the measles outbreaks will be over before September 30.ġ2 new cases of measles, most of them in New York. Twenty-nine other states have had measles outbreaks in the past 12 months, but those were much more short-lived than the ones in New York.ĬDC plans on releasing a detailed statement next week about the country's measles elimination status, according to Messonnier. Those two outbreaks have largely been among children in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community whose parents have refused to vaccinate them. , started the next day and has caused more than 300 cases. An outbreak in nearby Rockland County, New York Started on September 30, 2018, and has caused more than 600 confirmed cases of measles. WHO removes a county's elimination status when measles has been spreading continuously for one year. , a longtime adviser to the CDC on vaccine issues. Losing measles elimination status would be a black eye to the United States, public health experts said. "It certainly is incredibly frustrating and upsetting to the public health community that we may lose measles elimination status, because we do have a safe and effective vaccine," Messonnier said. , director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Now there's a "reasonable chance" the US will lose that measles elimination status in October because of ongoing measles outbreaks in New York, according to Dr. , it was hailed as one of the biggest public health achievements in the nation's history. When the World Health Organization declared in 2000 that the United States had eliminated measles