Measles had diminished in Minnesota, where only three cases were reported from 2003 through 2009, according to annual state infectious disease summaries. Most cases were among foreign travelers and unvaccinated children brought to the U.S. for adoption.
That trend has changed. Fifteen of Minnesota’s cases this year involved person-to-person transmission within the U.S., along with 57 of the 70 cases reported in 2024.
Minnesota once had one of the best measles vaccination rates of any U.S. state for children entering kindergarten. But that rate has declined from a peak of 94% to 87% at the start of the 2022-23 school year, which was below the national average.
Skepticism over the COVID-19 vaccine, which was created and tested in record time during the pandemic, has sewed broader doubt about pediatric vaccines in general.
President Donald Trump appointed a health secretary this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long questioned the safety of the measles vaccine, contradicting studies showing it reasonably safe and effective.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends two doses by age 6 of the measles-mumps-rubella combination vaccine, which is considered 97% effective at preventing measles.
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