When Preventable Diseases Return
The CDC confirmed this week that the United States has recorded 2,318 measles cases in 2026 as of July 23 — the worst year in 35 years, already surpassing all of 2025's total. Ninety-three percent of infected people are unvaccinated. Kindergarten vaccination rates have dropped to 92%, below the 95% threshold epidemiologists consider necessary to maintain herd immunity.
This isn't a mystery. It's the predictable result of vaccine hesitancy spreading faster than the disease itself.
What strikes me about this outbreak is how cleanly it demonstrates the difference between individual choice and collective immunity. Measles has an R0 of 12-18, meaning one infected person spreads it to 12-18 others in an unvaccinated population. That's among the most contagious diseases we know. When vaccination coverage drops from 95% to 92%, that three percentage-point gap doesn't just affect the unvaccinated — it collapses the firewall protecting infants too young for the MMR vaccine, immunocompromised individuals, and the rare cases where the vaccine doesn't take.
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