Public Health Watch Newsletter: Measles HQ

Public Health Watch Newsletter: Measles HQ

January 22, 2026

A wave of new measles infections reported this week in South Carolina now pushes the total state cases past 640 since the latest outbreak began in October, while 8 other states have reported several more infections just this month. The vast majority of these cases are among unvaccinated children.

Many more cases “go unreported, and many people known to be infected are reluctant to disclose details of their travel and illness.” After 12 straight months of transmission as of January 20th, infections are at 34-year high in the U.S., and the nation’s measles elimination status is hanging by a thread.

This would have been an ideal week for Trump health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to finally acknowledge the reality of what his evidence-free anti-vax agenda has wrought and take real action to address the measles crisis before any more kids get seriously sick or worse from this completely preventable disease. But no such luck for our public health.

How the measles disease became great again during the Trump administration can be summed up in this one chart. That’s why leading medical experts joined Protect Our Care for an event imploring the Trump-RFK Jr. HHS to get their priorities straight to save American families from avoidable health problems and financial burden related to the disease.

Fiddling While Rome Burns: Trump’s health secretary thought a better use of his time and vast resources was kicking off a whole milk and steak road show, following a social media campaign. RFK Jr. hasn’t uttered a public word about the critical condition of the nation’s measles elimination status, even after 100-foot reminders to do so were projected onto the HHS building this week that read, ‘Measles HQ’ and ‘RFK Jr. : Making America Sick Again.’

No word either from the HHS communications department that instead released a 2 minute, 34 second video this week on cervical cancer that incredibly made no mention of the proven safe and effective vaccine against HPV, the #1 cause of cervical cancers. It’s perhaps no coincidence Secretary Kennedy has a long history baselessly smearing the HPV vaccine as his family continues to profit handsomely off frivolous lawsuits against it.

But the public did receive one message loud and clear from the Trump administration on the worsening measles situation from Kennedy’s handpicked deputy director of the CDC: that it’s just a “cost of doing business.” When the prospect of more American children getting seriously sick from a preventable disease is seen as acceptable losses in service to the almighty dollar and the anti-vaccine agenda, Trump’s top health officials have officially lost the plot on protecting our public health.

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