Children Are Back in School. Measles Is, Too

This fall in the U.S., as kids settle into a new school year, measles is spreading at a level not seen in 35 years. Children have died. And in just the past month, 10 children have been infected in an outbreak linked to a single daycare in Georgia. Far too many students are entering classrooms vulnerable to a highly contagious and dangerous virus.Yet there has been relative silence from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency where I once served as a senior leader, about measles. CDC’s back-to-school messages on X have advised families about sleep, physical activity, healthy lunches, and bullying. All are important. But one message emphasized in prior years at the start of school is noticeably absent and can now be found only in CDC’s online archives: Get your child up to date on routine vaccinations. During the country’s largest measles resurgence in decades, that should be the nation’s most urgent back-to-school message.CDC’s reticence extends beyond social media. Four measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania were initially absent from the agency’s national dashboard. In late August, CDC posted two of the Pennsylvania deaths, then added an ...