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The US government has amplified anti-vaccine rhetoric and signaled that it does not consider measles to be a priority, which could have global ramifications as countries around the world have lost or are on the brink of losing measles elimination status.
The World Health Organization announced in late January that six European countries: the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had all officially lost their measles elimination status, which means the virus has been circulating continuously in those countries for more than 12 months. In order to contain measles, at least 95% of children should be fully vaccinated against it, according to health recommendations, but vaccination rates have been falling across Europe.
Measles vaccination in the UK has fallen especially dramatically, with only 84% of five-year-olds receiving both recommended doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as of 2024. The UK is also “ground zero”, for vaccine hesitancy, according to Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. Andrew Wakefield, a former physician, was based in the UK when he linked the MMR vaccine to autism in a 1998 Lancet study that has since been retracted. He subsequently lost his medical credentials. This is the second time the UK has lost its measles elimination status in less than a decade.
Even though it’s been more than 15 years since Wakefield’s study was retracted, the idea that vaccines and autism are linked is gaining new traction around the world, with the help of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary.
“The rhetoric that happens in the United States spills over across borders to other countries,” Nuzzo said, “We live in a global ecosystem, so when they hear, well, [the vaccine is] not good enough for the Americans, maybe it’s not good for us either.”
Kennedy is known for his work with the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, which continues to promote Wakefield’s debunked talking points about vaccines and autism.
Organizations like Children’s Health Defense and influencers who promote their rhetoric often bill themselves as activists, but Nuzzo is quick to point out that there is an industry with a profit motive behind their work. A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that the “Anti-Vaxx industry” brings in at least $36m a year. Before becoming health secretary, in 2024, Kennedy himself received millions of dollars in combined income from Children’s Health Defense and various law firms that go after vaccine manufacturers.
Under Kennedy’s leadership, the US is now also on the brink of losing its measles elimination status. Measles often spreads through international transmission, and the two nations that border the US, Canada and Mexico, have also seen a rise in measles outbreaks. Canada lost its elimination status in November of last year, and Mexico’s status is also under threat.
Perhaps the strongest global signal the Trump administration has sent about the deprioritization of measles was its decision to withdraw funding from the Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network (GMRLNN), which the World Health Organization coordinates.
Dr Alonzo Plough, who has worked in senior public health positions in Seattle, Boston and Los Angeles county and who is the current chief science officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said breakthrough measles cases often start with two things – international travel and an unvaccinated child. In the past, the GMRLN has helped detect measles outbreaks globally to help contain travel related transmission. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has funded GMRLN since it was first established, but Trump administration cuts have meant the network of nearly 800 international labs has struggled to keep the lights on, and surveillance could collapse just as measles cases continue to surge.
“Viruses don’t know borders,” Plough said, so coordinating internationally is especially important when it comes to preventing the spread of hyper contagious viruses like the measles. In the past, Plough explained that there was a “network of protection” built on “tight partnerships with CDC”, and international surveillance networks like GMRLN and the Pan American Health Organization.
The US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to specific questions about Kennedy’s vaccine stance or GMRLN’s status, but a spokesperson said: “HHS is working with the White House in a deliberative, interagency process on the path forward for global health and foreign assistance that first and foremost protects Americans.”
It’s unclear whether the GMRLN continues to operate at full capacity. A WHO spokesperson said: “Without funding for GMRLN, there is no global network. The high-quality laboratory surveillance provided by GMRLN will be severely compromised if not completely lost, putting Member States at very high risk of not detecting and timely containing outbreaks,” but did not respond to specific questions about whether some labs have already closed or reduced their capacity.
Nuzzo said the US government’s continued participation in the Pan American Health Organization, which coordinates GMRLN labs in the Americas, implies that the US may be contributing to international surveillance efforts more than public rhetoric suggests. However, even by failing to publicly declare measles a global health priority, the US could be having a “chilling effect” on how other countries’ approach the virus’s spread, according to Nuzzo.
Around the world, Nuzzo is concerned that we’ve entered an era where people’s fears around measles have relaxed, where people are thinking: “I’m just going to get it naturally.”
“Listen, this is a bad disease. You do not want to get this disease, OK?” Nuzzo said, explaining that for those who do survive the infection “it causes long-term health effects. It is thought to bleed your immune system, making you more susceptible to diseases … your immune system forgets how to fight infection.”
Nuzzo said she’s worried that the US’s “biggest exports” are “lies” about measles vaccines that make the entire globe more vulnerable.
