Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept.17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez testified before a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday that she was fired after just 29 days because she refused to pre-approve vaccine recommendations or fire career officials for no reason. 

Monarez, who was nominated by President Donald Trump earlier this year and confirmed by the Senate in July on a party-line vote, became a central figure in the country’s debate over public health last month after she refused to resign. 

Monarez testified that during a meeting in late August, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told her she needed to commit to approving upcoming recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without reviewing any data or research. 

“He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,” Monarez said. “I responded that I could not pre-approve recommendations without reviewing the evidence and I had no basis to fire scientific experts.”

Monarez testified before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during the nearly three-hour hearing that she told Kennedy if he didn’t trust her, then he could fire her.

During that same late August meeting, Monarez said Kennedy told her the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing in September and that she needed to be on board with that.

“We got into an exchange where I had suggested that I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science was supportive,” Monarez testified. “And he responded that there was no science or evidence associated with the childhood vaccine schedule.”

ACIP is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Kennedy testified before a separate Senate committee earlier this month that he did demand that Monarez fire career CDC scientists but said he didn’t tell her to accept the recommendations of the vaccine advisory panel without further review.

“What I asked her about is she had made a statement that she was going to not sign on and I wanted clarification about that,” Kennedy said at the time. “I told her I didn’t want her to have a role if she’s not going to sign onto it.”

Vaccine safety at issue

Monarez said that undermining vaccine safety will lead to an increase in preventable diseases, some of which have long-term or even lifelong consequences for children’s health. 

“I believe that we will have our children harmed for things that we know they do not need to be harmed by — polio, measles, diphtheria, chickenpox,” she said. 

Former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry told the committee there are significant ramifications if the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who were appointed by Kennedy after he fired all of the former members, don’t use rigorous science and data to make their recommendations. 

“It’s going to be heartbreaking,” Houry said. “I think what concerns me is these aren’t harmless diseases. We just saw the case in California of a young child that died of encephalitis years after measles. These diseases have long-term consequences and in the U.S. we have gone so far in reversing this. We don’t want our children to die.”  

Houry was one of several CDC officials who resigned after learning about Monarez’s firing, which happened just weeks after a gunman opened fire at the CDC’s headquarters, killing a police officer. 

Both Monarez and Houry testified, in response to a question from Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, that confusion about vaccines and CDC recommendations had real consequences. 

“I myself was subject to threats,” Monarez said. “And I am very concerned that the further promulgation of misleading information will undermine not just the safety and health of our children, but it will also exacerbate some of these tensions — the willingness to commit harm if someone is affronted by a belief that the people like us that are trying to help them are actually not trying to help them.” 

Houry told the committee the gunman fired about 500 rounds, with approximately 180 of those hitting the building. 

“Each bullet was meant for a person, and each of my staff were very traumatized afterwards,” Houry said. “I had staff that were covering their kids in the day care parking lot. There were people that were out at the ride-share as bullets were passing over their head. I have many that won’t speak about vaccines now and removed their names off of the papers. They don’t wish to present publicly anymore because they feel they were personally targeted because of misinformation.”

‘Did we do something wrong?’

HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said at the beginning of the hearing he intended to invite Kennedy and possibly other HHS officials to testify before his committee later in the year if they wanted to respond to what was said in the Wednesday hearing. 

He also raised concerns that Monarez was fired after less than a month in the role, despite her being nominated by Trump, confirmed by the Senate and Kennedy saying while swearing her in that she had “unimpeachable scientific credentials.”

“We as senators need to ask ourselves, did we look past something? Did we do something wrong?” Cassidy said. “It may be that we did nothing wrong, in which case, Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry, the onus is upon you to prove that the criticisms leveled by the secretary are not true.”

Cassidy later added that “it may be impossible to learn who’s telling the truth.”

Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member on the committee, said the Trump administration’s decision to fire Monarez after less than a month in the CDC director’s role was because “she refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines that would endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world.”

Sanders raised concerns that the loss of career officials at the CDC and other federal health agencies could hamper the country from addressing disease outbreaks in the months and years ahead. 

Confusion over whether Monarez was recorded

There were a few awkward moments in the hearing, in addition to the serious discussion about the Trump administration’s approach to public health. 

One came after Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody mentioned twice during her five minutes of questions that Monarez had spoken with Cassidy about her firing, implying that was somehow improper.  

Cassidy gave a lengthy statement afterward, clarifying the record. 

“As chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over the CDC that favorably reported Dr. Monarez as the CDC director, it is entirely appropriate for someone with oversight concerns to contact my office, or me, or frankly any of us,” Cassidy said. “Upon receiving outreach from Dr. Monarez, I contacted both the secretary and the White House to inquire about what was happening and to express concerns about what was alleged. As soon as the director was fired, the HELP Committee began reviewing the situation, as it is our responsibility, and any and all communication with the witnesses was conducted by HELP staff in coordination with attorneys.”

Another somewhat uncomfortable and slightly confusing moment came after Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin told Monarez that someone had recorded her meeting or meetings with Kennedy.

Mullin then repeatedly questioned her recollection of her conversations with Kennedy, implying that he had a different view because he had listened to the recording. 

The exchange led Cassidy to give another statement to the committee. He appeared somewhat frustrated that someone gave just one senator on the panel the recording, that Mullin had not shared it with any other members of the committee and that HHS had chosen not to give it to the committee in response to a request for documents related to Monarez’s firing. 

“If a recording does not exist, I ask Sen. Mullin to retract his line of questions,” Cassidy said. “I’ll also note that if he has it, I’m also curious why only one senator was given this and why we’re just hearing about it now.”

A few minutes later, Cassidy announced to the hearing room that Mullin told reporters elsewhere that he was mistaken about there being a recording of the meeting or meetings. 

Monarez lawyer

Several GOP senators on the panel also questioned Monarez at length about when and why she chose to hire legal representation and why she ultimately went with Mark Zaid, who has made public statements against Trump and his policies. 

Monarez testified that she wasn’t aware of Zaid’s political beliefs when she hired him and hasn’t spoken with him about politics. 

“I was seeking some critical counsel to be able to help me make sure that I was understanding and aware of everything that had transpired and preparing for what might be next, including this committee hearing,” Monarez said. “Mark and I have never spoken about politics. I never asked him about his politics. He has never asked me about my politics.”

A child gets an MMR vaccine at a clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department in Lubbock, Texas, in March. States have been reporting steady increases in vaccination exemption requests for kids. (Photo by Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images)

Dr. Rana Alissa hears it daily in the clinic.

“It’s better for my kid to get the virus than get the vaccine.”

“The more you [doctors] vaccinate, the more money you get.”

“I did not vaccinate any of my kids, and I’m not going to vaccinate this one. So, please, don’t waste your time.”

The Jacksonville, Florida, pediatrician said on average, she’d hear vaccine skepticism from a couple of parents a month, at most, before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Now, it’s every day,” said Alissa, who is also president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Medical experts say hesitancy is likely to increase further as a result of misinformation pouring from the Trump administration — and turmoil at the federal agency largely responsible for setting vaccine policy.

On Thursday, three top officials were escorted out of the Atlanta headquarters of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All three officials resigned to protest the effort by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to dismiss CDC Director Susan Monarez for pushing back against Kennedy’s vaccine policies.

One of the officials, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, posted on X that he’s resigning because “the intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines” will cause the nation to suffer.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted access to updated COVID-19 shots. The new rules include limitations for young children that the American Academy of Pediatrics called “deeply troubling.” The FDA only approved COVID-19 vaccines for people who are 65 and older and those who are known to be at risk for a severe case. Consultation with a medical provider will be required before the shot is given to healthy children under 18, meaning parents can’t simply take their kids to a vaccination clinic or pharmacy.

In June, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the vaccine advisory committee at the CDC, replacing them with some members who are vaccine skeptics. Many states use the committee’s recommendations to develop their vaccine requirements. And in May, Kennedy rescinded recommendations for kids to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In his books, experts say, Kennedy appears to promote his own version of miasma theory, an obsolete belief dating back to ancient times that diseases are caused by vapors from rotting organic matter. Scientists have since proven that microbes, not bad air, cause infectious diseases.

Experts say Kennedy’s actions are likely to make vaccination rates worse, paving the way for more outbreaks.

“Every vaccine that we give prevents a serious and life-threatening disease,” New York pediatrician Dr. Jesse Hackell, chair of the Committee on Pediatric Workforce at the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Stateline. “I don’t want to force anybody, but I do want to make sure that the information they’re getting is quality information — and that’s not what is coming from HHS.”

Nonmedical exemptions

Every state requires kids to get certain shots to attend school. All states exempt children who can’t be immunized for medical reasons, but nonmedical exemptions for religious or personal reasons vary from state to state.

Vaccination rates among kids are declining. Flu vaccinations, for example, hit their lowest rate since 2019. And since the beginning of the pandemic, exemption requests have increased across the country.

Among kindergarteners, nonmedical exemptions have increased each year since 2020, from 1.9% in the first year of the pandemic to 3.4% in the 2024-25 school year, according to the latest data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exemptions increased in 36 states and Washington, D.C. Seventeen states reported exemption rates over 5%.

The changes may seem small. But experts say even slight increases in exemptions and decreases in vaccinations make a big difference.

“With a disease that’s as infectious as measles … small increases in vaccination rates could really go a long way,” epidemiologist Sophia Newcomer, a University of Montana associate professor, said in a recent panel discussion hosted by Montana Families for Vaccines.

Alissa and other experts say rampant confusion around the shots, including federal officials casting doubt, is exacerbating the problem. Often, parents aren’t sure whom they can trust, finding conflicting information and unreliable sources, she said.

“[Parents] come to our clinic and the hospitals and they say, ‘We looked it up, and we just don’t want it,’” she said. “There’s different kinds of reasoning: the ingredients of the vaccine, the side effects of the vaccine, ‘vaccines don’t work.’”

But research consistently shows vaccines protect children from serious illness. Shots also protect the most vulnerable who can’t get vaccinated, such as babies who are too young, or children and adults who are immunocompromised. Babies up to age 2 are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, making up the most hospitalizations among kids.

Ultimately, Alissa said, “We are endangering each other.”

In Florida, where Alissa practices, religious exemptions have increased monthly, according to a state report that tracked the numbers through April. Some counties have higher rates of children with religious exemptions than others, ranging from about 1.5% to 15%, the state department of health reported. Among kindergarteners in the state, the rate of nonmedical exemptions rose from 2.7% in the 2020-21 school year to 4.8% in the 2024-25 school year, CDC data shows.

Five states — California, Connecticut, Maine, New York and West Virginia — don’t allow nonmedical exemptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two West Virginia families with immunocompromised kids brought lawsuits over Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s January executive order mandating religious exemptions despite state law.

Kennedy defended religious exemptions and endorsed the governor’s order in a post on X. His agency also sent letters to West Virginia health departments warning of civil rights violations if they don’t allow such exemptions.

“There’s a ton of variability across states in how easy it is to not get vaccinated,” Newcomer, of the University of Montana, said. Some states require parental vaccine education as part of the exemption request while others don’t.

“Increased exemptions needs to be fought at every level — working to make sure there’s access, to make sure that there’s good information, and to make sure that there’s strong policy at the state level, so that people aren’t exploiting exemption loopholes,” Northe Saunders, American Families for Vaccines president, said during the panel discussion.

Other vaccines

Doctors are worried that other vaccines will be targeted by the Trump administration, such as those for whooping cough. By April, preliminary CDC data showed more than 9,000 cases this year, about twice as many compared with the same time last year and more than there were right before the pandemic. Whooping cough, or pertussis, can be deadly for babies. Vaccines help prevent severe whooping cough illness.

Hackell said that when he was training in the 1970s, there were no pneumococcal and haemophilus vaccines. Babies would come in with 104-degree fevers and they were immediately tested for the infections, he recalled. For babies under age 2, those bacterial infections can show up as only a high fever, but the infection can rapidly turn fatal without treatment, he told Stateline.

“When I trained, we didn’t have these vaccines, and these kids kept us up at night,” Hackell said. “I never want to practice in those days. I never want to go back to that. … To me, that is unacceptable to submit my patients to those risks that we’ve been able to reduce.”

This week the FDA removed one of the available COVID-19 vaccines for young children, limiting the Spikevax vaccine to only kids with at least one serious health issue. Moderna’s shot is still available for children 6 months and older. Pfizer’s shot is no longer available for kids under 5, as the FDA is ending its emergency use authorization for the age group.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends COVID-19 shots for children 6 months to 2 years. It also recommends them for older children with underlying health issues. Healthy children whose parents want them to get the shot should also be offered them, the AAP says.

Hackell is concerned by the FDA’s new limitations on the shot.

“As a parent, as a grandparent and as a physician who takes care of vulnerable kids, it disgusts me,” Hackell said.

He’s also concerned about vulnerable kids who get their shots through the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program, which covers shots if parents can’t afford them and follows federal vaccine advisory recommendations.

“If you’re covered by VFC, which is basically kids on Medicaid and a few other populations, then you’re out of luck,” Hackell said. “To me, that’s a huge inequity in access to care, which is indefensible.”

He added that the move breaks with the administration’s emphasis on individual decision-making, saying the new restrictions limit parental decisions.

‘Normalization’ of outbreaks

During the Montana panel discussion, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, pointed to CDC data showing that over the past year alone, about 1 in 5 children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 were put in the ICU. And between September 2023 and last August, 152 children died of COVID-19 and 213 children died of the flu.

While Texas officially declared its measles outbreak over — which means the state hasn’t reported a new case in six weeks — neighboring New Mexico continues to see new cases.

“What we’re going to see is, you know, sadly, a normalization of these outbreaks,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer at The Immunization Partnership, a Texas-based vaccine education organization. “We need to make sure that kids are protected against the diseases that they can be protected against, because we truly are in a vulnerable state right now.”

Newcomer, the Montana epidemiologist, said that under-vaccination trends are usually due to disparities in access, such as challenges in reaching vaccine providers in rural communities. At rural health care centers lacking staff and technology, it’s harder to automate vaccination reminders for patients — which can increase the likelihood patients show up for appointments but require technical infrastructure, she explained.

Adding misinformation to the mix only makes matters worse, experts say.

“Parents are confused and understandably concerned,” Offit told Stateline. “It’s the most vulnerable among us that will suffer, and that will be our children.”

He added that he’s also wary about the federal administration’s removal of data, concerned that vaccination figures will be next.

“It’s nightmarish,” he said. “What worries me the most is we’re not going to know the degree that we’re suffering. We’re not, because the CDC is losing its capacity to do adequate surveillance across the country.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

Vaccine misinformation pushed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could put American lives at risk. (Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News)

President Donald Trump’s administrations have been notorious for an array of “alternative facts” — ranging from the relatively minor (the size of inaugural crowds) to threats to U.S. democracy, such as who really won the 2020 election.

And over the past six months, the stakes have been life or death: Trump’s health officials have been endorsing alternative facts in science to impose policies that contradict modern medical knowledge.

It is an undeniable fact — true science — that vaccines have been miraculous in preventing terrible diseases from polio to tetanus to measles. Numerous studies have shown they do not cause autism. That is accepted by the scientific community.

Yet Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has no medical background or scientific training, doesn’t believe all that. The consequences of such misinformation have already been deadly.

For decades, the vast majority Americans willingly got their shots — even if a significant slice of parents had misgivings. A 2015 survey found that 25% of parents believed that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine could cause autism. (A 1998 study that suggested the connection has been thoroughly discredited.) Despite that concern, just 2% of children entering kindergarten were exempted from vaccinations for religious or philosophical objections. Kids got their shots.

But more recently, poor government science communication and online purveyors of misinformation have tilled the soil for alternative facts to grow like weeds. In the 2024-25 school year, rates of full vaccination for those entering kindergarten dropped to just over 92%. In more than a dozen states, the rate was under 90%, and in Idaho it was under 80%. And now we have a stream of measles cases, more than 1,300 from a disease declared extinct in the U.S. a quarter-century ago.

It’s easy to see how both push and pull factors led to the acceptance of bad science on vaccines.

The number of recommended vaccines has ballooned this century, overwhelming patients and parents. That is, in large part, because the clinical science of vaccinology has boomed (that’s good). And in part because vaccines, which historically sold for pennies, now often sell for hundreds of dollars, becoming a source of big profits for drugmakers.

In 1986, a typical child was recommended to receive 11 vaccine doses — seven injections and four oral. Today, that number has risen to between 50 and 54 doses by age 18.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which renders judgments on vaccines, makes a scientific risk-benefit assessment: that the harm of getting the disease is greater than the risk of side effects. That does not mean that all vaccines are equally effective, and health officials have done a lackluster job of fostering public understanding of that fact.

Older vaccines — think polio and measles — are essentially 100% effective; diseases that parents dreaded were wiped off the map. Many newer vaccines, though recommended and useful (and often heavily advertised), don’t carry the same emotional or medical punch.

Parents of the current generation haven’t experienced how sick a child could be with measles or whooping cough, also called pertussis. Mothers didn’t really worry about hepatitis B, a virus generally transmitted through sex or intravenous drug use, infecting their child.

That lack of understanding spawned skeptics. For example, since 2010, the vaccine for influenza, which had been around for decades, has been recommended annually for all Americans at least 6 months old. In the 2024-25 season, the rate of flu vaccination was only between 36% and 54% in adults; in other years, it has been lower than that. “I got the flu vaccine, and I still got the flu” has been a common refrain of skeptics.

“Pre-covid, there were people who took everything but flu,” said Rupali Limaye, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, who studies vaccine demand and acceptance. “Then it became everything but covid. Now it’s everything — including MMR and polio.”

Even as the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed helped develop covid vaccines, conservative media outlets created doubts that the shots were needed: doubts that mRNA technology had been sufficiently tested; doubts that covid-19 was bad enough to merit a shot; concerns that the vaccines could cause infertility or autism.

Trump did little to correct these dangerous misperceptions and got booed by supporters when he said that he’d been vaccinated. Once vaccine mandates came into play, Trump strongly opposed them, reframing belief in the vaccine as a question of personal liberty. And if the government couldn’t mandate the covid shot for school, it followed that officials shouldn’t — couldn’t — mandate others.

Thus 100 years of research proving the virtues of vaccination got dropped into a stew of alternative facts. You were either pro- or anti-vaccine, and that signaled your politics. Suddenly, the anti-vax crowd was not a small fringe of liberal parents, but a much larger group of conservative stalwarts who believed that being forced to vaccinate their kids to enter school violated their individual rights.

Even within the Trump administration, there have been some who (at least partly) decried the trend. While Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, defended Kennedy’s decision to roll back the recommendation that all Americans get annual covid boosters — saying the benefits were unproven — he noted it should not be a signal to stop taking other shots.

As “public trust in vaccination in general has declined,” he wrote, the reluctance to vaccinate had harmed “vital immunization programs such as that for measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccination, which has been clearly established as safe and highly effective.”

Nonetheless, Makary’s boss, Kennedy, continued to promote bad science about vaccines broadly, even as he sometimes grudgingly acknowledged their utility in cases like a measles outbreak. He has funded new research on the already disproven link between MMR shots and autism. He has halted $500 million in grants for developing vaccines using mRNA technology, the novel production method used for the first covid vaccines and a technique scientists believe holds great promise for preventing deaths from other infectious diseases.

In my 10 years practicing as a physician, I never saw a case of measles. Now there are cases in 40 states. More than 150 people have been hospitalized, and three, all unvaccinated, have died.

Alternative facts have formed what David Scales, a physician and sociologist at Weill Cornell Medical College who studies misinformation, calls “an unhealthy information system.” It is an alternative scientific universe in which too many Americans live. And some die.

This story can be republished for free (details).

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Aborted fetal cells are not used to manufacture the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine today, though the original rubella vaccine was made using human fetal embryo fibroblast cells obtained from two elective abortions in the 1960s.

The rubella vaccine is one of many vaccines that use the cell lines from those aborted fetuses, meaning they descend from the original fetal cells, but are not taken directly from new fetal tissue. These cells were chosen because the womb’s sterile environment does not contain the viruses often found in animal cells.

During the manufacturing of the MMR vaccine, the vaccine virus is purified and cellular debris and growth reagents are removed, breaking down trace DNA until there is none or almost none left.

Most of the major world religions that oppose abortion, including the Roman Catholic Church, have deemed vaccines permissible to prioritize the health of pregnant women, children and the wider population.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Medical History Pictures: Stanley Plotkin: Pioneering the use of fetal cells to make rubella vaccine
• The College of Physicians of Philadelphia: How are vaccines made? Human cell strains in vaccine development
• American Academy of Pediatrics: Fact Checked: Vaccines do not contain fetal cells, thimerosal
• Johns Hopkins Institute for Vaccine Safety: Religion and vaccines
• Immunize.org: Religious Concerns: Resources & Information
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Vaccine Ingredients: Fetal Cells
• PBS News: Anti-abortion faith leaders support use of COVID-19 vaccines

Are aborted fetal cells used to make the MMR vaccine? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A nurse gives an MMR vaccine at the Utah County Health Department on April 29, 2019, in Provo, Utah. The vaccine is 97% effective against measles when two doses are administered. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is urging residents to get vaccinated amid the confirmation of the first measles cases in the state this year and as families begin back-to-school preparation with vaccine rates still down. 

DHS confirmed nine cases of measles in Oconto County over the weekend — the first cases in the state this year. The agency said no public points of exposure have been identified and the risk to the community remains low. 

The first case was confirmed through testing at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, and the eight other cases were confirmed based on exposure and symptoms. Each person was exposed from a common source during out-of-state travel.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer of DHS’s Bureau of Communicable Diseases, told reporters during a press conference Monday afternoon that given the number of cases across the country, the agency has been preparing for its case investigations and outbreak response for months. 

“While we were surprised that we had our first cases this past week, we were prepared,” Westergaard said. “We’ve been making sure that we have adequate MMR vaccine in stock and have worked in partnership with all of our local and tribal health departments to make sure that we have a solid response that everyone is aware of, and so far for this case,… things have gone well.”

Cases of the highly contagious disease have hit a 33-year high nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are reports of over 1,300 cases this year, with more than 150 people having been hospitalized for measles. Three people have died this year. 

Measles was declared eliminated in 2000, but decreasing vaccine rates, which have fallen below herd immunity, have led to a resurgence of the disease. Prior to 2025, the last similar outbreak was in 2019 when more than 1,200 cases were confirmed in the U.S. 

Westergaard said the state agency is not considering the nine cases in Wisconsin an outbreak because  the investigation found a common source during out-of-state travel. He said the agency won’t be releasing additional information about the cases due to state privacy laws. The agency has said it is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed. 

The agency is urging families to get vaccinated in light of the cluster of cases and reported Monday that vaccination rates among students mostly held steady during the 2024-25 school year. Vaccination rates are still below pre-pandemic levels. 

“Vaccination is the first line of defense for your child’s health. Each vaccine is approved only after being proven safe and effective,” Stephanie Schauer, director of the Wisconsin Immunization Program, said in a statement. “Taking time now to ensure your children have received the recommended vaccines will make them less likely to get seriously ill, meaning less time out of school and away from work. And routine vaccines don’t just protect your child — they help keep classrooms and the whole community safe.”

During the 2024-25 school year, 86.4% of students met the minimum immunization requirements — a 2.8 percentage point decrease from the 2023-24 school year. 

“This tells us that most Wisconsin families are protecting their children with vaccines,” Westergaard said at the press conference. “Unfortunately, this level is below where we need to be to protect our state against outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. As we head into the new school year as a physician and as the father of kids who attend public schools, I want to encourage all caregivers to reach out to a trusted health care provider with any questions or concerns that you have to concern to ensure that students are up to date on their vaccines this year.” 

The agency attributed the overall decrease in meeting the immunization requirement to people being unfamiliar with a new meningitis vaccination requirement for 7th and 12th grade students. Without data on the meningitis vaccination, 89.3% of Wisconsin students met the minimum requirements — a 0.1% increase from the 2023-24 school year.

DHS reported in December that families in the state have fallen behind other states when it comes to receiving childhood vaccines including polio, pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus (DTaP), and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). When it comes to measles in particular, Wisconsin has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Measles can spread from person to person through the air, and the vaccines to prevent it are highly effective. One dose of the MMR vaccine provides about 93% protection from measles, while two doses are about 97% effective.

“Our school vaccination data tells us there are children in our schools who are not protected from an outbreak of preventable diseases like measles,” State Health Officer Paula Tran said in a statement. “In public health, we know that 95% of people in a community need to be vaccinated against measles in order to prevent an outbreak, which is why it’s so important to get children the vaccines they need on time.”

Milwaukee city leaders, looking to take preventative steps due to the measles cases, also urged residents to get vaccinated on Monday.

“As a father and as mayor, I take this threat seriously,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement. “We’ve seen how quickly diseases can spread when vaccination rates fall behind.”

Children’s Wisconsin President of Pediatrics Dr. Mike Gutzeit emphasized that serious side effects from the MMR vaccine are rare. 

“The risk from measles itself is far greater. When families choose not to vaccinate, they’re not just putting their own children at risk, but also newborns and people with weakened immune systems,” Gutzeit said. “Measles was nearly eliminated in the U.S., but now we’re seeing hundreds of cases and hospitalizations again. We can’t afford to go backward.”

Other vaccine-preventable illnesses surged in classrooms last year, according to DHS. Nearly 3,000 cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, were reported.

The measles cases and data on school vaccine rates come as some Republican lawmakers are seeking to increase awareness of vaccine exemptions. Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) and Rep. Lindee Brill (R-Sheboygan Falls) recently introduced a bill that seeks to highlight Wisconsin’s vaccine exemptions, saying there isn’t enough transparency around them. Current law already requires that schools and day care providers “inform the person in writing of the person’s right to a waiver.” 

During the 2024–2025 school year, 6.7% of students had a waiver for one or more vaccinations. Of those, 5.8% of students had a personal conviction waiver, 1% had a religious waiver and 0.4% had a health waiver. 

Westergaard said the rate of waivers in Wisconsin is higher than other states. 

“We’re one of only 13 states that has the personal conviction waiver. Many states do not allow that,” Westergaard said, adding that health forms typically include notice of the waiver availability. 

“We feel in public health that knowledge of the exemptions of the waivers is commonplace,” Westergaard said. “We don’t hide them, but our recommendation is that people get their kids vaccinated because we, as a public health entity, feel any risks far outweighed by the benefit, both to individual health and to our community health.”

Westergaard said those with concerns should speak with a trusted physician and be open with their questions. 

“For many families, childhood immunizations are a fact of life, and they’ve accepted them when they’re recommended, but we know other families have questions and concerns,” Westergaard said. “If there are questions you have, if there is information that you’ve seen online or heard that makes you question the safety or the effectiveness, let’s talk about them… There’s near unanimity among people who have seriously reviewed MMR safety data and other childhood vaccine data that they are on balance very safe and very effective and continually monitored for safety and adverse effects.”

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• Measles was once declared eliminated in the U.S., but it’s spreading again. And now it has reached Wisconsin. State health officials on Saturday announced nine cases in Oconto County — the first infections confirmed in the state this year.
• Older Wisconsin residents recall painful and disruptive bouts with childhood measles during the pre-vaccine era. Some are still affected, such as those who lost their hearing as a result. 
• Of the estimated 3 to 4 million Americans infected each year before vaccinations, an estimated 48,000 were hospitalized and 400 to 500 died.
• Health professionals are preparing to recognize the signs of a disease they’ve rarely, if ever, treated — and to respond to potential outbreaks.

The measles started like a typical childhood illness for Dorothy Thompson — with just a runny nose. But she soon developed itchy red blotches across her skin and a fever so high doctors feared it could cause brain damage. She was just 5 years old, but decades later, some of her memories remain vivid.

“It was so horrible,” recalled Thompson, 72, of Richland Center. “I would never wish it on anyone.”

In the years before a measles vaccine became widely available in the 1960s, Thompson’s experience was not uncommon. Nearly every child in the United States caught measles before age 15. What many considered a normal part of childhood was disruptive and even deadly. It wasn’t unusual for students to go home from school sick. In hundreds of cases each year, they never returned. 

After vaccine advances eliminated the virus in the U.S., measles is spreading again. More than 1,300 measles cases have been confirmed across 41 states, the latest being Wisconsin. 

The state Department of Health Services on Saturday announced it confirmed nine measles infections in Oconto County — the first in Wisconsin this year. 

To understand what the reemergence of measles might look like, Wisconsin Watch spoke with residents who contracted the disease decades ago as children, including some who still live with complications today. They described high fevers and days of bed-ridden isolation during the infections, as well as lasting damage to their bodies — like the hearing loss some live with now.

Health professionals across the state told Wisconsin Watch they’re preparing to recognize the signs of a disease they’ve rarely, if ever, treated — and to respond to potential outbreaks.

When nothing stopped measles

In the days when measles ran rampant, medical treatment was limited. Families largely cared for sick children at home, relying on home remedies and passed-down knowledge, or the occasional house call from a doctor.

Thompson remembers her days sick at home. Her mother applied calamine lotion to relieve itching around her rashes, and Thompson was required to stay in a dark room wearing sunglasses for fear that the disease would damage her eyes. The worst part, she recalled, was being packed in ice to manage her over 100-degree fever.

Other common treatments in decades past included isolating to prevent spreading the virus to others and spending days in bed until symptoms wore off. 

With no vaccine to block infections, some officials advised parents to have their children catch measles early — particularly for daughters, so they would be less likely to contract it later during a pregnancy. 

Newspaper accounts in the 1950s and 1960s described the phenomenon of “measles parties,” in which children were deliberately exposed to others infected with the virus.

Those also applied to German measles, or rubella, a milder virus linked to severe birth defects during pregnancy. 

Kathleen Cooper of Rhinelander remembers those parties. When she ultimately caught measles at age 6, she was confined to a darkened room and prevented from watching television due to fears that bright light might cause blindness — similar to what Thompson recalled.

Cooper was supposed to attend a birthday party that weekend. Instead, the party came to her.

“That’s how they treated it back then,” said Cooper, now 73. “If one kid in the neighborhood got the chickenpox or the measles, everybody went over to their house so the mothers could just get it over with, because it was just something that you had to get through.”

Lasting toll from measles

But measles parties did not protect people from the misery of the disease. Infections only spread. 

“I was ill and bedridden for weeks. When I was finally able to get up I was a skeleton. My pants couldn’t stay up and my clothes hung on me,” Door County resident Pam Goodlet recalled of a measles bout in 1963 as a 13-year-old. 

Delirious with fever and unable to eat or drink water, Goodlet stayed hydrated by sucking on ice cubes. She recalled being visited by a doctor just once and was never taken to a hospital or clinic.

Goodlet ultimately recovered without long-term health consequences, but many others weren’t so lucky.

Of the estimated 3 to 4 million Americans infected each year before vaccinations, an estimated 48,000 were hospitalized and 400 to 500 died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In 1967, a column published in the Waukesha Daily Freeman described the stories of children whose lives were permanently altered by the disease. 

They included a Watertown toddler who was hospitalized and diagnosed with a cognitive impairment after an infection that occurred one year before vaccines became widely available in 1963. 

“Too late for Valerie,” the toddler’s mother reportedly lamented.

Another child was described as healthy until developing encephalitis — a dangerous inflammation of the brain — at the age of 2 due to measles. The condition left her mentally impaired and also deaf, the newspaper reported. An estimated 1,000 children annually suffered encephalitis from measles in the pre-vaccination era.

Leslie Fedorchuk of Milwaukee still lives with the effects of her measles infection.

She was about 6 years old when she realized something wasn’t right with her hearing. As her mother’s friend kept dialing her home’s wall-mounted phone, Fedorchuk, perched on a chair to reach it, would answer, hear nothing and hang up.

It took her mother picking up to realize her friend was speaking each time, but Fedorchuk couldn’t hear from her right ear. The episode happened shortly after Fedorchuk contracted measles and mumps simultaneously.

“I’m in my 70s, and I’ve lived with it my whole life,” Fedorchuk said. “When I hear people say, ‘Oh, nothing can happen if you don’t get a vaccination,’ I think, ‘Oh, yeah, something can definitely happen.’”

Peggy Haas, 69, a registered nurse in Waukesha County, became a firm believer in vaccines after witnessing the damage measles could inflict.

While finishing her master’s degree at Marquette University in 1987, she taught undergraduate students in the pediatrics ward at St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee. One day she assigned a student to care for a woman in her 20s who, due to measles complications, had the developmental capacity of an infant.

“She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t feed herself, she couldn’t even walk,” Haas said. “That was the first time I’d seen anybody who had failed to vaccinate their child and what it could do.”

Potential measles complications run the gamut from ear infections and diarrhea to more serious issues like pneumonia and encephalitis. Such brain swelling can cause permanent tissue damage, leading to hearing loss or other serious neurological complications.

Some potential effects aren’t immediately visible. Measles can disrupt the part of the immune system that remembers previous infections, a phenomenon known as immunity amnesia. That leaves people more vulnerable to future viruses for two to three years after a measles infection.

“For example, if you’ve been immunized for polio, and then you get a measles infection, the immunity you had to polio could be wiped out or reduced,” said Malia Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. “You wouldn’t even know that you’re susceptible to some of this stuff.”

The mortality rate for measles is just 1 in 1,000, but the risk of a weakened immune system makes the toll of measles higher, Jones noted. And while medical care has dramatically improved since the 1960s, no specific treatment exists for measles today.

“We just offer supportive care — in the hospital for those who become very sick — and hope for the best,” Jones said.

Vaccine was ‘a turning point in public health’ 

By the 1960s, vaccine breakthroughs showed that cases of measles were preventable. 

The first measles vaccine was licensed in the U.S. in 1963. By 1971 it was combined with vaccines for mumps and rubella, paving the way for the MMR vaccine used today. 

Early uptake was limited, and in 1983, the MMR vaccine was only routinely recommended for 1-year-olds.

But it soon became clear that a single dose fell short of offering full long-term protection. A second dose was added in 1989 to the routine schedule for children before starting school. Taking two vaccine doses is about 97% effective at preventing measles, the CDC says, compared to 93% for one dose.

The two-dose regimen initiated more regular contact between young children and health care providers. That led to more early developmental checks, including hearing, vision and behavioral assessments now standard in pediatric care. It also paved the way for childhood vaccination schedules to prevent other diseases, said Dr. Jim Conway, a UW-Madison professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Global Pediatrics.

“The MMR vaccine was a really major turning point in public health,” he said.

By the early 2000s, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it wasn’t continuously spreading for a period longer than a year. 

How health officials are responding

But the virus is back, with the U.S. seeing more than four times as many infections in 2025 than in all of 2024. And it has now been detected in Wisconsin. 

In Oconto County, “all of the cases were exposed to a common source during out-of-state travel,” the state health department said in a statement Saturday.

“DHS, in coordination with the Oconto County Public Health, is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to the measles virus,” the statement said. “At this time no public points of exposure have been identified and the risk to the community remains low.”  

Wisconsin is vulnerable to an outbreak due to its relatively low childhood vaccination rates. It is one of just 15 states that allow vaccine exemptions for medical, religious and personal belief reasons. No Wisconsin county comes close to reaching the vaccination rate of 95% that is considered the benchmark for herd immunity protection. 

Public health officials are bracing themselves to respond.

Jennifer Weitzel, director for public health in Sauk County, said her department began closely monitoring measles this year after a Texas outbreak resulted in hundreds of infections and killed two unvaccinated school children. The department is being attentive as popular destinations like Wisconsin Dells and Devil’s Lake draw out-of-state visitors this summer. Just 70% of Sauk County’s kindergarten-aged children received two doses of the vaccine in 2024, down from 76% in 2019. 

The health department is working with providers and doctors to communicate the important protections vaccines bring. 

“I think that’s part of the challenge … no one sees these diseases anymore, so we forget just how effective vaccines have been and how awful these diseases really are,” Weitzel said.

Her colleagues coordinate tabletop exercises with other health departments, including those in Richland County and the Ho-Chunk Nation, practicing communication and response protocols in worst-case scenarios.

Health officials say they are trying to build trust in an era of misinformation surrounding viruses and vaccines. 

“Public health also took a big hit during COVID,” Weitzel said. “Folks are leery of government overreach, of recommendations, so we’re trying to build back that trust at a time where it’s critical, because measles is spreading, and we know that we could prevent it.”

But Holly Neri, a public health nurse in Door County, sees some positives from the COVID-19 pandemic: It prompted public health professionals to better prepare for virus outbreaks.

Door County nurses have sought to make sure patients are up to date on vaccinations. A state immunization grant for purchasing vaccines has helped, Neri said. The goal is for at least 78% of Door County children to be current on their vaccines by age 2, including MMR.

Their department is sharing information with local medical providers about identifying and responding to measles. 

Some groups, such as pregnant women and very young infants, cannot be safely vaccinated. That makes it particularly important for others to do so — aiming to get as close to herd immunity as possible, said Rebecca Wold, public health supervisor for the Oneida County Health Department. 

“If you’re not sure of your immunity or vaccination status, you don’t have any record of having a measles vaccine or having had measles as a child, it is safe to get a measles vaccine, and we would recommend it,” Wold said.

Want more information about measles? 

See this guide from Wisconsin Watch that rounds up medical professionals’ recommendations for protecting yourself and others. 

Door County Knock reporter Emily Small contributed to this report. 

‘I would never wish it on anyone:’ Measles resurgence spurs memories of past toll in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Before the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Americans faced measles infections each year. The advent of vaccination eliminated the disease in the United States by 2000. But outbreaks have returned to some U.S. communities as trust in vaccines wanes in many communities.

More than 1,300 measles cases have been confirmed this year across 41 states, the latest being Wisconsin. That’s after the state Department of Health Services on Saturday announced it confirmed nine measles infections in Oconto County — the first in Wisconsin this year. 

Each Oconto County infection involved exposure to a “common source during out-of-state travel,” the state health department said in a statement. 

“DHS, in coordination with the Oconto County Public Health, is working to identify and notify people who may have been exposed to the measles virus,” the statement said. “At this time no public points of exposure have been identified and the risk to the community remains low.”  

What should Wisconsin families know about measles? 

Wisconsin Watch spoke with two University of Wisconsin-Madison experts: Dr. Jim Conway, a professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Global Pediatrics; and Malia Jones, an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health.

We gathered additional information from officials at multiple rural public health departments across Wisconsin and reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Below are some takeaways. 

When and where am I most susceptible to measles?

That depends on individual health and vaccination status. Very young people (especially infants too young to be vaccinated), older adults and people with compromised immune systems face higher risks for contracting measles and developing severe complications.

Measles tends to spread more easily in crowded urban environments and during travel. However, it can spread anywhere, as evidenced by recent rural outbreaks, including those in Texas, where hundreds of infections have been confirmed and two school children have died. All it really takes is exposure to an infected person. Measles is one of the most highly contagious known diseases. It can remain infectious in the air or on surfaces even after an infected person leaves the area.

To put it in perspective, measles is often reported to have an R nought value — the number used to describe contagiousness — between 12 and 18. That means if one person with measles walked into a room of vulnerable people, odds are they would infect 12 to 18 others in the room. 

What should I do if I start having measles symptoms?

Measles often starts with general cold-like symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes, making it hard to immediately recognize. The rash typically appears a few days after infection — and after a contagious person may have exposed others. 

If you think you might have measles or have been exposed to it, contact your local health department or healthcare provider immediately — especially if you’re unvaccinated or traveled to an area where cases were reported.  Suspected cases can be reported to local health departments even before confirmation, allowing officials to respond more quickly. Experts recommend staying home while waiting for test results to avoid spreading the virus.

What are the risks of measles?

While some think of measles as a mild childhood illness that everyone used to get, it can be dangerous. The disease can lead to a range of complications, from ear infections and diarrhea to more severe pneumonia or brain-swelling encephalitis. Such brain inflammation can affect multiple parts of the body and even cause permanent damage, especially to the brain and hearing. 

Meanwhile, a  rare but fatal long-term brain disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis can develop years after the initial infection. 

Some people infected by measles may experience neurological issues or nerve damage later in life.

One lesser-known risk factor: Measles can disrupt the part of the immune system that remembers previous infections, a phenomenon known as immunity amnesia. That leaves people more vulnerable to future viruses for two to three years after a measles infection.

In higher-income countries measles kills 1 to 3 of every 1,000 people infected, 10% to 20% of infections requiring hospitalization — often due to pneumonia, dehydration or severe diarrhea. Encephalitis occurs in about 1 in 1,000 cases, and pneumonia occurs in about 5% of infections. Children who are malnourished or have limited access to medical care face significantly greater risks. 

U.S. health officials have confirmed three measles-related deaths this year. 

What if I’m unsure whether I’ve had measles or the vaccine?

If you were born before 1957, you’re generally considered immune to measles because the virus was so widespread during the pre-vaccine era. Many adults born in the 1960s and 1970s may assume they’re protected when, in fact, they were never fully vaccinated, or even vaccinated at all. A second dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine wasn’t added to routine childhood immunization schedules until 1989, so many adults missed one or both recommended doses. 

The bottom-line is if there’s any uncertainty around your vaccination status, it’s safe to get vaccinated again. There’s no harm in receiving an additional dose of the MMR vaccine. In fact, an extra dose is both safe and more practical — quicker and more cost-effective than getting a blood test to check your immunity.

“More is better,” Conway said. “This is not one of the vaccines that has particularly tough side effects.”

Staying up to date not only protects you from serious illness but also helps safeguard others in your community who may be more vulnerable to complications from measles.

What can I do to protect myself and others?

Vaccination is your best defense. The MMR vaccine is the most effective way to protect yourself and those around you from measles. Make sure you’ve received both recommended doses, and stay informed about outbreaks in your community, especially if you’re traveling or belong to a vulnerable group.

Visit these resources for more information

• About measles (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• How to protect your children during a measles outbreak (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Measles cases are rising—here’s how to protect your family (Public Good News)
• How are routine vaccines tested for safety? (Public Good News)
• No, vitamin A does not prevent measles (Public Good News)

Measles has made it to Wisconsin. Here’s what to know about the virus. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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As we continue to report on Wisconsin’s readiness for potential measles outbreaks, we have spoken to several people who have shared their memories of having measles before a vaccines were widely available. We’d love to hear from more of you. 

Before the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Americans faced measles infections each year. The advent of vaccination eliminated the disease in the United States by 2000. But outbreaks have returned to some U.S. communities as trust in vaccines wanes in many communities.

We’re following whether measles will return to Wisconsin, which has some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates for children.

If you have a story to share, whether it’s your own experience with measles or your observations of what it was like at the time, please take a moment to fill out this short form. Your submissions will shape the direction of our reporting and will not be shared publicly. But we may follow up with those who indicate they are comfortable with us doing so. 

Thanks to those who have already shared their perspectives and questions. 

Here are the stories your feedback has inspired so far: 

• Wisconsin, once a leader in childhood vaccinations, now a leader in vaccine skepticism
• DataWatch: Measles will likely arrive in Wisconsin. Here’s where vaccination rates are trending

Did you witness measles outbreaks decades ago? Share your experience  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.