{"id":13815,"date":"2026-06-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=13815"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:00:00","slug":"anguished-parents-doctors-in-tears-utahs-long-measles-outbreak-takes-a-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=13815","title":{"rendered":"Anguished Parents. Doctors in Tears. Utah\u2019s Long Measles Outbreak Takes a Toll."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Ben Dowse hadn\u2019t expected to treat measles when he became a doctor, but there he was, examining a newborn exposed to the virus in the womb. The infected mother had given birth just hours earlier. The hospital had alerted Dowse to the case before delivery, and he\u2019d braced himself for the worst.<\/p>\n<p>Dowse wore a full-body protective suit with a plastic face mask. As a pediatrician in southern Utah, he couldn\u2019t risk getting even a mild infection, because many of his patients are babies too young for measles vaccines or children whose parents choose not to protect them with immunizations. \u201cI went in looking like a scientist in <em>E.T.<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Measles can cause brain damage, deafness, or death in newborns. If the baby entered the world with a measles rash and fever, Dowse was prepared to give the infant a spinal tap to assess the risk of neurological damage.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, flushed and crying, the baby looked healthy. To keep it that way, Dowse wanted to inject the baby with concentrated antibodies against the measles virus. To his surprise, the parents objected, promising to give their child \u201call kinds of vitamin A,\u201d Dowse said. He begged them not to, saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t see it on the surface, but the baby\u2019s body is fighting the measles.\u201d They were afraid of vaccines, so Dowse explained that antibodies were different and that they would stop measles from replicating in the infant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat shot is going to basically give the baby ammo to fight,\u201d Dowse said.<\/p>\n<p>The parents relented. A couple of days later, they left the hospital with a child who had narrowly skirted an infection that killed many thousands of babies a century ago. Nonetheless, Dowse said he doubted they would be returning for childhood vaccinations to protect their baby against a bevy of illnesses. Like more than a dozen Utah doctors and health officials who spoke with KFF Health News, Dowse has adjusted his expectations.<\/p>\n<p>He is part of a reluctant cohort of medical professionals now on the front line of America\u2019s regressive next chapter in health history, one in which dangerous and preventable diseases return.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish that people could see what I see,\u201d said Nathan Money, a hospital pediatrician in Utah whose eyes welled up with tears as he described children he\u2019s treated for measles struggling to breathe. \u201cThis train is going in the wrong direction, and it can feel like a helpless situation, because we\u2019re just not seeing the public messaging and leadership that\u2019s needed to turn this around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since measles was deemed eliminated in the U.S. a quarter century ago, public health workers have extinguished sporadic outbreaks in close-knit, undervaccinated communities with targeted methods: Isolate people with measles and quarantine their contacts to contain the virus. But as vaccination rates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/schoolvaxview\/data\/index.html\">drop nationwide<\/a>, the virus is moving beyond insulated communities, overwhelming public health departments constrained by shoestring budgets. Larger outbreaks, the kind not seen for a generation, have forced health officials into a new paradigm: They have stopped racing to \u201ccontain\u201d infections and shifted gears into what they call \u201cmitigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Utah made that transition early this year, once the outbreak hit \u201ca point where you no longer have control over it,\u201d said state epidemiologist Leisha Nolen. By March, measles had been detected in every health jurisdiction in the state and in northern Arizona. More than 950 people have tested positive in the two states since the outbreak began in August, but many people with measles haven\u2019t been tested. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/eis-conference\/php\/abstracts\/inferring-outbreak-size-and-onset-date.html\">genetic analysis<\/a> of measles viruses suggested that the true number of cases last year could have been 6.5 times what was known.<\/p>\n<p>Last year under President Donald Trump, U.S. measles cases exceeded 2,000 for the first time since 1992. Six months into 2026, the U.S. has already surpassed that threshold. Prolonged outbreaks exact a toll on children, who have spent days in hospitals for severe infections and missed weeks of school for mild ones. Adults with measles miss work. Parents delay daycare to keep their babies safe. Doctors in Utah have enacted labor-intensive protocols to keep measles from spreading in clinics. Newborns and people with weakened immune systems who have been exposed to the virus receive infusions of concentrated antibodies costing $500 to $1,000. Medical visits for measles <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9004490\/pdf\/nihms-1789119.pdf\">can cost<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2025.10.24.25338724v2.full.pdf\">more than $33,000 per patient<\/a>. Health departments spend millions trying to curb infections.<\/p>\n<p>Emilie Morris, a hospital pediatrician in Utah, has cared for multiple unvaccinated children who were severely sick with measles. She\u2019s learning how to communicate with parents who hadn\u2019t expected the virus to cause so much harm. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is like a snowball that gathers speed as it rolls downhill,\u201d said Emilie Morris, a hospital pediatrician in Salt Lake County and Utah County. A full-throttle campaign to educate communities on the safety of vaccines and the diseases they prevent could turn the situation around, doctors and health officials said. It would require an effort similar to what the anti-vaccine movement has long done in videos, blogs, and podcasts. For example, the anti-vaccine organization that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded before taking the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, Children\u2019s Health Defense, visits <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2024\/07\/how-rfk-jr-falsely-denied-his-connection-to-a-deadly-measles-outbreak-in-samoa\/\">vaccine-hesitant communities<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2019\/oct\/31\/vaxxed-2-movie-sequel-release-fears-propaganda\">produces movies<\/a>, and has bought <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/robert-f-kennedy-jrs-group-is-a-top-buyer-of-anti-vax-facebook-ads\/\">advertisements on Facebook<\/a> that downplay the threat of viruses while wildly exaggerating the risk of vaccine side effects. Kennedy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2026\/05\/a-timeline-of-rfk-jr-s-mixed-messaging-on-the-measles-vaccine\/\">words<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/aapnews\/news\/34859\/More-than-100-medical-groups-say-changes-to-ACIP?autologincheck=redirected\">actions<\/a> as health secretary are adding to parents\u2019 doubt.<\/p>\n<p>After the development of vaccines and antibiotics in the mid-1900s, virologist and Nobel laureate Frank Macfarlane Burnet wrote, \u201cOne can think of the middle of the twentieth century as the end of one of the most important social revolutions in history, the virtual elimination of the infectious diseases as a significant factor in social life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He couldn\u2019t have imagined what was coming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Year of Sickness\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A view of St. George, a city in southwest Utah that\u2019s been hit hard by an ongoing measles outbreak that started in August. Nearly 40% of the state\u2019s cases have occurred in the region. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>In communities nestled among the red sandstone cliffs and riparian forests of southern Utah, measles took hold last summer. At the main school in Hildale, a town along the Arizona border, just 30% of kindergartners are considered adequately immunized by Utah\u2019s health department, meaning they\u2019ve gotten recommended vaccines against measles, tetanus, polio, and more. Exemptions from childhood vaccine requirements are easily acquired in the state: Parents need only claim personal, religious, or medical reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Many people in Hildale and the surrounding towns are connected to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a sect that has been leery of the government since a police raid in 1953 separated polygamous parents from their children. Shirlee Draper, a southern Utah resident who grew up in the faith, said they became ever more isolated in the early 2000s under the leadership of Warren Jeffs. Before he was sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault against minors, Jeffs instructed his followers to withdraw from public schools and mainstream medicine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrowing up, we all got our vaccines,\u201d said Draper, who left the group during Jeffs\u2019 reign. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until Warren Jeffs came along that there started to be more and more resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Jeffs went to prison, many people left the faith but remained concerned about vaccines because of online misinformation, such as claims that the shots are toxic. Today a small shop in Hildale sells mouth sprays and oral drops professing to detoxify vaccines. Water, glycerin, and \u201cwhole grain alcohol\u201d are listed as ingredients in one called Vxx-Dtx.<\/p>\n<p>A mother who KFF Health News agreed not to name, because she fears stigmatization, said she considered getting her kids vaccinated when schools in southwest Utah started seeing measles cases last summer. She had split from the fundamentalist group but still worried about vaccines giving her children autism or other complications. <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/fullarticle\/201371\">Large<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/30831578\/\">studies<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24814559\/\">published<\/a> in top-tier scientific journals have refuted a link between vaccines and autism, but the anti-vaccine movement has kept the notion alive.<\/p>\n<p>Then the woman\u2019s son told her that his classmate had a rash and spit on him, she said. A few days later, he fell ill with a fever, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and a head-to-toe rash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe felt downright sick for 10 to 14 days,\u201d the woman said. \u201cIt was hard to see the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then her daughters came down with measles. She had a fleeting case, too, even though she had been vaccinated as a child. Breakthrough infections <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/80\/3\/663\/7756619\">tend to be mild<\/a> and are relatively rare. Only 4% of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/measles\/data-research\/index.html\">4,300-plus U.S. cases<\/a> reported this year and last have been people who\u2019ve had two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the family recovered, the son had missed nearly three weeks of school, the daughters a month, and the mother had postponed an important family gathering because she didn\u2019t want to spread infections. \u201cI just got my youngest\u2019s missed-school report and it\u2019s super high,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the year of sickness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Southwest Utah Public Health Department stocks vaccines against measles, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, and other diseases. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>The woman said she regretted not getting her kids vaccinated when the outbreak started. She said she knows about 30 people who have fallen sick with the measles. Except for a few who needed medical care, they haven\u2019t been tested. \u201cI bet there\u2019s been thousands of cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Measles doesn\u2019t have a cure. She and others have tried to ease symptoms with cod liver oil, vitamin C, zinc, and \u201cessential oils,\u201d plant extracts long used in folk medicine that have become a lucrative industry in Utah. People in southwest Utah are trying a lot of things: One resident sells homemade lotion on Facebook, writing, \u201cBreastmilk &amp; Honey has been a life saver for the measles rash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beyond Containment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The outbreak may have started among a fundamentalist community, but it\u2019s spread far beyond because Utah\u2019s vaccination rates have dropped steadily since the covid pandemic. Fewer than 80% of kindergartners <a href=\"https:\/\/immunize-training.at.utah.gov\/captivate\/UtahSchoolsData_Kinder_UpdatedApr2025.html#IP%20exemptions\">were adequately immunized<\/a> in the 2024-25 school year in southwest Utah, with only 87% adequately immunized in the state as a whole \u2014 far below the 95% threshold required for herd immunity.<\/p>\n<p>Several Utahns told KFF Health News that \u201calternative health\u201d or \u201cwellness\u201d drives the trend, rather than religion. The state has a thriving supplement industry, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crnusa.org\/newsroom\/crn-report-dietary-supplement-companies-pump-more-158-billion-us-economy-23-2016\">worth $6.1 billion in 2023<\/a>, aided by deregulatory policies supported by the late Utah senator Orrin Hatch and a high concentration of people who earn income from multilevel marketing. These networks of people sell supplements, essential oils, peptides, and other alternative therapies on social media, YouTube, and podcasts, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarsarchive.byu.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1246&amp;context=msr2\">scholarly articles<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/kutv.com\/news\/local\/follow-the-profit-how-mormon-culture-made-utah-a-hotbed-for-multi-level-marketers\">industry analyses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Alternative health isn\u2019t necessarily anti-vaccine, but many people who sell unconventional remedies online and in podcasts <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1329878X241270526\">deride vaccines<\/a> and mainstream medicine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are suspicious, and it\u2019s well founded,\u201d Draper said. She described dismissive doctors, <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/series\/bill-of-the-month\/\">exorbitant medical bills<\/a>, hospital systems that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/series\/profits-over-patients\">put profits<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/health-industry\/for-profit-rehab-hospitals-errors-unpenalized-undisclosed-cms\/\">over care<\/a>, and pharmaceutical companies that drove <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/10\/30\/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain\">opioid addiction<\/a>. Communities already wary of government authorities are poised to interpret failings in American healthcare as signs that medical authorities aren\u2019t to be trusted, either, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcross America, we have entire populations who find safety in clinging to whatever confirms their deeply held beliefs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>A mistrustful disposition gave way to covid conspiracy theories in 2020 and 2021. In southwest Utah, for example, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2021\/10\/utah-protesters-claim-hospitals-are-killing-people-who-have-covid\/\">pickup truck<\/a> tricked out with digital billboards showed up to covid vaccination sites to advertise <em>Plandemic<\/em>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8318131\/\">26-minute viral video<\/a> rife with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2020\/05\/the-falsehoods-of-the-plandemic-video\/\">conspiratorial claims<\/a>, including that masks \u201cactivate\u201d the coronavirus and that global elites planned covid-19 to control the population. Misinformation added fuel to anger about public health rules, and there was political backlash under the umbrella of a largely Republican \u201cmedical freedom\u201d movement. Utah enacted laws reining in public health, including one that eases exemptions to childhood vaccinations and another that prohibits most employers from requiring vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the covid backlash, health officials tread lightly. Rather than enforce containment measures, \u201cwe give our advice and focus on personal responsibility,\u201d said David Heaton, public information officer at the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.<\/p>\n<p>Utah state epidemiologist Leisha Nolen says that with a larger budget she would invest in connecting with communities. \u201cWe have a scientific solution,\u201d she says about measles, \u201cbut we need a societal solution, too.\u201d (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>One of the most contagious diseases in the world, measles spreads with astonishing speed among the unvaccinated. One <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/665658\/\">meticulous study<\/a> of a New York school outbreak in 1974 found that a second-grader with measles infected 28 other students in 14 classrooms because measles can spread through ventilation systems.<\/p>\n<p>As cases doubled then quadrupled in southern Utah, the regional health department couldn\u2019t keep up with calling the contacts of everyone infected. It shifted its efforts to announcements guiding the public at large. For example, it asks people to call before showing up to clinics with measles symptoms. Still, patients in plenty of hospitals have been exposed. For example, when parents brought a sick, unvaccinated child to a large pediatric hospital in Utah in September, they shared the space with 11 infants too young to be vaccinated. Doctors rushed to give the babies infusions of antibodies and they remained healthy, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/evidence.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/EVIDpha2600093\">recent report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On the radio and in posts on social media, Heaton warns that measles is spreading and that vaccines are the best defense. \u201cIf you\u2019re not immunized and you\u2019re anywhere in public,\u201d Heaton said, \u201cyou\u2019re fair game for this virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The department doesn\u2019t have the capacity to talk with people directly in the five counties it serves. For a few years, it leaned on community health workers who went to churches, town halls, and other gathering places, listening to people\u2019s concerns and telling them what the science said about covid, vaccines, and other matters of public health. But these workers were laid off early last year, after the Trump administration clawed back more than $12 billion in federal public health grants to states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were starting to get a little bit of traction,\u201d Heaton said of the community workers. \u201cAnd then we lost all of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The department offers free measles vaccines to children, but uptake is slow. Nursing director Mindy Bundy said that when she started the job 20 years ago, demand was so high that she would give parents tickets while they waited, as if they were crowding around a deli counter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow even in an outbreak,\u201d she said, \u201cwe aren\u2019t seeing a huge increase of people wanting vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anna Fajardo, a public health nurse, offers vaccines at a school registration event in Milford, in southwest Utah. A few mothers trickled in to get their children immunized or to find out their child\u2019s vaccination status. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>As officials tried to do the best they could, the outbreak spread north, hopping from one undervaccinated community to the next. When health officials in Utah County spoke with people who had tested positive, they often had no connection to other known cases. \u201cPretty quickly, we started to lose the links,\u201d said Michael Leman, the county health department\u2019s nursing director. Contact tracing, the cornerstone of containment, was failing.<\/p>\n<p>Every week, the state health department posted a growing list of locations on its website \u2014 a Trader Joe\u2019s, a Mormon temple, an aquarium, preschools \u2014 that people had visited while contagious. But many people who tested positive hadn\u2019t been to those places, Leman said. \u201cThey could have gotten it at Walmart. They could have gotten it walking through a mall,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, just anywhere in the public they could have been exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In February, high school students throughout Utah tested positive after a state wrestling tournament at Utah Valley University in Orem. A dashboard monitoring measles viruses in wastewater lit up with notifications around the state. \u201cWrestling really feels like our turning point,\u201d said Nicholas Rupp, communications director at the Salt Lake County Health Department.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- image-left --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe new Lindon Utah Temple, belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was one of many locations listed as a potential measles exposure site in April by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.\t\t\t\t\t\t (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<!-- image-left --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- image-right --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Trader Joe\u2019s in Orem, Utah, was also listed as a potential measles exposure site that month.\t\t\t\t\t\t (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<!-- image-right --><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- image-left --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA science building at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City was also among the potential  exposure sites listed in April.\t\t\t\t\t\t (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<!-- image-left --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<!-- image-right --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMany measles cases traced back to a high school wrestling tournament at Utah Valley University in Orem in February.\t\t\t\t\t\t (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<!-- image-right --><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Salt Lake County\u2019s shift from containment to mitigation meant prioritizing high-risk situations and relaxing control everywhere else. When a student has a confirmed case, for example, health officials meet with the school nurse to figure out which kids are most vulnerable. Unvaccinated children in the same classroom as someone infected are asked to stay home for 21 days, but those in other classrooms might not be, said Melanie Crossland, an epidemiologist at the Salt Lake health department. Some schools with high vaccination rates have opted to monitor student temperatures daily instead of requesting quarantines. One school created a separate space for the unvaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>Crossland said such bespoke strategies entail a \u201chuge\u201d amount of effort but have staved off blowback that deflated her during covid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe give everything when we\u2019re here,\u201d\u00a0she said, \u201cbut the days of killing ourselves, when legislatively no one is going to give us any help, are done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daycare Dilemma<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The outbreak has lasted so long that some children who have recovered from measles have since been hospitalized for what should be mild illnesses from common bugs, said Kerri Smith, a hospital pediatrician in southwest Utah. Measles can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aay6485\">erase the immune system\u2019s memory<\/a>, impairing a body\u2019s ability to fight other viruses. \u201cIt\u2019s making children very susceptible to getting sick again,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked drained from a week of long shifts. Since the outbreak began, she\u2019s treated more than a dozen babies and children severely sick from measles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re usually admitted to the hospital with measles pneumonia, so they\u2019re struggling to breathe, pulling for air below their ribs,\u201d she said. \u201cHigh fevers, 104 to 105, absolutely miserable, extremely fatigued, really dehydrated with sunken eyes.\u201d Most children fully recover from measles, but a fraction develop permanent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/09\/opinion\/vaccine-hesitancy.html\">hearing loss<\/a>, a small percentage die, and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/21\/opinion\/measles-child-britain-vaccination.html\">rare cases<\/a>, measles <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/public-health\/measles-outbreaks-long-term-complications-sspe-subacute-sclerosing-panencephalitis\/\">kills a person<\/a> years after the infection.<\/p>\n<p>No one has died so far in Utah\u2019s outbreak. And barring that tragic outcome, Smith and other doctors said, some parents fail to grasp the gravity of measles, even as their own children have tubes inserted into their small nostrils to deliver oxygen. Despite repeated warnings, doctors said, some unvaccinated family members of patients \u2014 who could be contagious \u2014 walk around the hospital while visiting their loved one. This means the waiting room, the elevator, the cafeteria, and other places need to be shut down for cleaning, and vulnerable people alerted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how easily this spreads,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Morris, the pediatrician working in two counties, recalled a conversation with a nonchalant father who didn\u2019t seem to understand the need for quarantine. \u201cI know this is an inconvenience to you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also a huge inconvenience to the parent who has an infant who could be severely impacted by this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On top of feeling depleted, doctors with young children said they are anxious. Emily Chin, a physician in Salt Lake County, worries she\u2019ll bring measles home to her newborn. One evening, she sat in her garage after caring for a child with a rash. The patient\u2019s measles test was still being processed, so Chin isolated herself in a room for the night, wearing an N95 mask instead of holding her infant.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Chin\u2019s 4-month-old, sleeping here at home, is too young to be vaccinated, and Chin, a doctor in Salt Lake County, Utah, worries that she might acquire measles at work and pass it to him. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>Like many mothers in Utah, Chin plans to give her baby an early dose of the measles vaccine at 6 months old because of the outbreak, in addition to two doses at ages 1 and 4. Several mothers said they avoid travel and public places because they fear their babies could be infected. Some are delaying daycare. Others, like Kandace Hyland, a marketing director in Salt Lake County, don\u2019t have that option.<\/p>\n<p>Hyland was shocked when her daycare told her that it didn\u2019t track the vaccine status of staff, even amid the outbreak. In March, she posted an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/require-utah-child-care-staff-to-show-proof-of-mmr-vaccination-during-measles-outbreak\">online petition<\/a> calling for the state to require daycare staff to be vaccinated against the measles when the virus is spreading. Even if daycare staff file for vaccine exemptions, she said, parents could at least find out what portion of their babies\u2019 caretakers pose a life-threatening risk.<\/p>\n<p>Hyland sent her idea to the state health department. Nolen, the state epidemiologist, said she agreed with the concern, and was \u201ctalking with the division of licensing about the issue,\u201d in an email shared with KFF Health News. Hyland also wrote the Division of Licensing and Background Checks. In an email, its director, Shannon Thoman-Black, replied that the division does \u201cnot have the legislative authority to implement a mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey always talk about parents\u2019 choice,\u201d Hyland said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t feel like I have a really good \u2018parents\u2019 choice\u2019 right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Measles\u2019 Comeback<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. will almost certainly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736%2826%2900466-6\/fulltext\">lose its measles elimination status<\/a> this year or next, but it could be regained if political leadership backed nationwide campaigns to boost confidence in vaccines, said Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s national immunization center and now the chief medical officer at the Callen-Lorde community health center in New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Secretary Kennedy\u2019s leadership, that\u2019s unlikely to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going back to a pre-vaccine era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sign outside a hospital in southwest Utah warns people who haven\u2019t been vaccinated against measles to wait outside if they have a fever and other symptoms, such as coughing or a runny nose. Vulnerable people, including infants too young for vaccination, have been exposed to measles at hospitals and clinics. (Amy Maxmen\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n<p>HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard defended the secretary and his agency in an email, writing that the CDC has \u201csurged resources\u201d to contain measles outbreaks. \u201cThe CDC, HHS principles and the Secretary have been vocal that the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against measles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy\u2019s words and actions suggest otherwise. He\u2019s said that the measles vaccine leads to \u201cdeaths every year,\u201d which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2025\/03\/rfk-jr-misleads-about-measles-vaccine-in-hannity-interview\/\">not true<\/a>. He <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/mental-health\/sharing-patients-medical-records-access-rfk-jr-project-link-autism-vaccine-injuries\/\">continues<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/21\/us\/politics\/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccines-autism-website.html\">to<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trialsitenews.com\/a\/flawed-science-bought-conclusions-the-aluminum-vaccine-study-the-media-wont-question-aaec2793\">tout<\/a> a potential link between autism and vaccines, no matter how many <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24814559\/\">studies<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/30831578\/\">conclude<\/a> there is none. And he oversaw abrupt changes to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, a move <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aap.org\/en\/news-room\/news-releases\/aap\/2026\/aap-opposes-federal-health-officials-unprecedented-move-to-remove-universal-childhood-immunization-recommendations\/\">medical societies<\/a> called dangerous and not backed by science. A federal judge blocked those changes in March, but Trump recently issued an executive order to reexamine the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been confusing for the public,\u201d said Dorothy Adams, executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Kennedy met with Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who has said little about the state\u2019s ongoing outbreak. Kennedy praised Utah\u2019s action on Make America Healthy Again priorities, such as banning fluoride in public drinking water and easing restrictions on raw milk sales, according to Salt Lake City\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/politics\/2026\/05\/05\/trump-health-secretary-rfk-jr-met-with-utah-governor-to-discuss-state-maha-laws\/\">Deseret News<\/a>. Cox declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tfah.org\/report-details\/funding-report-2022\/\">chronically depleted<\/a> U.S. public health system has been further weakened by the Trump administration\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/courts\/russell-vought-trump-omb-doge-public-health-budget-shutdown\/\">cuts and delays<\/a> to public health grants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re in the thick of it and you don\u2019t know if you will be reimbursed, you adjust your response,\u201d said Angela Dunn, a doctor and former Utah state epidemiologist. \u201cThis outbreak is a perfect storm of disinformation, trauma from the covid pandemic, and the drop in funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Measles isn\u2019t the only preventable malady making a comeback. As children played nearby in a sun-speckled park in Salt Lake City, Morris talked about a baby in the intensive care unit who was bleeding uncontrollably after a fall. The baby\u2019s parents had refused an injection of vitamin K that helps blood clot in newborns. As they fretted over their infant, Morris said, she felt awful for them and regretted not being able to overcome mistrust in basic, lifesaving interventions. She had the same swirl of emotions when an unvaccinated toddler in her care recently died of whooping cough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was one of the only people in the room with the nurse when the child coded,\u201d she said with tears in her eyes. \u201cYou think, \u2018I wish this child was vaccinated,\u2019 but it\u2019s hard because I also see how much grief these parents are holding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/about-us\">KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/about-us\">KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/public-health\/utah-measles-outbreak-vaccines-preventable-diseases-doctors-strained-new-normal\/%22%3Earticle%3C\/a&amp;gt\">https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/public-health\/utah-measles-outbreak-vaccines-preventable-diseases-doctors-strained-new-normal\/&#8221;&gt;article&lt;\/a&amp;gt<\/a>; first appeared on &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org%22%3Ekff\/\">https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org&#8221;&gt;KFF<\/a> Health News&lt;\/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&#8221;_blank&#8221; href=&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/%22%3ECreative\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/&#8221;&gt;Creative<\/a> Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;\/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150&amp;quot\">https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150&amp;quot<\/a>; style=&#8221;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&#8221;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>&lt;img id=&#8221;republication-tracker-tool-source&#8221; src=&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=2248142&amp;amp;ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0&amp;quot\">https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=2248142&amp;amp;ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0&amp;quot<\/a>; style=&#8221;width:1px;height:1px;&#8221;&gt;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Ben Dowse hadn\u2019t expected to treat measles when he became a doctor, but there he was, examining a newborn exposed to the virus in the womb. The infected mother had given birth just hours earlier. The hospital had alerted Dowse to the case before delivery, and he\u2019d braced himself for the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}