How to Stop the Measles Outbreak

Measles was first documented in Boston in 1657, but it wasn’t until 1963 that a vaccine became available to combat it. Things moved quickly after that — thanks to the availability of the vaccine and later vaccination requirements for school children in 1989, measles was eliminated in the United States by 2000. Unfortunately Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent study linking the MMR vaccine to autism was published in 1998, and a growing Anti-Vaxx movement began to take hold and spread thanks to the next big invention, social media. Now, less than two decades later there is a serious measles outbreak in the United States, threatening the elimination status that took decades to achieve. Why is measles making a comeback and what is being done to stop it?

In many of the areas with measles outbreaks, response has been swift. Health departments have offered free vaccinations, vaccinating nearly 40,000 people in a short period of time as a response. New York City officials banned unvaccinated children from public spaces, but the ban was overturned because the outbreak had not become severe enough yet.

There have also been calls for corporate responsibility among the social media platforms responsible for disseminating false information about vaccines. As a response, Pinterest replaced search results with an error message, Amazon removed some controversial content, YouTube added messaging about vaccine hesitancy to Anti-Vaxx videos, and Facebook has promised to take action.

Learn more about the measles outbreak and what is being done to turn it around from the infographic below.