Children Are Back in School. Measles Is, Too

Amid the recent deadly outbreaks of measles, our federal health leaders have too often paired a lukewarm recommendation to vaccinate with insinuations and incorrect information about vaccine ingredients, fetal tissue, or waning immunity. The same week families needed clarity about a growing outbreak, Kennedy addressed a conference hosted by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization he once led.

In response to the outbreak, Pennsylvania has opened up nearly 150 pop-up vaccination clinics in homes and community centers, engaged health systems and local clinics across the state, requested federal support for additional vaccinations, developed a dashboard showing community transmission by county, and worked with coroners to investigate deaths. This is boots-on-the-ground public health.

Our federal health leaders should reinforce that work rather than cast doubt on it, giving parents and schools clear guidance and reporting cases consistently and transparently. Data and definitions matter, but we cannot lose sight of the people who are behind each of these data points. Each case number represents someone who became sick, and behind each death is a grieving family and a life that deserves to be counted. Now that children are back in school, our responsibility is both simple and urgent: to use the tools we know work to keep this preventable disease out of the classroom.