Last month, health officials announced a measles outbreak affecting at least 40 people in the Pacific Northwest. Accordingly, social media erupted with condemnation of American “anti-vaxxers.” Anti-vaxxers are Americans who, for whatever reason, abstain or delay vaccine schedules for their children, especially the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. This eruption, like much of what happens on social media, is ignorant.
Anti-vaxxers are not generally the cause of measles outbreaks in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease generally comes from outside the country. Indigenous measles transmission has been eliminated in the U.S. Instead, measles outbreaks in the United States originate with foreigners entering the country or with Americans traveling abroad to foreign countries.
According to the CDC’s data, ever since measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, nearly every single subsequent case of measles is known or suspected to have originated in a foreign country. One outbreak occurred at an illegal-alien detention facility on the southern U.S. border. Another originated with a refugee from Asia. The source of the present outbreak in Seattle is not yet known, but Seattle’s last measles case came from Europe. Americans contract measles from firsthand or intermediate exposure to foreigners. Unvaccinated children in or near foreign-enclave communities in the U.S. are especially vulnerable.
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