--- title: Measles Vaccination Rates Are Plummeting Across the U.S. description: An alarming number of U.S. counties reported recent drops in MMR vaccination rates, a new study found. canonical: https://time.com/7290450/measles-vaccination-rates-declining-study/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-06-02T16:16:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:24.038Z article:section: Health og:title: Measles Vaccination Rates Are Plummeting Across the U.S. og:description: An alarming number of U.S. counties reported recent drops in MMR vaccination rates, a new study found. og:url: https://time.com/7290450/measles-vaccination-rates-declining-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2155d1337241556/6998c7199fbc7c4e18d9a24d/MMR-Vax-Study.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-HEALTH-POLITICS-VACCINES-VIRUS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Measles Vaccination Rates Are Plummeting Across the U.S. twitter:description: An alarming number of U.S. counties reported recent drops in MMR vaccination rates, a new study found. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2155d1337241556/6998c7199fbc7c4e18d9a24d/MMR-Vax-Study.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Measles Vaccination Rates Are Plummeting Across the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=c818fb96-119f-46f5-b4d4-7e7e86d6c46c&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says Americans Should Not Take Medical Advice From Him [Watch (HLS stream): Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says Americans Should Not Take Medical Advice From Him](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hmZW8JyL.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2025-05-14. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services (HHS) Director under the Trump Administration, told Congress on Wednesday that he believes people “shouldn’t be taking medical advice from him”. The comments were made at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14, as the committee reviewed the Trump Administration’s 2026 budget request, which was released on May 2._ by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jun 2, 2025 4:16 PM UTC  A person walks past a sign at a health center where the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine is administered in Lubbock, Texas, on Feb. 27, 2025. A person walks past a sign at a health center where the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine is administered in Lubbock, Texas, on Feb. 27, 2025. Ronaldo Schemidt—AFP/Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jun 2, 2025 4:16 PM UTC Childhood vaccination rates against measles, mumps, and rubella have been declining in much of the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study has found. The study, which was [published](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2834892) in _JAMA_ on June 2, analyzed measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination rates by county where data were available. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University collected county-level data on MMR vaccination rates for kindergarteners from each state’s health department website for the school years before the pandemic (2017-2018) and after (2023-2024). In states where that data were not available, researchers analyzed the most comparable data instead. Of the 2,066 counties in 33 states that researchers analyzed, 78% of them reported a decline in vaccination rates. Researchers found that the county-level mean vaccination rate decreased from almost 94% before the pandemic to about 91% after the pandemic—falling well below what [public-health experts generally consider](https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20people%20who,among%20those%20who%20are%20vaccinated.) to be the threshold for herd immunity against measles of about 95%. **Read More**: [_What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant NB.1.8.1_](https://time.com/7289133/new-covid-variant-nb-181/) [Lauren Gardner](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888182/lauren-gardner/), senior author of the study and director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, says the goal of this research was to get a “more comprehensive, higher resolution understanding of the vaccination landscape” in the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “has national- and state-level data, but we know that vaccination patterns can vary significantly within a state and even at a higher resolution than that across communities, within even the county,” Gardner says. For places with a low vaccination rate, “if measles gets introduced into these regions, there’s more likely to be an outbreak. And that’s what we’re seeing.” As of May 29, a total of 1,088 confirmed measles cases were reported by 33 jurisdictions in the U.S., [according to the CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html). Of those cases, 96% were in people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. So far in 2025, there have been 14 reported outbreaks and three people confirmed to have died of measles-related complications, all of whom were [unvaccinated](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/wr/mm7414a1.htm#:~:text=Three%20measles%20deaths%20were%20reported,Mexico%20in%20an%20unvaccinated%20adult.). Before this year, the last confirmed measles-related death in the country [occurred](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf) in 2015. Getting vaccinated is the best way to be protected against measles. The MMR vaccine is both safe and effective, and the CDC has [said](https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccines/index.html) that most people who get it will be protected against measles for life. **Read More:** [_Do You Need a Measles Vaccine Booster?_](https://time.com/7278878/do-you-need-a-measles-vaccine-booster/) The new study found that only four of the 33 states that researchers analyzed—California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York—reported a rise in the median county-level vaccination rates. Researchers didn’t investigate the causes behind disparate rates, and Gardner says that many factors—including the pandemic’s impact on access to health care, different populations, the quality of reported data, and vaccine hesitancy—play a role in a community’s vaccination rates. But she also notes that the four states that reported an increase in the measles vaccination rate are among the few that [don’t allow non-medical exemptions](https://www.ncsl.org/health/state-non-medical-exemptions-from-school-immunization-requirements) for school immunization requirements, such as the MMR vaccine. Gardner says that Hawaii stood out to her in the study because it experienced a significant drop in measles vaccine coverage; before the pandemic, its rate was around 95%, but after the pandemic, it plummeted to roughly 80%. Wisconsin had the lowest vaccination rate, on average, among the states studied; its most recent rate was in the 70s. Gardner says that a state’s average vaccination rate might be misleading because the rate can vary greatly within communities. It would be ideal, she says, if researchers could get even more granular with the data and analyze vaccination rates school by school. “The higher granularity you get, the more you actually see problems—and then can also respond to them and figure out where it’s actually important to go and target and try and help get vaccination rates up,” Gardner says. ## Transcript You've previously said you vaccinated your children just because. I think this is a helpful answer and this isn't a gotcha. I promise. Um, if you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child for measles? For measles? Um, probably for measles. I you know, what I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I've directed Jay Bhattacharya. Sure. No. Like I said, I don't want to. So that everybody can make that decision. But I, you know, I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive. Yeah. But I don't think people should be taking advice. Medical advice from me. No, I got that. And I'm not asking you to give them advice, but would you vaccinate your child for measles? Answer that question directly, and it will seem like I'm giving advice to other people. And I don't want to be doing that. I want people to make. But that's kind of your jurisdiction because CDC does give advice. Right. I'm not trying to do it as a gotcha. I was just kind of. What I think what we're going to try to do is to lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits accurately as we understand them. Okay. With reputable studies. Would you can you talk about chickenpox? Would you vaccinate your child against chickenpox? Uh, I again I don't want to give advice. I can tell you in Europe they don't use the chickenpox vaccine specifically because the pre-clinical trials shows that when you inoculate the population from chickenpox, you get shingles in older people, which is more dangerous? One last one. Just a yes or no, please, if we could. Polio. Polio again? I don't want to be giving advice. That's fair. 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