March 4, 2025

Photo: thianchai sitthikongsak/Getty Images

Last week, health officials in Texas confirmed that an unvaccinated child had died of measles — the first U.S. death from the virus in a decade. While widespread vaccination led the U.S. to declare measles eliminated in 2000, outbreaks have been popping up in recent years among unvaccinated children. This year appears to be off to a bad start already, with the CDC reporting more than 160 cases of measles since January — more than half as many as were reported in all of 2024. While most cases so far have been in West Texas, people have also tested positive for measles in Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

So how worried should we be about measles continuing to spread in the U.S.? Can people who are vaccinated still get sick? What about babies who are too young to get the vaccine? We asked Dr. Tricia Jean Gold, a doctor at Tribeca Pediatrics, for answers.

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

By Madame Clairevoyant

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A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.