Back-to-school season fuels growing measles concerns

Back-to-school season fuels growing measles concerns

With back-to-school season underway, students are returning to class amid the worst year of measles in recent U.S. history, record-high vaccine exemptions reported among kindergarteners and continuously changing immunization guidance under the Trump administration.

Most U.S. public schools will have begun their 2026-27 academic years by the end of August and public health officials are wary of regions where vaccine coverage remains low .

“Because of the situation that we are finding ourselves in, we can definitely anticipate seeing more of what we’ve seen all year long,” Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), told The Hill.

“There’s nothing that I can think of that’s going to stem the tide of what we’ve experienced; the only thing that’s going to turn it back is by addressing people’s fears about immunization, vaccination, and getting people vaccinated.”

As measles cases continue to rise, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released this week found that nonmedical vaccine exemptions among kindergartners reached an all-time high during the 2025-26 school year — at 4.2 percent.

Further complicating matters is the Trump administration’s push to rewrite long-held vaccine policy.

Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the MMR vaccine to be split up by disease , which would in effect separate two vaccine appointments into six. Since he signed the order, one state after another has affirmed plans to keep the preexisting vaccine guidance, including California, New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Acting on Trump’s executive order is also currently unfeasible as no manufacturers in the U.S. make monovalent vaccines individually targeting measles, mumps or rubella.

Welcome to The Hill’s Healthcare newsletter , we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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How policy will be impacting the healthcare sector this week and beyond:

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Local and state headlines on healthcare:

California weighs penalties for healthcare providers that don’t rein in costs ( KFF Health News )

New Mexico to continue funding gender-affirming care for minors after federal cuts ( The Guardian )

Democrats see political gain in Ohio’s health care pain ( Politico )

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

Researchers could pay $100M to comply with NIH publishing policy ( MedPage Today )

Inside Moderna and Merck’s cancer vaccine triumph ( Stat )

Trump’s frustrations drove order limiting child vaccinations, but MAHA wants more ( Reuters )

Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill:

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