As of 20 February 2026, the CDC states that there have been nearly 1000 measles cases in the USA in 2026, mostly in unvaccinated children, signaling the reappearance of other vaccine-preventable diseases.

As vaccine uptake falls, there is concern that other diseases that have not been an issue for children in the USA for decades could return, sending thousands, maybe millions, of children to hospitals for treatment. This could be a direct result of HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unrelenting attacks on the US vaccine system.

This article will review several vaccine-preventable diseases that could reappear from the dustbin of public health history and cause real harm to US children.

Vaccine-preventable diseases poised for a return

• Measles (rubeola). Easily prevented by the safe and effective MMR vaccine, but as I mentioned above, falling vaccination rates have led to nearly 1000 cases of measles so far this year. Measles is not some innocuous disease that can be ignored. A 2025 study found that, at current measles vaccination rates, there could be 851,300 measles cases between now and 2050, indicating the disease is endemic in the USA.
  
  If the growth were flat (and it won’t be), that would mean over 34,000 cases annually. Just for perspective, in the 25 years since the CDC declared that measles was eradicated in the USA, there have been a total of 10,570 measles cases. During the period from 2025 to 2050, the researchers estimated that over 170,000 people would be hospitalized from measles, and nearly 900 would develop debilitating and potentially deadly neurological complications such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive, disabling, and deadly brain disorder related to measles infection.
• Pertussis (whooping cough). Prevented by the DTaP vaccine, whooping cough is a respiratory illness that is potentially dangerous for young children. CDC data show that pertussis cases increased by more than 600% from 2023 to 2024.
• Meningococcal disease (meningitis). Meningitis is prevented with the meningococcal vaccine, which was unfortunately removed recently from the CDC’s “recommended” list. Although meningococcal disease is relatively rare, it is fast-moving and dangerous. For example, teenagers in a dorm setting in college can easily contract or spread the disease to others. Teens can die of the disease, and falling vaccination rates can make this deadly disease more prevalent.
• Polio. Prevented by the injectable polio vaccine, polio is a rare disease, essentially eliminated in the USA in 1979, as a result of the mass vaccination of children. Polio infection is serious, leading to paralysis or death. Some survivors develop post-polio syndrome, which can cause lifelong muscle weakness, fatigue, or joint pain.
  
  Unfortunately, some characters in the anti-vaccine movement, like Del Bigtree and ACIP chairman Kirk Milhoan, want unvaccinated children to catch polio because they hate the vaccine and think that polio is a nothing disease. I am old enough to have had classmates and friends who contracted polio and have had to live a lifetime with the effects of the disease. I can’t even believe that I’m talking about the potential return of polio because of falling vaccination rates.
• Rotavirus. Prevented by the oral rotavirus vaccine, rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrheal disease among infants and young children worldwide. Before the introduction of the vaccine in the USA in 2006, rotavirus infection caused significant morbidity among U.S. children, with an estimated 55,000–70,000 hospitalizations and 410,000 clinic visits annually.
  
  If rotavirus vaccination rates drop, it could lead to thousands of hospitalizations each year. Despite this, the anti-vaccine CDC has decided to move the rotavirus vaccine from “recommended” to “shared clinical decision-making.”

Summary

Kennedy and his anti-vaccine sycophants at the CDC and ACIP are claiming to “Make America Healthy Again,” but are doing their best to reduce the vaccination rate and bring back diseases that most of us thought were things of the past.

Parents today have no memory of what it was like in the good old 1950s, when polio, measles, and other outbreaks frequently hit whole communities. Children died of these diseases in overwhelmed hospitals and clinics.

I shouldn’t even be writing about polio in 2026. Yet, here I am, shaking my head in disbelief.

These diseases are not harmless and benign. They are dangerous. They are deadly. Yet the USA seems poised to “Make America Sick Again.”

Citations

• Kiang MV, Bubar KM, Maldonado Y, Hotez PJ, Lo NC. Modeling Reemergence of Vaccine-Eliminated Infectious Diseases Under Declining Vaccination in the US. JAMA. 2025 Apr 24:e256495. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.6495. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40272967; PMCID: PMC12022863.

Help the Skeptical Raptor keep writing about vaccines

There are four ways you can help contribute to keeping this website running at full speed:

1. Sharing this article on Social Media.
2. GoFundMe.
3. Subscribing via Patreon.
4. Buying your favorite stuff on Amazon.