The Resurgence of the Vintage Virus – Measles Outbreaks Causing Concerns

By Torie Price
Staff Writer
IG: @torielprice

In the year 2000, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles eradicated.

Before vaccines were readily available, measles killed, on average, 400 to 500 Americans every year, children being among the most vulnerable to succumb to their sickness. As of the past decades, cases of this infectious disease dwindled down as a result of improved education and readily available vaccines.

This was until the measles outbreak of 2025. Stemming from a Mennonite community in Gaines County, Texas, this measles outbreak had spread all over western Texas and into parts of New Mexico. The latest roles from the CDC have added Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, and Rhode Island to the roster of jurisdictions with active measles cases. As of Feb. 26, measles has claimed its first victim since the last death on American soil associated with this virus in 2015.

Described as a “school-aged child” by the Texas Department of State Health Services, the deceased was hospitalized in Lubbock, Texas, a week before their death, where they tested positive for the measles virus. This child, like many of those who are infected, was not vaccinated. This death begs the question, what will the lack of vaccines among the general public lead to down the road? Will more “vintage viruses” make a vengeful comeback, or will this outbreak of preventable illness lead to the government-run health agencies creating plans to prevent future outbreaks?

Dr. Ellen Losew, a pediatrician serving the Hutchinson community for more than 20 years, sees the 2025 measles outbreak as not just a big issue in itself, but as a warning of what is possibly to come. With many people being increasingly more and more unwilling to listen to medical professionals’ opinions out of fear of “big pharma” being connected to a larger government conspiracy, many parents choose to not vaccinate themselves or their children.

Losew said that it is imperative to stay up to date with vaccinations, the MMR vaccine being one of the most important, as measles is the most contagious virus that modern medicine is aware of.

“Vaccines are safer than the diseases they try to prevent,” Losew said. “We are only a plane ride away from the next big outbreak.”

This is not to say that Americans should be uninformed about vaccines and simply follow their doctor’s orders without doing their due diligence to understand how a vaccine might affect their body, but “scientists study these things, and their work should not be overlooked.”

Losew said that parents want what’s best for their children, and parents who don’t vaccinate their children are doing so out of fear, in an attempt to do right by their children through their eyes. A past study conducted by Andrew Wakefield over the MMR vaccine claimed that there was a provable link between Autism Spectrum Disorder and the traditional MMR virus in comparison to Wakefield’s patented single ingredient MMR vaccine. Never before has this study been repeated and, in fact, has been disproven repeatedly, but nevertheless, the damage was done to the public’s perception of vaccines and their possible harm.

The resurgence of measles makes one wary as to if other “vintage vaccines” may make a comeback, and if the trend of children living life unvaccinated continues, how will the future generations cope with them? How will the world as we know it shift because of unwillingness to prevent preventable disasters?

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