The New Measles Outbreak in Florida

No one should be surprised that there is a new measles outbreak in Florida.

After all, measles cases and outbreaks are on the rise again.

Why Are Measles Cases Rising?

This rise follows a several years of relatively low numbers of cases, including a record low number of cases in 2020.

That year, during the COVID pandemic, we had just 13 cases of measles in the United States! Worldwide, the number of reported cases also dropped to record low levels during the pandemic – 159,073 in 2020 and 123,171 in 2021.

Unfortunately, they didn’t stay that low…

Why not?

Because the artificially created closed communities ‘we’ created by not traveling had kept measles levels low. And once folks started getting back to their usual routines of going to school, working, playing, and traveling, it allowed measles to spread once again. And because in some communities immunization rates are even lower than they were before the pandemic, we are at risk for a big measles year!

Fortunately, we will never reach the levels of measles we once saw in the pre-vaccine era, but there is certainly a risk of hitting new vaccination era highs.

Timeline of the New Measles Outbreak in Florida

How big will this new outbreak in Florida get?

Well, it has already grown from just one case reported on February 16th to six cases in just a few days!

The first case was a third grade student at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, Florida who had no history of international travel. Although we do not know for sure, it seems likely that child did not start the outbreak, after all, the incubation period for measles is 7 to 21 days.

“The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) is
investigating multiple cases of measles that have occurred at an elementary school in Weston, Florida.”

DOH-BROWARD ISSUES MEASLES HEALTH ADVISORY

So there was not enough time for all of those other kids to have gotten measles from the ‘first’ case.

Which makes you think that these are all secondary cases and that the very first case exposed kids in the school a few weeks ago.

What else do we know?

• Manatee Bay Elementary School has a vaccinated rate of around 89% for entering kindergarten student’s according to the state’s latest Immunization Compliance Exemption Report
• at least 219 students and 6 staff members have stayed out of school since the outbreak began!
• State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is alarmingly “deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance,” which may prolong the outbreak if unvaccinated kids or staff who were exposed do not get vaccinated or self-quarantine. Of course, this puts staff and students with true medical exemptions at risk to get measles!
• The percent of children with a religious exemption for vaccination in Broward County is higher than statewide averages.
• the school is holding multiple vaccination events to get kids caught up, but there is no word on how many are participating – parents should understand that even unvaccinated kids can avoid getting measles if they get vaccinated soon after they are exposed
• if the true index case was missed, that means that a child or staff member was at the school a few weeks ago, exposed all of these children, and they didn’t alert health officials, who could have taken steps to avoid the outbreak
• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has blamed previous measles outbreaks on deadly new rogue strains, during an interview with NBC News, called the MMR a ‘leaky’ vaccine and walked away when asked if he would advise that parents vaccinate and protect their kids with the MMR vaccine in the face of rising cases of measles.

And tragically, we know that there will probably be more cases before this outbreak is over…

More on the New Measles Outbreak in Florida

• When is Measles Season?
• What to Do If Your Child Is Exposed to Measles
• Why Are You Still Worried About the MMR Vaccine?
• Costs of a Measles Outbreak
• The Unvaccinated Child
• Answers To Frequently Asked Questions About Immunizations
• CDC – Stay Alert for Measles Cases 
• WHO – Global measles threat continues to grow as another year passes with millions of children unvaccinated
• Measles transmission during a large outbreak in California
• Broward County Immunization Coverage
• DOH-BROWARD ISSUES MEASLES HEALTH ADVISORY
• Measles erupts in Florida school where 11% of kids are unvaccinated
• Immunization Levels in Florida Kindergartens
• CBS News Miami looks at South Florida school vaccination rates, health concerns
• Another Year, Another Measles Outbreak
• RFK Jr. is courting Black voters, a group he once targeted with vaccine disinformation

Last Updated on February 21, 2024