South Carolina Measles Outbreak Spurs Renewed Debate About MMR Vaccine
Health officials blame the unvaccinated — but the data tells a more complicated story. Here’s what they’re not talking about.
This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
South Carolina health officials warned this week that a measles outbreak, primarily affecting children, is “accelerating.” They blamed rising vaccine hesitancy for the increase in cases. Some news outlets pointed the finger at federal health policy, and specifically U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a link some doctors and scientists rejected.
South Carolina health officials warned this week that a measles outbreak, primarily affecting children, is “accelerating.” They blamed rising vaccine hesitancy for the increase in cases.
Some news outlets pointed the finger at federal health policy, and specifically U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a link some experts rejected.
Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told The Defender that 120 cases have been reported in South Carolina, “primarily in an under-vaccinated community, of which 43 were reported since Dec. 5.”
The Washington Post cited Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist with the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH), who said that of the 111 measles cases reported as of Wednesday, 105 people were unvaccinated and three were partially vaccinated.
DPH reported that 254 people are in quarantine and 16 are in isolation.
During a Wednesday press conference, Bell said that “accelerating is an accurate term” to refer to the trajectory of the current outbreak. She said the state has “lower than hoped for” MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccination coverage.
Hilliard said the increase in recent cases in South Carolina “was due to exposures occurring at large church gatherings among under vaccinated communities and at schools, including an international school in Greenville, South Carolina.” She said more cases are expected in the coming week.
According to DPH, 16 cases resulted from exposure at the Way of Truth Church in Inman, while 43 students at Inman Intermediate School are in quarantine.
DPH data show that most cases were identified in children, including 75 cases in kids ages 5-17, and 20 cases in children under 5.
Bell said the spike in cases across the state was the result of travel during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and a lack of vaccinations.
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MMR vaccine responsible for ‘catastrophic’ injuries
DPH data show that MMR vaccination coverage among school children in South Carolina decreased from approximately 96% in 2020 to 93.5% this year.
According to NBC News, MMR vaccine uptake in Spartanburg County, one of the hardest-hit areas during the latest outbreak, was 90% for the 2024-25 school year.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Bell credited “high vaccination coverage” for eliminating ongoing transmission in this country. She urged the public to “consider the effectiveness of the vaccine and having this disease essentially go away.” She said the outbreak may end if more people get vaccinated.
The Post reported that even a “small decline in vaccination can significantly increase the likelihood of an outbreak,” citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures indicating that one dose of the MMR vaccine is 93% effective against measles and the two-dose series is 97% effective.
Hilliard said, “The best way to protect against measles is vaccination with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. CDC encourages individuals to consult with a healthcare provider on what is best for them.”
Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), agreed that the MMR vaccine is the best way to prevent measles — but questioned whether measles needs to be prevented in the first place.
“Case mortality for measles before the vaccine was introduced was 2 in 10,000,” Hooker said. “I just don’t think you need to avoid getting the measles, as opposed to the risk of the vaccine.”
Polly Tommey, host of CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD,” has interviewed parents whose children were injured or killed as a result of an adverse reaction to the MMR vaccine. “The devastation this particular vaccine causes is catastrophic,” she said.
“We’ve seen so many children and adults who have had multiple MMRs and still had measles,” Tommey said. “Not only does the vaccine hardly work, it can and has killed children. I know because I’ve interviewed the parents … So much brain injury, life-altering gut issues, to mention a few.”
Tommey added that while measles “is not much fun,” its symptoms don’t last long, and that “with proper care and rest, children bounce back very quickly.”
Dr. Michelle Perro, a pediatrician, said measles infection can provide lifelong natural immunity.
“It is well established that natural measles infection produces long-lasting, lifelong immunity — a feature recognized in classical infectious-disease epidemiology. While no one recommends seeking out infection, it is inaccurate to imply that immunity from infection is weak or transient,” Perro said.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., CHD senior research scientist, said the MMR vaccine contains live measles virus — specifically, genotype A, which is raised in chicken cells and considered poorly equipped to proliferate within humans.
“In theory, this gives our immune system time to learn how to fight it, along with the other wild-type measles strains,” he said. But theory “doesn’t always translate into practice, and vaccine-originating measles viruses can persist and infect others.”
Experts question ‘scary’ mainstream media narrative on measles
The Post reported that South Carolina’s worsening measles crisis is proof that the U.S. is “reeling from the resurgence of a preventable, highly contagious disease.” The news organization cited this year’s measles outbreaks in West Texas and other regions that reportedly cost the lives of three unvaccinated people as proof of vaccine hesitancy’s toll.
But Hooker said, “the ‘scary’ narrative in the mainstream media is stoked by the evident surge in 2025 and the false reporting about the three deaths wrongly attributed to measles.”
“We know that the two girls who died in West Texas died due to improperly treated bacterial pneumonia. And in the third case of an adult in New Mexico, the individual denied all medical treatment and was diagnosed with measles only via RT-PCR during their autopsy,” Hooker said.
Jablonowski said the two Texas girls “did not die from measles — they died from hospitals, hospital-acquired infections and fatally biased healthcare professionals.”
According to CNN, no new measles cases have been reported in Texas since August. The CDC has recorded 1,912 measles cases in the U.S. this year.
‘No vaccine provides 100% immunity’
Perro said that while the current outbreak is being blamed on the unvaccinated, such outbreaks “have historically included both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”
“No vaccine provides 100% immunity, and secondary vaccine failure — waning immunity years after vaccination — has been documented in the literature. Breakthrough cases are generally milder, but they do occur, and understanding those patterns is essential to a complete epidemiologic picture,” Perro said.
Hooker cited safety concerns with the MMR vaccine, noting that in 1999, Merck “started secretly increasing the virus content within the MMR to levels that could eclipse that which has been appropriately safety tested.”
This coincided with a “dramatic increase in the reports of deaths and anaphylaxis from the vaccine” submitted to the U.S. government-run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 provides a liability shield for manufacturers of vaccines included in the CDC’s childhood immunization schedule. As a result, manufacturers have less incentive to produce safe vaccines, Perro said.
“Manufacturers could have pursued cleaner formulations over the past four decades, such as aluminum-free products, improved stabilizers or alternative delivery systems, but without liability and regulatory oversight, the incentive simply was not there,” Perro said.
‘Absurd’ to blame RFK Jr. for measles outbreaks
Media narratives also suggested that Kennedy’s policies as HHS secretary have contributed to “vaccine hesitancy” and the increased spread of measles.
According to the Post, “an uptick of vaccine misinformation that, at times, has propagated on social media and among some public officials, including President Donald Trump and his pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” has contributed to the outbreaks.
But Perro said that CDC data show that measles cases in the U.S. “have been rising for several years, from 59 cases in 2023 to 285 in 2024, and now over 1,900 cases reported in 2025 across 43 jurisdictions.” She said these trends “predate the current HHS leadership.”
“The representation that one political figure alone ‘caused’ this is not supported by the longer-term data,” Perro said.
According to Hilliard, the 1,912 measles cases reported so far this year in the U.S. are significantly fewer than the number of cases reported in Canada (5,298) and Mexico (5,089). Both countries have substantially smaller populations than the U.S.
Tommey said it is “absurd” to blame Kennedy for this year’s outbreaks. “Parents are not vaccinating because they see the utter carnage from those of us that have vaccinated. They have lived it or seen it first-hand … Once you know, you know — this is why the vaccination rates are down,” she said.
Related articles in The Defender
8-Year-Old in West Texas Died From Hospital-acquired Pneumonia, Medical Records Show
Texas Reports 8-Year-Old Died of ‘Measles Pulmonary Failure,’ CHD Requests Medical Records
‘I Just Get So Angry’: Dad of West Texas Child Who Died Talks to CHD.TV
New Mexico Health Officials Mum on Whether Adult Died From — or With — Measles
‘Highly Confidential’: Former FDA Chief Details Fraud in Merck’s Testing, Marketing of Mumps Vaccine
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I had the chicken pox, measles, and mumps… all at the same time. Granted, this was back in 1962 but after that episode, I never missed a day of school all the way to 1975 when I graduated from college.