CDC Director says measles response will stay unchanged if elimination status lost
CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz told Reuters the agency will maintain its current approach to measles outbreaks even if the United States loses its measles-free status, pending a decision by the Pan American Health Organization.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will not alter its strategy for handling measles outbreaks should the country lose its measles elimination status, which the Pan American Health Organization is expected to confirm early next week.
CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz told Reuters that the agency will continue working with state health officials and emphasizing vaccination with the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
“Let’s say we did lose our measles elimination status. We’re going to be doing the same exact thing that we’ve been doing today, which is working with the states,” Schwartz said.
“We are leaning in to help them provide awareness about measles, emphasizing, reemphasizing that the number one way to prevent measles is the MMR vaccine,” she added.
The CDC has recorded nearly 5,200 confirmed measles cases in 2026, more than double the total reported for 2025, and 11 deaths since early last year. Schwartz identified tightly knit communities with lower vaccination rates, such as certain religious groups, as a primary source of recent infections.
“These communities typically don’t vaccinate their children… Their families were making decisions about the MMR vaccine 20 to 30 years ago, and we’re just now seeing the results of those decisions,” she said.
In August, President Donald Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an executive order proposing to separate the MMR vaccine into three individual shots, a change that pharmaceutical firms said could take years to implement and that some physicians warned might increase public confusion.
Schwartz also addressed reports of pressure from the secretary, stating she communicates with Kennedy daily and that the secretary acknowledges her authority as CDC director.
“What has been very clear to me is that the secretary has recognized that I am the director of the CDC, and these decisions and the focus of where we’re going with the CDC rests on my shoulders,” Schwartz said.