Retiring Guy's Digest: Measles cases set ner record: This is the kind of moving backward that happens when a crackpot incompetent is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the county's top health official

Saturday, July 25, 2026

Measles cases set ner record: This is the kind of moving backward that happens when a crackpot incompetent is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the county's top health official

The GOP owns this debacle. All 47 Democratic senators plus Republican Mitch McConnell voted against RFKjr's nomination.

Headline: New York Times, 7/24/2026

Teddy Rosenbluth and Jonathan Corum report:

There have now been more measles cases in 2025 than in any other year since the contagious virus was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to new data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The grim milestone represents an alarming setback for the country’s public health and heightens concerns that if childhood vaccination rates do not improve, deadly outbreaks of measles — once considered a disease of the past — will become the new normal. Experts fear that with no clear end to the spread in sight, the country is barreling toward another turning point: losing elimination status, a designation given to countries that have not had continuous spread of measles for more than a year.

The 2026 bar in the graph below was lengthened to reflect the number of confirmed measles cases as of 7/24/2027: 2,318. Which is already higher than the tally of 2,289 for all of 2025. Heckuva job, Booby!