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Op-Ed: The US has already lost its measles elimination status—officials should say so

Jess Steier, DrPh

1d ago· 9 min readenOpinion

politics health opinion public health

Summary

This op-ed argues that the United States has already lost its measles elimination status, despite public health officials using cautious conditional language like "may lose" or "at risk." The author contends that the evidence is clear—ongoing outbreaks, declining vaccination rates, and sustained transmission—and that the public health community should call the situation what it is rather than waiting for official declarations. The piece critiques the reluctance to state the obvious, drawing on the "duck test" analogy, and explores the consequences of equivocation for public trust and vaccination policy.

Source

bskyOp-Ed: The US has already lost its measles elimination status—officials should say socidrap.umn.edu

Key quotes

· 3 pulled

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you stop debating taxonomy and call it a duck. When it comes to measles, we have collectively decided not to do that.

There is a difference between waiting for certainty and refusing to see what is already in front of you.

The conditional tense is doing a lot of work, and I understand the instinct, since no one wants to be the doctor who calls it too early.

Snippet from the RSS feed

There is an old rule of thumb: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you stop debating taxonomy and call it a duck. When it comes to measles, we have collectively decided not to do that.

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