by There have been more than 500 reported measles cases in the United States in 2025, more than almost any other full year since the beginning of the 21st century. But despite those figures, and the first deaths of the nation in a decade, most Americans are not worried about the disease, according to a new Yahoo News/Yougov survey.
In a new study of 1,677 American adults, which was carried out from 20 to 24 March, more than half of the respondents said that they are either not very worried or have no worries about measles at all. Only 9% said they are very worried. Only 15% of the respondents have taken some action in response to the outbreak, such as talking to a doctor or wearing a mask in public.
The vast majority of measles cases in the US, and both dead of measles, were part of a continuous outbreak in West -Texas and East -New Mexico. But there has been at least one reported case in 17 other states, including 23 in Kansas, nine in Oklahoma and eight in California.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses that are known to science. Before a vaccine became available in the early sixties, almost all children in the US became infected by the time they were 15 and between 400 and 500 people died every year. The vaccine has been so effective that measles were declared in the United States in 2000, which means that it no longer spreads in the country.
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In recent years, however, there has been a growing number of outbreaks, but largely powered by an increase in the skepticism of vaccine. This also applies to the current outbreak. Of the 400 cases so far in Texas this year, there were only two in people who had received both recommended doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The epicenter of the Texas outbreak is Gaines County, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates for children in the state.
Despite the growth of the anti-vaccine movement, the research shows that only a small minority of Americans has strong views against vaccinating their children. To the demand for various topics of vaccine -moved information – including the measles vaccine can cause autism and that it is more dangerous than the disease itself – less than 15% of the respondents said they agreed.
Measles is especially dangerous for children, especially young children. It is therefore no surprise that parents are much more concerned about the disease than the general public. In the poll, half of the respondents said with children that they were somewhat (31%) or very (19%) worried that their children rise the virus.
The survey also asked parents about the vaccination status of their children. The sample sizes are too small to draw broad conclusions, but the results suggest that the highest level of care among parents is planning to vaccinate their children, but have not yet done so.
There is also an important political gap that leads the views on measles. More than four times as many Democrats than Republicans say they are very concerned about the disease (18% to 4%). However, the particial gap is much smaller with parents. Republicans are only a little less chance of saying that they are very concerned about their children who catch measles and almost half of all Gop voters are at least somewhat concerned. Self -identified independent are the least worried about the virus among parents, with a considerable margin.
Some of the relatively low levels of concern can be linked to a general lack of consciousness about the current state of measles in the US, almost 80%of the respondents said that they only heard a little (57%) or had heard nothing at all (21%) about the continuous outbreak.
That can change as the number of case continues to rise and spread to more parts of the country. But for now, measles is not a big care for most Americans.
