By Jeesoo Suh, Youth Advisory Council member.
The following reflects Jeesoo’s lived experiences, thoughts, and opinions.
Welcome, summer! The christening of July 2026, remaining ever-faithful with the 20-year nostalgia cycle, has ushered in the comeback of capris, babydoll tops, bizarre sandals, and… measles?
After the CDC declared measles eliminated from the United States a little over two decades ago, 2025-2026 has brought us the highest level of measles cases seen in the nation since the original release of Mean Girls. My own state of Oregon has been working to put a lid on our own outbreak since February, with exposure sites reported in grocery stores, restaurants, and schools. Health officials have warned that under-vaccinated areas are particularly at risk for the virus’s spread, and current youth vaccination rates are raising some red flags. A record number of kindergarteners have entered schools with at least one vaccine exemption in the past school year (10.9%, up from 9.7% last year), now putting over ⅓ of Oregon schools under the 93% MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccination rate required for herd immunity [1].
Oregon is not a unique story, however. Nationwide, vaccination rates have been steadily decreasing; the federal measles vaccination target has not been met since prior to 2021, and a similar trend is visible with vaccines such as those against polio, whooping cough, and more [2]. Families are also seeking more exemptions than ever. As of last year, 3.6% of all US students have at least one exemption from vaccination required for school entry, the highest in the nation’s history. Many states are welcoming this change, with 90% of legislatures making changes to school exemption laws in recent years moving to loosen, rather than tighten requirements [3]. All of this paints a sobering picture of change to the infectious disease landscape in America– especially for youth. Schools, and the communities that surround them, are now more vulnerable than ever in recent memory.
Where is this sudden push coming from? After decades of progress, why are we seemingly moving backwards? Paradoxically, the turning point seems to be the very thing that had us all rallied around preventing infectious disease just five years prior; the COVID-19 pandemic. According to research from the University of the Americas (UDLA), the sudden skyrocketing of vaccine-centered dialogue is precisely what is fuelling current trends in vaccine confidence. As COVID-19 became something everyone was talking about, our modern communication methods on social media allowed for both the rapid distribution of accurate medical information, but also fanned the flames of misinformation and anti-vaccine fearmongering more than ever before. Combined with a decrease in public trust in government and the pharmaceutical industry due to factors like shifting messaging, unprecedentedly quick development timelines, and inequitable distribution of resources, adaptation to chaos became inseparable from institutional failures [4]. Now, years after the COVID vaccine was first created, the distrust in its rollout continues to bleed into the health decisions of families all around the US.
For those looking into vaccine skepticism from the outside, however, such thinking is often seen more as ravings rooted in conspiracy theory, rather than fallout from a massive societal shift. Participating in vaccine education and advocacy in Oregon, I’ve had peers, teachers, and fellow advocates disdainfully describe those testifying against vaccination at the state capitol or joining anti-vax parent Facebook groups as “crazy” and “stupid”. It’s incredibly easy to feel this way, and much of the time, it can seem like the only possible truth. A friend once told me incredulously, “you can literally Google hundreds of papers that confirm vaccines don’t cause autism in, like, five seconds. How do people still think that?”
Changing people’s minds is hard, and after COVID’s nuclear effect on medical messaging polarization, it may just be harder than ever. But given the massive implications that increasing vaccine skepticism has for our communities, we must fortify our efforts to engage– not withdraw. And this is no blind battle; we already know we can successfully address vaccine hesitancy. In a study of over 1.1 million adults published by The Lancet, it was found that 65% of those surveyed who initially expressed disinterest in the COVID-19 vaccine ended up getting vaccinated in the following years [5]. The key to all these doors opening is the knowledge that rests behind each decision; when we change or add to that knowledge, material impact follows. School-based health education interventions consistently increase the amount of accurate knowledge held about vaccines by youth, building a barrier against the barrage of misleading information often circulated online [6]. Intra-community trust can also be leveraged to address hesitancy; take the example of a Hasidic Jewish community in New York who were able to significantly increase children’s vaccine uptake through parental peer-education, despite a long history of vaccine deferral within the population [7].
Most individuals who are vaccine skeptics are by no means permanently cemented into their beliefs, but redirection only comes when there are active choices made to adapt to these contexts, and push people forward. If we are to reverse this spiral, we must double down on engaging those who, in fact, support our walk down the path of greater exemptions and reduced vaccinations. Now, more than ever, is the time to listen to these voices. Only then will we truly understand how we ought to respond and change.
1. Shaanth Nanguneri. Data shows record low compliance from Oregon families with kindergarten vaccine requirements • Oregon Capital Chronicle. Oregon Capital Chronicle. Published May 29, 2026. Accessed July 16, 2026. https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/briefs/data-shows-record-low-compliance-from-oregon-families-with-kindergarten-vaccine-requirements/
2. Apoorva Mandavilli, Rosenbluth T, Paris F. CDC Says Childhood Vaccination Rates Have Dropped Again. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/health/child-vaccinations-decline-cdc.html. Published July 31, 2025. Accessed July 16, 2026.
3. kfflizw. A Look at Recent Changes to State Vaccine Requirements for School Children | KFF. KFF. Published September 12, 2025. Accessed July 16, 2026. https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/a-look-at-recent-changes-to-state-vaccine-requirements-for-school-children/
4. Ortiz-Prado E, Suárez-Sangucho IA, Vasconez-Gonzalez J, et al. Pandemic paradox: How the COVID-19 crisis transformed vaccine hesitancy into a two-edged sword. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 2025;21(1). doi:10.1080/21645515.2025.2543167
5. Whitaker M, Elliott J, Gerard-Ursin I, et al. Profiling vaccine attitudes and subsequent uptake in 1·1 million people in England: a nationwide cohort study. The Lancet. 2026;0(0). doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01912-9
6. Rosso A, Riccio M, Renzi E, et al. The role of school-based health education in promoting childhood and adolescent vaccination: A systematic review and Meta-analysis. Vaccine. 2026;79:128479. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2026.128479
7. Hoffman E, Kahan T, Auerbach E, et al. Peer education as a strategy to promote vaccine acceptance: A randomized controlled trial within New York community healthcare practices. Vaccine. 2024;42:126028. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.076