According to the National Institutes of Health, the elimination of measles in a community depends on at least 95 percent of residents being vaccinated. In Gaines County in west Texas, and neighboring Lea County, New Mexico, the site of a recent outbreak that has sickened at least 200 people, the percentage of kindergarten students in public schools vaccinated against the virus is 82 percent.

Texas requires students to have received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) before they enter kindergarten but offers an exemption for “religious or personal belief” that New York State does not. According to the federal data, 97 percent of kindergarten-age children in New York are vaccinated against measles. Nationwide, the percentage is 92.7, which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said leaves 280,000 children at risk.

So far in 2025, there have been two cases of measles in New York City and one on Long Island. The CDC recommends children receive their first dose of MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months. (The second dose is typically given between ages 4 and 6 years.) In addition, individuals who received measles vaccination between 1957 and 1967, and anyone born in 1968 or later who has not received a measles-attenuated-virus vaccine, may be susceptible.

Measles chart

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One reply on “By the Numbers: Measles Vaccinations”

  1. I’m glad The Current is reporting measles vaccination rates, just as once upon a time it reported COVID-19 rates and vaccine status.

    I’m one of those relics who got measles as a kid. It was miserable. At one point, I was hospitalized for two weeks and doctors thought I had polio — it was “going around.” Less fortunate people walked with a limp for the rest of their lives, or were confined to an iron lung or died. Today there’s no reason to get measles or polio; we have highly effective vaccines.

    One thing to know about measles: Even a mild case resets a child’s immune system to newborn status, meaning 6- or 7-year-olds will again bring home all the sniffles, coughs, ear infections and pinkeye they brought home when they first started in daycare or school.

    Please get your children vaccinated. It’s simple, nearly painless and keeps all of us healthier.

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