4 times as many measles cases in a few weeks than US typically averages in a whole year: CDC
Signs point the way to measles testing in the parking lot of the Seminole Hospital District across from Wigwam Stadium on February 27, 2025 in Seminole, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — There have been at least 733 confirmed measles cases reported across the nation, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Friday.
In just a few weeks, the United States reported four times as many cases than typically seen throughout an entire calendar year.
Before last year, which had a record breaking 2,276 cases, the U.S. averaged 180 cases annually since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
The record numbers come as South Carolina is dealing with the largest outbreak recorded in recent memory.
Other states that have reported cases and are dealing with ongoing outbreaks include Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Most of the outbreaks occurring across the country are in pockets of under-vaccinated or unvaccinated communities.
The rate of kindergartners vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has fallen from 95% in 2019 to below 93% in 2025, CDC data shows. Herd immunity, a threshold for vaccination rates that slow a virus’ ability to spread, is typically achieved at 95% vaccination rates, public health experts say.
Declining vaccination rates have left approximately 300,000 kindergarteners unprotected from measles infection.
The MMR vaccine is given in two doses, the initial shot given after the first year of life and the second shot given after the fourth year of life.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
A sign advertising flu testing is seen in front of a pharmacy in Orlando. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — Flu activity continues to remain elevated throughout the United States, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC on Friday estimated there have been at least 15 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths from flu so far this season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
In this May 13, 2025, file photo, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand speaks at a press conference on the World Trade Center Health Program at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Congress has approved legislation for a funding fix that fully supports the World Trade Center Health Program and prevents a projected multibillion-dollar shortfall that threatened the program’s future.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., highlighted the action as a critical step toward protecting long-term care for those sickened by toxic exposure after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program honors our promise to never forget 9/11 survivors and the brave first responders who put their lives on the line for our country,” Gillibrand said.
Since its creation in 2011 through an act of Congress, the program reports it has helped over 150,000 individuals get care and medical monitoring. Gillibrand said the package will fully fund the program through 2040.
The new measure updates how the program is financed, allowing it to meet rising medical costs and growing enrollment without the risk of sudden funding gaps.
Supporters say the change provides long-term stability for the thousands of people whose health was harmed by exposure to toxic chemicals after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
“Making sure our 9/11 first responders and survivors have the resources they need to cope with the long-term health effects from toxic exposure has been one of my top priorities for my entire service in Congress,” Gillibrand said. “I am relieved that, after years of fighting tirelessly for its passage, this funding has been signed into law.”
The World Trade Center Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for first responders, cleanup workers, and community members affected by 9/11-related exposure. Advocates stressed that stable funding is critical not only for current patients but also for people who may develop related illnesses years or decades later.
Doctors, responders, advocates, and survivors have long warned that the program faced a looming financial crisis.
Enrollment has continued to grow as more people develop cancers and chronic conditions linked to toxic dust and debris, while aging patients require more complex care, Benjamin Chevat, executive director for nonprofit Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, told ABC News.
An outdated funding formula failed to reflect those realities, raising concerns that treatment could be delayed or limited, advocates cautioned.
Still, supporters say funding alone does not resolve all of the program’s challenges.
“Finally, fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program after so many years is a real accomplishment, for the 9/11 responders and survivors who walked the halls of Congress and called their representatives, and for Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Sen. Gillibrand among others who worked to get it done,” Chevat said.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is named after a New York City Police Department officer whose 2006 death was linked to exposures from the World Trade Center disaster.
Chevat said that some challenges remain for the program.
Certification of new conditions has slowed, staffing shortages persist at some clinical sites, and administrative backlogs have delayed care for certain patients, Chevat said. Addressing these issues will ensure the program can fully deliver on its mission, he added.
Dr. Joseph Wendt, a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final version of its report on pediatric gender-affirming care on Wednesday, claiming it found “medical dangers posed to children,” which is receiving pushback from medical groups.
The report alleged that gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries — caused significant, long-term damage.
It comes after HHS published in May an early version of what it referred to as a “comprehensive review” of transgender care for children and teens, in which it called for a broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming medical interventions.
The HHS referred to the final version of the report as “peer-reviewed,” but some of those who reviewed the contents are researchers who have spoken against gender affirming care.
Some major medical groups have pushed back, stating that psychotherapy first is the standard approach in gender-affirming care and that additional care, such as hormonal therapies, only occurs after in-depth evaluations between patients and doctors.
The American Psychological Association (APA), which reviewed the report, argued it lacks transparency and that scientific research does not support the authors’ theories.
Experts in the gender-affirming care space questioned the validity of the findings, saying that studies have found that gender-affirming care is generally safe and that youth with gender dysphoria are typically evaluated, diagnosed and treated based on an individual assessment by qualified providers.
“This report does not add to the science. It adds to the noise around care for transgender young people, care that is provided by licensed clinicians according to a standard of care,” Kellan Baker, senior advisor for health policy at the Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank that provides research, insight and analysis on LGBTQ+ issues, told ABC News.
“That standard of care is based on the same comparable quality of evidence as care across any other area of medicine,” Baker continued. “There is nothing new or unusual about care for transgender young people except for the extraordinary degree of political antagonism that is being focused on this very, very small group of young people.”
In a press release on Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, called the report “a turning point for American medicine,” adding that “we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.”
David Aizuss, MD, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, released a joint statement on Wednesday.
“We reject characterizations of our approach to gender-affirming care as negligent or ideologically driven, and take particular issue with the false assertion that our members have committed ‘malpractice’ or betrayed their oath in any way,” the statement read.
“These claims, rooted in politics and partisanship, misrepresent the consensus of medical science, undermine the professionalism of physicians, and risk harming vulnerable young people and their families,” Aizuss and Kressly added.
The final version of the HHS report listed nine authors, all of whom have expressed skeptical views of, or have opposed, pediatric gender-affirming care.
The initial May report did not list the names of its authors to “help maintain the integrity of this process.” Critics at the time pointed out that this prevented readers from gauging whether the names were credible or had any conflicts of interest.
The disclosures in the final report show that at least six of the nine authors have financial interests or have spoken out extensively opposing gender affirming care.
This includes authors who have been paid to offer expert testimony on legislative efforts to ban pediatric gender medicine and have published papers critical of pediatric gender medicine, including claims that such care does not improve depression or suicidality among trans youth.
The report included 10 reviewers, including individual physicians and medical groups, some of whom praised the report as “scientifically sound” and said the main findings and conclusions are “correct.”
Other reviewers were critical, including the APA, which accused the authors of the report of cherry-picking which studies it used in its findings and not justifying why other studies were excluded. Additionally, it says key findings in studies that were relied on were unexplained or absent.
“While the HHS Report purports to be a thorough, evidence-based assessment of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, its underlying methodology lacks sufficient transparency and clarity for its findings to be taken at face value,” the APA wrote in its review, found in the report’s supplement.
In conclusion, the group wrote, “the report’s claims fall short of the standard of methodological rigor that should be considered a prerequisite for policy guidance in clinical care.”
In a response to the report, the Endocrine Society said in a statement to ABC News that mental health care is already part of treating transgender and gender-diverse youth with health care protocols requiring initial mental health support and evaluations.
However, they add that access to medication such as hormone therapy can be used in conversations between patients, their families and their doctors. They add that such care is also relatively rare.
“The use of puberty-delaying medication or hormone therapy remains rare and reflects a cautious approach as recommended in our guideline,” the statement read. “Fewer than one in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received either treatment during the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, according to a January 2025 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And our 2017 guidelines recommend against prescribing any medication for gender dysphoria before puberty starts.”
Gender-affirming care is supported by multiple major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and the APA, and the Endocrine Society.
Studies have shown that many of the treatment options are generally safe and that care can have a positive impact on mental health, which psychotherapy alone cannot provide, experts said.
Some experts have questioned the significance of interventions on long-term mental health as well as the possibility of regret and point out potential risks to future fertility.
Additionally, systematic reviews from Sweden, Finland and the U.K. have resulted in the three countries restricting gender-affirming care. England’s National Health Service ended prescribing puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria outside of clinical trials. Sweden and Finland have followed psychotherapy-first models.
