Congress secures long-term funding for the World Trade Center Health Program
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.
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 child receives a standard immunization on September 15, 2025, in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Children who miss early vaccinations are far more likely to miss the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine by age 2, a new study found.
The findings come as the U.S. recently surpassed 2,000 measles cases for the first time in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
CDC data shows that MMR vaccination declined over the last several years, but the authors say that factors linked to delayed or missed vaccination since the COVID-19 pandemic have not been well studied.
For the new study, published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, the team looked data from Truevata, an electronic health records database that includes several U.S. health care systems.
Participants included more than 321,000 children who received routine care within the first two months, first year and second year of life between Jan. 1, 2018 and April 30, 2025.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
Most children during the study period received the MMR vaccine on time, with 78.4% doing so.
About 13.9% of children had delayed vaccination, 1% received the MMR vaccine early and 6.7% did not receive the MMR vaccine by age 2, according to the study.
The strongest predictors for no MMR vaccination was delay in receiving the recommended 2-month and 4-month vaccines, the study noted.
These early vaccines included diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP); Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV); and the inactivated poliovirus vaccines (IPV).
Nina Masters, lead author of the study and senior applied research scientist at Truveta, told ABC News that it’s not surprising children who miss early vaccines also miss later vaccines, but it highlights that some parents become vaccine hesitant when their children are young.
“This also means the opportunity for intervention to engage parents and provide more education about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines has to happen very early,” she said. “This may be challenging as parents may have yet had the time to forge a strong bond with their child’s pediatrician, but the study highlights the importance of pediatric providers having vaccination discussions and building trust as early as possible with parents.”
Results from the study showed that those who received their 2-month vaccines on time were seven times more likely to get the MMR vaccine.
The team found that the percentage of children who received the MMR vaccine on time changed over the study period, increasing from 75.6% in 2018 to 79.9% in 2021, and then falling to 76.9% in 2024.
This decrease between 2021 and 2024 was associated with an increase in the percentage of children who did not receive the MMR vaccine by age 2, increasing from 5.3% in 2020 to 7.7% in 2024, according to the study.
Children who were more likely to be unvaccinated for the MMR shot by age 2 were boys, and white and non-Hispanic or Latino, the study found.
Rural residence slightly increased the risk of no MMR vaccination, even among children receiving routine care, according to the study.
The study only included children with regular access to care, so real-world vaccination delays may be worse in the broader U.S. population, the team noted.
The authors added that these results point to increased vaccine hesitancy or unmeasured access challenges, highlighting the importance of timely intervention so children are less likely to delay or miss vaccination.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who was not involved in the study, said the findings have major public health implications because there are questions about whether the U.S. will retain its measles elimination status and increasing vaccination is “the way out of this problem.”
“If you want to live in a society where measles is a problem of the past, where we don’t have to think about it, where schools don’t have to come up with contingency plans, where we don’t have children unnecessarily dying from measles, then that’s a reason to get the vaccine,” he told ABC News.
Adalja added that vaccination doesn’t just protect the individual against infection, but it also has a community benefit.
“The higher the vaccination level is in a given community, the more resilient that community will be to those infectious diseases,” he said. “And if you’re someone that’s immunocompromised, you may want to live in to live in an area that has high vaccination rates because you are at higher risk, and if you’re in a high vaccination area, there’s going to be a lowering of that risk because of the community level immunity that exists in that area.”
Crystal Richards, MD, MS is a pediatric resident doctor at New-York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Boxes and vials of the Measles, Mumps, Rubella Virus Vaccine at a vaccine clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department on March 1, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As measles continues to spread across the U.S., with outbreaks popping up around the country, public health experts have been stressing the importance of getting vaccinated to stop the spread of disease.
This has involved local doctors and health department workers going into outbreak areas to offer the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
The MMR vaccine is typically a two-dose series given first at 12-15 months old and again at 4-6 years of age. An extra dose can be given as early 6 months old in high-risk circumstances, including during a measles outbreak.
Health experts working in and near measles outbreaks told ABC News that vaccine acceptance has been mixed among these communities, with some people begging to get their kids vaccinated early, while others still refuse an immunization.
“[Measles] can spread so quickly amongst that unvaccinated population,” Dr. Christopher Lombardozzi, chief medical officer at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, told ABC News. “And if the number of people who remain unvaccinated stays large, then we could have a real problem, not just this year, but in years to come.”
Vaccine hesitancy in outbreak areas
The upstate region of South Carolina is experiencing a surge in measles cases amid the ongoing outbreak.
The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) reported 223 new cases over the last week, bringing the total number of cases in the outbreak to 434 since October, with over 400 people currently in quarantine due to exposure. Spartanburg County, which borders North Carolina, is currently the epicenter of the outbreak.
A spokesperson for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System told ABC News that, as of Jan. 9, there have been 77 confirmed measles cases across the system since the outbreak began.
Lombardozzi said the health care system has seen some increased vaccine uptake, but not as much as they hoped for.
“We certainly have had some more uptake of vaccine in the last six months or so, since the outbreak started here in South Carolina, and I’m happy for that,” Lombardozzi said. “I would love to see a higher uptake. There is still quite a bit of vaccine hesitancy around here, and I think it’s unwarranted.”
Lombardozzi added that addressing vaccine hesitancy takes time and support.
“We try to support people, meet them where they are, and hopefully they will change their mind if they’ve been vaccine hesitant for a while,” he said.
Lombardozzi worries that without increasing immunizations, the negative effects could ripple for years.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist and health program branch director for the South Carolina DPH, said the lack of vaccine acceptance amid the growing outbreak has been “disappointing.”
Bell said vaccines could have helped prevent a majority of cases, adding, “We have an opportunity to prevent further cases, if people can adopt these available tools and help us stop this outbreak sooner rather than later.”
As of Tuesday, another ongoing outbreak in Utah surpassed 200 measles cases since it began in June of last year. The southwest region of Utah has reported 147 of those cases, which equates to a rate of 25.8 cases per 100,000 people in that region.
David Heaton, public information officer at the Southwest Utah Department of Public Health, told ABC News that cases in southwest Utah and further north have been linked to the same measles virus that spread in Texas and New Mexico last year.
Heaton worries that measles will soon be declared endemic again, ending the decades-long elimination status in the U.S.
“That’s kind of a discouraging threshold that we’re getting closer to. I think [the loss of elimination status] could be recovered, but it could take a couple of years at least,” Heaton said.
In the Southwest region, vaccine acceptance has been highest among people who were on the fence or those who accidentally missed vaccines, but those with strong beliefs against vaccines have been “fairly immovable,” Heaton added.
“We’re just seeing the attitude of, ‘I choose not to get vaccinated. I don’t agree with vaccinations, and I’m not going to do it. I don’t feel the risk is high enough to get the vaccine,'” he said.
Some success in vaccine uptake
But there have been examples of success. Last year, during a large outbreak from February to September, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) reported that MMR doses administered were nearly 50% higher than the year prior by October.
The largest gains were due to adult vaccination that increased by about 230% in October 2025 compared to October 2024. Children receiving the MMR shot only increased by about 10% compared to that time the previous year.
Andrea Romero, immunization program section manager at NMDOH, told ABC News communication was key during the outbreak. Romero said most of the adults who got vaccinated did so because they were unsure of their vaccination status and felt a strong sense of duty to get the shot, not just to protect themselves but to protect their community.
“When they know that they’re making a difference, it matters,” Romero said. “Every time I take that opportunity [to say], ‘Thank you for being a great community and your response, caring about yourself, your family, your neighbor,’ but it means a lot because it’s their efforts. It was their response that made the difference.”
NMDOH data shared with ABC News shows that 384 children with a vaccine exemption on file received at least one MMR shot between Jan. 13, 2025 and Jan. 13, 2026. This suggests parents of these children changed their minds about the vaccine around the time of New Mexico’s measles outbreak, according to health department officials.
During that same timeframe, at least one MMR dose was the only immunization on record for 189 children in the state, the data shows.
Fears of further measles spread
Doctors near outbreak regions are also experiencing the effects of fears and questions about measles and vaccination from their community.
Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and pediatrician in South Carolina, told ABC News that her community hasn’t had a measles case yet, but parents and healthcare providers are increasingly concerned.
“As we all know, and as my patients know, measles virus does not respect county borders, so, as the numbers continue to rise, the likelihood that we start seeing cases here in the midlands of South Carolina increases dramatically,” Greenhouse said.
On Tuesday, health officials announced there was a measles exposure on Jan. 2 in the midlands region at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.
“If more families decline the vaccines, our vaccination rates drop and we become an open target, essentially a sitting duck for an outbreak, much like the Spartanburg area,” Greenhouse said.
In her experience, building a foundation of trust has been essential for vaccine acceptance.
“They know me, they trust me,” Greenhouse said. “They know that as a pediatrician, I have no interest here other than protecting the best interests of their children and their family.”
She went on, “Families that I’ve known for years, who I have a very strong relationship with, are coming in and asking for every vaccine that they can get, and asking to get the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine early, because they’re very concerned about their children being exposed to measles and not being protected.”
Greenhouse said trying to build trust among families has been particularly challenging amid changing guidance from federal health agencies and widespread misinformation.
“Unfortunately, some of the awful sources right now are people that you used to think you could trust and, as a new parent, I totally understand why it would be incredibly difficult to be able to figure out right now,” Greenhouse said.
Despite changing guidance and misinformation, doctors say the science hasn’t changed, and vaccines remain safe and effective.
“Amongst the medical community, you’re not going to get much disagreement that the vaccines are safe and that they’re effective,” Lombardozzi said. “The message is, go get your kids their shots if it’s time to get their shots. We certainly encourage folks to go talk to your pediatrician, go talk to your doctor.”
Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a medical fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
