In March 2020, the World Health Organization’s director-general declared COVID-19 a pandemic, saying the agency was “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.” Since the virus emerged six years ago, the disease has taken the lives of more than 7 million people, according to data tracked by KFF, a health research organization. COVID infections have left hundreds of millions of people with long COVID, a complex and chronic condition.

“We’re going to have more pandemics,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, noting that data shows that the chances of future pandemics and the frequency with which they could occur are increasing.

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Recently, the Trump administration offered $20 billion to provide re-insurance coverage for vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz amid conflict in the Middle East. Yet, closer to home, there is an immediate public health threat posed by the resurgence of measles, a serious disease once under control that needs federal support.

Measles outbreaks are a medical and systems issue, emerging from vaccination behavior, public trust, health policy and the capacity of the public health infrastructure to handle increasing demands. One can rightfully ask whether the idea of federal support for emergency economic issues should also apply to the costs associated with measles.
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In the three decades between 1993 and 2024, measles in the U.S. was relatively rare – a few hundred cases each year, at most. But suddenly, the disease has become so entrenched in American life that it sometimes fails to make headlines when a new outbreak erupts.

As of March 2026, measles has been continuously circulating around the U.S. for more than a year, starting with an outbreak in Texas that lasted from January to August 2025. Before that outbreak was declared over, an outbreak on the Utah and Arizona border began in August and is ongoing. An outbreak in South Carolina began in September, drastically increased in January 2026, and continues.

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