The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not fundamentally change its response to measles outbreaks even if the US loses its measles elimination status this month, CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz told Reuters on Tuesday.
Global health ​experts convened by the Pan American Health Organization will determine in the coming days whether the US has ‌lost its official measles-free status, a hard-won public health achievement it has held since 2000.
Many disease experts say that is likely to be the case as the country battles the highest number of infections in more than three decades. Thousands of Americans have contracted measles since early 2025, when the Trump administration took ​office.
Schwartz said she expected a PAHO decision by early next week.
“Let’s say we did lose our measles elimination status. ​We’re going to be doing the same exact thing that we’ve been doing today, which is working ⁠with the states,” Schwartz said in an interview.
The CDC will make sure “we are leaning in to help them provide awareness about ​measles, emphasizing, reemphasizing that the number one way to prevent measles is the MMR (combined measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine,” she said.
Schwartz, confirmed as ​CDC director in August, inherited a raging measles outbreak that has worsened since last year. There have been nearly 5,200 confirmed cases in 2026 — compared to 2,289 for all of 2025 — and 11 deaths reported by state health departments since early last year.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees ​the CDC as well as other health agencies, has for years cast doubt on the safety and efficacy of the MMR vaccine. ​As the nation’s top health official, he has sought to reduce the number of childhood immunizations. Medical experts have said his rhetoric and actions have fueled ‌falling vaccination ⁠rates.
Schwartz pointed to “closely knit communities” as the primary source of US measles infection. Several outbreaks have originated among religious groups where vaccination rates are lower than in the general population, including the Amish in Pennsylvania.
“These communities typically don’t vaccinate their children. … Their families were making decisions about the MMR vaccine 20 to 30 years ago, and we’re just now seeing the results of those decisions,” Schwartz said. “The real focus ​is why are we not ​leaning in on these close-knit ⁠communities to make sure that they understand that the number one way of preventing measles is the MMR vaccine.”
In August, shortly after Schwartz was confirmed, President Donald Trump and Kennedy unveiled an executive order that ​called for breaking up the MMR vaccine into three separate shots. Pharmaceutical companies said that could ​take years, while ⁠doctors said it would sow more confusion among families.
Schwartz also pushed back on reports that suggested Kennedy and his top deputies had applied pressure on her or the agency. She said she is in communication with Kennedy every day.
“What has been very clear to me is that ⁠the secretary ​has recognized that I am the director of the CDC, and these decisions ​and the focus of where we’re going with the CDC rests on my shoulders,” Schwartz said. “At the end of the day, he recognizes that the reason why ​I’m sitting in this chair is because the CDC needs a leader.”

This is part of The Vaccine Divide, an updated data investigation into America potentially losing its measles-free status as the deadly virus roars back and childhood vaccine defenses continue to crack and crumble.
As vaccination rates among children go down, the risk of getting sick from a vaccine-preventable illness such as measles goes up.
Use these maps to see the childhood vaccination rates for your community.
The measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is highly effective in preventing illness in children and adults. To control the spread of measles in a community, a vaccination rate of 95% or higher is needed. A growing number of counties across the country are seeing the level of vaccination among children entering kindergarten drop below that protective threshold.
The number of children entering kindergarten whose parents or caregivers opt them out of vaccines has been steadily climbing in the U.S. for at least a decade. States differ in their requirements for vaccine exemptions, which can be for medical, religious or personal beliefs.

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Medical experts are warning of a dangerous new social media trend known as “heightmaxxing,” amid reports that teenagers are taking black-market cancer medications in an effort to grow taller.
Adolescents, primarily teenage boys, are reportedly turning to erdafitinib — often referred to online as “ERDA” or “Erta” — a targeted prescription drug approved to treat advanced bladder cancer.
Teenagers are reportedly experimenting with the prescription medication after encountering online discussions suggesting it could increase height.
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“It’s extremely concerning that teenagers are experimenting with powerful cancer medications in an attempt to grow taller,” Dr. Stephanie Widmer, a New York City-based emergency medicine physician and Fox News medical contributor, told Fox News Digital.
“These drugs were developed to treat serious medical conditions, not to enhance physical appearance, and taking them without a legitimate medical indication or physician supervision can have devastating consequences.”
The drug maker, Johnson & Johnson, pushed back against the practice in a statement to Rolling Stone, emphasizing that the medication has never been approved to stimulate height growth and that its safety and effectiveness have not been established for any pediatric or adolescent use.
Medical research has documented unexpected growth spurts in children receiving erdafitinib for brain tumors. A 2024 study published in Hormone Research in Paediatrics described accelerated growth in two pediatric patients, while a separate case report documented a teenager who grew more than 5 inches during treatment but developed serious skeletal complications.
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Physicians caution that these spurts do not equal healthy skeletal growth. Dr. Jessica Gray, a family physician in Lubbock, Texas, warned that forced, rapid growth can trigger dangerous structural problems, including premature growth plate damage and bone fractures.
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The drug works by blocking specific cellular signaling pathways involved in cancer cell growth, Widmer shared during an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
Those same pathways also play a role in bone development, which may help explain why some pediatric patients experienced unexpected growth during treatment.
Widmer noted that height is overwhelmingly governed by genetics, and biological shortcuts do not exist. Once growth plates close near the end of puberty, medications cannot reopen them, meaning older adolescents taking the compound are incurring catastrophic health hazards without any chance of gaining height, she said.
“One of the biggest concerns is that these medications can cause serious side effects, including potentially permanent vision damage, elevated phosphate levels and other metabolic abnormalities,” Widmer said.
“We’re talking about adolescents whose bodies are still developing, and exposing them to these risks for a cosmetic goal is particularly troubling.”
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Other warning signs and side effects linked to the medication include skeletal pain — especially in the hips or knees — as well as mouth sores, loose nails and skin disorders.
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The trend has also raised concerns about the influence of social media on teenagers’ decisions about their health. Widmer noted that online discussions about physical appearance and self-improvement can expose young men to potentially unsafe practices that lack medical evidence.
“Parents need to understand that this goes beyond teenagers being insecure about their height,” the doctor said.
“We’re talking about young people potentially obtaining prescription cancer medications and experimenting with them outside of medical supervision. If a child has concerns about their growth, that conversation belongs in a pediatrician’s office, not on an internet forum.”
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Doctors advise parents to watch for symptoms such as unusual joint pain or unexplained physical changes, and to speak with their children if they suspect they are using medications obtained online.
Teenagers concerned about their height or growth should consult a pediatrician before considering any medication.
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People killed “surfing” on top of New York City subway trains tend to be teen boys diagnosed with ADHD, according to a new study published this week.
The trend of young people subway surfing has persisted in recent years, despite at least 12 people being killed riding on the outside of trains since the start of 2024.
The study, which was conducted by researchers from NYU-Langone and the city hospital system, analyzed records of 43 patients under the age of 21 who were taken to Bellevue Hospital between 2018 and 2025 with some form of subway-related trauma.
The research, which was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first of its kind that looks into subway surfing in the United States. The study identified 10 patients who were injured from subway surfing. All of those surfers were male teenagers who had “markedly higher rates of ADHD” compared to the rest of the group.
“The most striking finding in our series is the overrepresentation of ADHD; 60% of surfers carried the diagnosis versus 6.1% of nonsurfers,” the study said. “This association has not been previously described in the train surfing literature and is among the most notable findings of our study.”
Researchers behind the study acknowledged the sample size is too small to make a sweeping generalization of all young people in New York City who ride on top of trains. The analysis doesn’t include two young girls, 12-year-old Zemfira Mukhtarov and 13-year-old Ebba Morina, who died while riding on top of a J train in Williamsburg in Oct. 2025.
Eveline Teresa Hidalgo, senior author of the study and pediatric neurosurgeon at NYU and Bellevue, said the subway surfers diagnosed with ADHD had also been treated for the disorder.
“We don’t know what this means exactly, and it’s not that ADHD causes them to subway surf, but it means that it’s something that we need to investigate further,” said Hidalgo. ”It could be associated with some attention-seeking behavior. It could be associated with the thrill-seeking behavior, and it’s a typical teenage behavior.”
Hidalgo said the study shows how subway surfing can cause life-altering injuries among people who don’t die after falling from trains. Some patients they studied at Bellevue suffered injuries to their brains and spine, and some had their limbs amputated.
Both the MTA and NYPD have attempted to prevent subway surfing in recent years.
The transit agency has teamed up with city officials to lobby social media giants like Meta and TikTok to ban or censor videos of teens subway surfing in New York City. The MTA has also piloted installing barriers between subway cars on the 7 line — where subway surfing is prevalent as the line is mostly elevated — to prevent people climbing on top of cars. The NYPD has also deployed drones to monitor elevated train tracks to spot and catch surfers.
NYPD data shows 185 people have been arrested for subway surfing so far this year, a 12% increase compared to the same period last year.
The study compared New York City’s subway surfing wave to a similar trend in Berlin in the 1990s. After 18 people died subway surfing over a six-year period in the German capital, the city’s S-Bahn transit system slowly decommissioned a fleet of train cars after finding they were easier for riders to climb.

The owner of the California farm linked to the E. coli outbreak that left more than 15 people severely sick, including a 6-year-old boy fighting for his life, said his heart goes out to the suffering families.
Brookshire Farms in San Luis Obispo County reopened on Nov. 6 after a 10-day voluntary shutdown while the Department of Public Health investigated the source of the E. coli outbreak.
​“I am destroyed,” Brookshire Farms co-owner Shawn Callaway told The Tribune Friday as the farm reopened for the public.
“We’ve gone through … about 11 days now of numbness. I can’t explain it… I mean, the worries, the fears, the concerns, the ups and downs. I mean, how do you explain it? I don’t know,” he added.
​Authorities said 5 people had laboratory-confirmed E. coli O157 infections after visiting the farm on Oct. 17 or 18, while 10 additional individuals who visited the farm between Oct. 16 and 26 developed matching symptoms.
​Three children also required pediatric intensive care after developing Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).
Among the affected children is 6-year-old Camden Foy of Nipomo, who is in critical condition at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital with STEC and HUS following an Oct. 17 visit to Brookshire Farms.
​His grandmother, Linda Strong-Foy, has been sharing constant updates on his health since his hospitalization nearly three weeks ago.
​Camden was admitted to a Santa Maria hospital and subsequently diagnosed on Oct. 27 with HUS, prompting an emergency ambulance transfer to Stanford.
​The tot’s condition quickly escalated into acute neurological complications, leading to severe confusion, brain scans for potential stroke or seizure activity, intubation, and multiple rounds of blood and platelet transfusions between Oct. 29 and 30.
​“He’s on 5 blood pressure meds. An IV BP drip, 3 orals, and a BP patch,” Strong-Foy said in a Facebook post Monday.
​SLO County’s Department of Public Health collected water, food, and other environmental samples at the farm but did not find E. coli O157 specifically.
​The department said that other types of bacteria, including other strains of E. coli, were found at the farm in some samples, but those results did not identify the source of the E. coli O157 outbreak.
​“Although it’s frustrating to not be able to pinpoint the exact source of the infection through environmental lab testing, this is not unexpected, and bacterial contamination is often temporary and difficult to detect through available sampling methods,” County Health Officer Dr. Christy Mulkerin said in a Nov. 6 statement.
Callaway said cleanliness is not a problem at the farm, with the 17 restrooms cleaned regularly and pumped twice a week. There are also 17 handwashing stations and eight sanitizing stations.
He added that he doesn’t think the pumpkins were the source of the outbreak because many of the victims had no contact with them.
“(The county) never tested our pumpkins,” Callaway told The Tribune. “They refused to test our pumpkins and said it was not in their investigational area because the pumpkins didn’t have the ability to get tested correctly.”
In the days following the outbreak, the county advised residents to wash their pumpkins and avoid touching ones that had already been carved.
As a result, San Luis Opisbo and Santa Maria canceled their annual pumpkin smash events.
Mulkerin later said the county didn’t intend to imply that the pumpkins were the source of the infection.
“We’re really trying to emphasize to the public, ‘Please don’t be afraid of pumpkins,’” she told The Tribune.