Harvard Public Health

June 1, 2017 — Health officials in Minnesota are now grappling with that state’s largest measles outbreak in several decades. As of May 31, the Minnesota Department of Health had confirmed 70 cases of the disease. The outbreak is being blamed in part on anti-vaccine groups who targeted Somali-Americans, leading to a sharp drop in the number of children receiving the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In this week’s podcast, we get perspective on the outbreak from childhood vaccine expert Marie McCormick, Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We spoke with McCormick about the roots of the anti-vaccine movement, as well as communications strategies to ensure that children receive critical immunizations.