BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. — Close to the again nook of the native library’s parking zone, largely out of view from the principle highway, the South Carolina Division of Public Well being opened a pop-up clinic in early November, providing free measles vaccines to adults and kids.
Spartanburg County, in South Carolina’s Upstate area, has been preventing a measles outbreak since early October, with greater than 50 circumstances recognized. Well being officers have inspired people who find themselves unvaccinated to get a shot by visiting its cell vaccine clinic at any of its a number of stops all through the county.
However on a Monday afternoon in Boiling Springs, just one particular person confirmed up.
“It’s progress. That progress is gradual,” Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist with the Division of Public Well being, mentioned throughout a current press briefing. “We had hoped to see a extra sturdy uptake than that in our cell well being items.”
As South Carolina tries to comprise its measles outbreak, public well being officers throughout the nation are involved that the extremely contagious virus is making a significant comeback. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has tallied greater than 1,700 measles circumstances and 45 outbreaks in 2025. The most important began in Texas, the place a whole lot of individuals have been contaminated and two youngsters died.
For the primary time in additional than twenty years, the USA is poised to lose its measles elimination standing, a designation indicating that outbreaks are uncommon and quickly contained.
South Carolina’s measles outbreak isn’t but as massive as these in different states, corresponding to New Mexico, Arizona, and Kansas. Nevertheless it reveals how a confluence of bigger nationwide traits — together with traditionally low vaccination charges, skepticism fueled by the pandemic, misinformation, and “well being freedom” ideologies proliferated by conservative politicians — have put some communities in danger for the reemergence of a preventable, doubtlessly lethal virus.
“Everybody talks about it being the canary within the coal mine as a result of it’s probably the most contagious infectious illness on the market,” mentioned Josh Michaud, affiliate director for international and public well being coverage at KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information. “The logic is indeniable that we’re prone to see extra outbreaks.”
Faculties and “Small Brush Fires”
Spartanburg’s vaccination charge is among the many lowest of South Carolina’s 46 counties. And that was true “even earlier than covid,” mentioned Chris Lombardozzi, a senior vice chairman with the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System.
Practically 6,000 youngsters in Spartanburg County colleges final yr — 10% of the whole enrollment — both obtained an exemption permitting them to forgo required vaccinations or didn’t meet vaccine necessities, in keeping with knowledge revealed by the state.
Lombardozzi mentioned the county’s low vaccination charge is tied to misinformation not solely revealed on social media but additionally unfold by “quite a lot of nonmedical leaders through the years.”
The pandemic made issues worse. Michaud mentioned that worry and misinformation surrounding covid vaccines “threw gasoline on the hearth of individuals’s vaccine skepticism.” In some circumstances, that skepticism transferred to childhood vaccines, which traditionally have been much less controversial, he mentioned.
This made communities like Spartanburg County with low vaccination charges extra weak. “Which is why we’re seeing fixed, small brush fires of measles outbreaks,” Michaud mentioned.
In Spartanburg, the general share of scholars with required immunizations fell from 95.1% to 90% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 tutorial years. Public well being officers say a minimal of 95% is required to stop vital unfold of measles.
Youngsters who attend private and non-private colleges in South Carolina are required to point out that they’ve obtained some vaccinations, together with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, however non secular exemptions are comparatively straightforward to acquire. The exemption type should be notarized, but it surely doesn’t require a physician’s word or any disclosure in regards to the household’s non secular beliefs.
The variety of college students in South Carolina who’ve been granted non secular exemptions has elevated dramatically over the previous decade. That’s significantly true within the Upstate area, the place non secular exemptions have elevated sixfold from a decade in the past. Throughout the 2013-14 faculty yr, 2,044 college students within the Upstate have been granted a non secular exemption to the vaccine necessities, in keeping with knowledge revealed by The Publish and Courier. By fall 2024, that quantity had jumped to greater than 13,000.
Some colleges are extra uncovered than others. The start of the South Carolina outbreak was largely linked to 1 public constitution faculty, International Academy of South Carolina, the place solely 17% of the 605 college students enrolled throughout the 2024-25 faculty yr supplied documentation exhibiting they’d obtained their required vaccinations, in keeping with knowledge revealed by the Division of Public Well being.
Nobody from International Academy responded to interview requests.
“Well being Freedom”
In April, after visiting a Texas household whose daughter had died from measles, Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media that the “best strategy to stop the unfold of measles is the MMR vaccine.” He made an identical assertion throughout an interview on “Dr. Phil” later that month.
However these endorsements stand at odds with different statements Kennedy has made that forged doubt on vaccine security and have falsely linked vaccines with autism. The CDC, beneath his authority, now claims such hyperlinks “have been ignored by well being authorities.”
“What would I do if I may return in time and I may keep away from giving my youngsters the vaccines that I gave them?” he mentioned on a podcast in 2020. “I might do something for that. I might pay something to have the ability to try this.”
All through 2025, he has made different deceptive or unsupported statements. Throughout a congressional listening to in September, Kennedy defended his previous claims that he was not anti-vaccine however affirmed his said place that no vaccines are protected or efficient.
Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Division of Well being and Human Companies, informed KFF Well being Information that Kennedy is “pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability.” Hilliard mentioned HHS is working with “state and native companions in South Carolina” and in different states to supply assist throughout the measles outbreaks.
In the meantime, Kennedy has often championed the thought of well being freedom, or freedom of selection, concerning vaccines, a speaking level that has taken root amongst Republicans.
That has had a “chilling impact all the way in which down via state and native lawmakers,” Michaud mentioned, making some leaders hesitant to speak in regards to the menace that the continued measles outbreaks poses or the effectiveness and security of the MMR vaccine.
Brandon Charochak, a spokesperson for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, mentioned the governor was not obtainable to be interviewed for this text however referenced McMaster’s remark from October that measles “is a harmful illness, however when it comes to illnesses, it’s not one which we must always panic about.”
On a separate event that month, the Republican governor mentioned he doesn’t assist vaccine mandates. “We’re not going to have mandates,” he mentioned, “and I feel we’re responding correctly.”
Though the South Carolina Division of Public Well being has repeatedly inspired measles vaccines, the push has been notably quieter than the company’s covid vaccine outreach efforts.
In 2021, for instance, the company partnered with breweries all through the state for a marketing campaign referred to as “Shot and a Chaser,” which rewarded individuals who acquired a covid vaccine with a free beer or soda. In contrast, the pop-up measles vaccine clinic on the Boiling Springs Library featured no flashy signage, no freebies, and wasn’t seen from the library’s major entrance.
Edward Simmer, interim director of the Division of Public Well being, wouldn’t converse to KFF Well being Information in regards to the measles outbreak. Throughout a legislative listening to in April, Republican state lawmakers voted in opposition to his everlasting affirmation due to his previous assist for covid vaccines and masking. One lawmaker particularly criticized the company throughout that listening to for the Shot and a Chaser marketing campaign.
Public well being officers in different states even have been blocked from new roles due to their covid response. In Missouri, the place MMR vaccine charges have declined amongst kindergartners since 2020 and measles circumstances have been reported this yr, Republican lawmakers rejected a public well being director in 2022 after vaccine opponents protested his appointment.
In South Carolina, Simmer, missing lawmakers’ affirmation, leads the general public well being company in an interim capability.
South Carolina Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort was the one Republican on the Senate Medical Affairs Committee who voted to verify Simmer in April. He informed KFF Well being Information that his Republican colleagues raised legitimate questions on Simmer’s previous assist for covid vaccines.
However, Davis mentioned, it will be “tremendously unlucky and never helpful from a public well being perspective” if the Republican Celebration simply took a stance in opposition to vaccines “as a matter of coverage.”
The Division of Public Well being had administered 44 doses of the MMR vaccine via its cell well being unit from October to mid-November. The final cell vaccine clinic was scheduled for Nov. 24. However well being officers are inspired that sufferers are in search of vaccines elsewhere. The company’s monitoring system reveals that suppliers throughout Spartanburg County administered greater than twice as many measles vaccines in October as they did a yr in the past.
As of mid-November, greater than 130 folks remained in quarantine, most of them college students at native elementary and center colleges. Instances have additionally been linked to a church and Greenville-Spartanburg Worldwide Airport.
“We’re reminding those that journey for the upcoming holidays will increase the danger of exposures tremendously,” mentioned Bell, the state epidemiologist. “As a consequence of that threat, we’re encouraging folks to contemplate getting vaccinated now.”
KFF Well being Information correspondent Amy Maxmen contributed to this report.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working applications at KFF — an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.
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