As my kid makes college choices, I’m thankful that 2 of their top choices both require freshmen to live on campus and require vaccinations for that. It seems as best an assurance as you can get (I know nothing is 100% assured and there are always cracks to slip through, like local kids who get a residence waiver) that there should be herd immunity among the student population.
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DH, DD and I had measles boosters in 2010 or 2011 before a trip to Africa. Plus, I had measles as a kindergartener. DH had measles too. I hoping we are fine.
the three of us also had polio shot boosters before the Africa trips.
We had measles boosters before we immigrated here, in 2014. Husband and I had both been vaxxed as kids as was routine where we grew up, but when we went for our immigration medical, the doctor recommended we get another MMR shot because of the issues mentioned above - in retrospect, he was pretty forward-thinking on that. I just checked and whatever else is going on with the CDC vaccine recommendations, the vaccination requirements for new immigrants remain in place, so that’s something at least. There’s this sad part of the website page though: “The vaccine must protect against a disease that has been eliminated in the United States or is in the process of being eliminated in the United States”…
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You may want to look into if the universities accept medical and religious exemptions. IME, most do. And in certain areas, that could be a significant number.
Here’s a link to the state laws (they vary widely!): https://www.ncsl.org/health/state-vaccine-requirements-for-college-entry
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I would expect medical exemptions, but that’s why the concept of the herd is important, right? I will look at that link but neither of them seem targets, at least geography-wise, for the groups who would be most likely to look at religious exemptions.
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Had you also had the measles as a child? Since we did, we aren’t worried.
No, I don’t recall getting it. I did get chickenpox, and my brother got mumps* - those are the only two occasions I recall either of us being quarantined.
*I’m not sure when MMR was introduced in our country, but clearly after we were little kids, so thinking back we may just have had the measles vax as a standalone. I remember a nurse coming round to our school when I was in 7th or 8th grade and vaccinating all the girls against rubella.
March for Life attendees may have been exposed to measles, DC Health warns
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The irony writes itself.
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It would be honestly hilarious except for the number of pregnant women who showed up carrying signs; the number of DC residents who were not part of the demonstration but had the audacity to use the Metro or walk through the train station; etc.
The “reverence for life” these folks have breaks your brain when you think about it for more than a minute.
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These folks are a joke. Took him long enough to grow a spine.
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It is really difficult watching people decide they need to light the stove and touch the stove before believing the stove is hot when on.
The fact children have and will continue to die (and more will be permanently disabled) makes this even more painful.
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Ave Maria University in Florida has a measles outbreak.
A measles case in Los Angeles County has been reported. The person flew from Singapore to Los Angeles on February 9, 2026 and visited several businesses afterward (listed in the Los Angeles County Public Health page below.
Singapore has a 97% measles vaccination rate for one dose, 93% for two doses.
However, as a major travel hub, it still gets imported cases. It had 11 cases in January 2026.
In other news, mumps is apparently now going around in our school district and we are receiving warnings from the school. (Bay area CA)
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Mumps immunity fades faster than measles or rubella immunity, so outbreaks in high schools with students vaccinated as infants may be more likely for mumps than measles or rubella.
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Utah Becomes the New Center of U.S. Measles Cases
Nearly 600 people, mostly children, have been sickened across the state, which has seen an increase in vaccine exemptions among children in recent years.
The virus has jumped between under-vaccinated groups of people across the state. Dr. Leisha Nolen, the Utah state epidemiologist, said that measles cases had emerged in 22 of the state’s 29 counties. Most of the counties that have been spared have very small populations, she added.
While Utah requires that public school students have two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, parents can opt out of those requirements for personal, religious or medical reasons. In the 2024-25 school year, about 11 percent of kindergartners had exemptions or were missing documentation to show they were vaccinated against measles, up from about 7 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some parents of babies too young for even the early dose are avoiding going out in public until they become eligible, said Dr. Ellie Brownstein, a pediatrician in Salt Lake City and president-elect of the Utah Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
There have been several instances in which babies who were too young to be vaccinated were exposed to measles in doctors’ waiting rooms, Dr. Nolen said. At least 130 of these children received injections of an antibody treatment, which can lessen the severity or prevent an infection if given within six days of exposure.
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The dads better make sure that they are vaccinated. Mumps is not good for adult men. Of course it helps if the kids are vaccinated also.
I did not know whether I had mumps as a child. I definitely did not have any symptoms at all when mumps went around. I got vaccinated a bit before we had our first child. My doctor said that getting vaccinated was easier than figuring out if I already had immunity.
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Or teens.
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Also, mumps immunity apparently fades more than measles or rubella immunity.
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