Some parts of region are vulnerable amid measles outbreak
Record number of vaccine exemptions given nationwide
The blue has been ominously spreading west on the map, like an enemy army advancing.
The map is the one that the Pennsylvania Department of Health maintains to track the statewide measles outbreak. Each county where there is a reported case is shaded in blue, with counties that have an abundance of cases designated in deep blue. As of Friday morning, there had been no reported cases in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties, but Westmoreland County reported its first case Thursday.
Indiana and Somerset counties have also reported cases, with eight in Indiana and four in Somerset. Dr. Thomas Corkery, chief medical officer at AHN Canonsburg Hospital, said on Tuesday that people would have to be 鈥渘aive鈥� to believe that measles will not eventually infiltrate this area.
Of the 424 cases of the measles that were reported statewide as of Friday, more than half of those were concentrated in Lancaster, York and Chester counties. None of those who came down with the highly contagious disease were vaccinated. Measles was reportedly a factor in two deaths in recent days, according to the state health department.
As recently as 2024, there were just six confirmed cases of measles in Pennsylvania for the whole year, and 285 across the entire country. Measles was officially declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.
Public health officials have long underscored that the best way people can protect themselves and those around them from viruses like the measles is to get vaccinated. However, it appears some portions of Washington, Greene and Fayette counties could be vulnerable to measles because the vaccination rates in some school districts, mostly at the kindergarten level, have not reached 95%, which is considered to be the point at which there is herd immunity.
For instance, at the Carmichaels Area Elementary Center in Greene County, 91.3% of kindergartners had received the MMR vaccine in the 2025-26 school year. It is typically administered to children in two doses, at ages 1 and again at 4 or 5. They were also below herd immunity for hepatitis B, polio and diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough (DTaP). According to state data, however, over 95% of students in the seventh and 12th grades in that district have herd immunity.
And at Clark Elementary School in the Uniontown Area School District, 93% of kindergartners had received the MMR vaccine, and that was better compared to the vaccination rates for DTaP and polio, which were at 88% and 90% last year.
In Washington County, 88% of kindergarten students at Claysville Elementary School had been given the MMR vaccine in the last school year.
Students in Pennsylvania schools are required to be vaccinated, unless they seek an exemption on medical, religious or philosophical grounds. In the South Fayette School District in Allegheny County, students in the seventh grade fell just below herd immunity for the polio and hepatitis B vaccines last year. District spokeswoman Jennifer Donovan said that 鈥渙ur district follows the standard state protocols regarding vaccination and allows for medical and religious exemptions.鈥�
In fact, a record number of vaccine exemptions were given nationwide at the start of the 2026-27 academic year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All told, 4.2% of kindergartners are exempt from vaccine requirements, up from 3.6% in the 2025-26 academic year. Medical exemptions accounted for 0.2% of them. Statistics for the new school year are not yet available, but in the 2025-26 school year, about 6% of kindergartners were given vaccine exemptions, with 0.3% of them being for religious reasons.
Given the conspiracy theories that have turned up online and elsewhere, some parents have come to believe that vaccines pose more of a danger than diseases that have not been common for decades, according to Charlotte Moser, the co-founder of the Vaccine Education Center at Children鈥檚 Hospital of Philadelphia.
Moser pointed out, though, that things like polio and measles have not been completely eliminated.
鈥淭hese pathogens are waiting for the opportunity to come back.鈥�
And she also noted that some young children might not be vaccinated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused some families to fall behind when it comes to the immunization schedule, they don鈥檛 have access to a doctor, or it鈥檚 hard to find time to get off work to take a child to be vaccinated.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a combination of factors in terms of what we see,鈥� according to Moser.
At a time when there is still lingering mistrust in government, institutions and public health following the COVID-19 pandemic, Moser explained that the mission of the Vaccine Education Center is to clear up some of the distortions and misinformation about vaccines.
鈥淲e try to explain the science of vaccines,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e look at the data and here鈥檚 what the data is telling us. Vaccines are safe and have low risk.鈥�