Anguished Parents, Crying Doctors: Life Amid Utah’s Measles Outbreak
Jun 9, 2026 6:00 AM
The state’s outbreak means adapting to America’s new reality, in which vaccine-preventable diseases become common again.
Ben Dowse hadn’t expected to treat measles when he became a doctor, but there he was, examining a newborn exposed to the virus in the womb. The infected mother had given birth just hours earlier. The hospital had alerted Dowse to the case before delivery, and he’d braced himself for the worst.
Dowse wore a full-body protective suit with a plastic face mask. As a pediatrician in southern Utah, he couldn’t risk getting even a mild infection, because many of his patients are babies too young for measles vaccines or children whose parents choose not to protect them with immunizations. “I went in looking like a scientist in E.T.,” he said.
Measles can cause brain damage, deafness, or death in newborns. If the baby entered the world with...
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