Get Excited to Relive the Past, With America's Measles Outbreak!

Oregon Trail fans, rejoice! Get pumped, reenactors! The past is back and it’s badder than ever, in the form of a real-deal measles outbreak. The American West is your own, all-too-real colonial Williamsburg!

For anybody who missed the bitter, bitter sarcasm: This is ridiculous and terrible.

When last we checked in with the ongoing Disneyland infectious disease clusterfuck, there were 85 confirmed cases across seven states. For more on how precisely this happened, our pals at io9 have put together a backgrounder. Now the New York Times has the latest update. Arizona, which currently has seven confirmed cases, is tracking a thousand people who might’ve been exposed to the disease while vacationing at the happiest place on Earth. “This is a critical point in this outbreak,” wrote Will Humble, the state’s health director. If they miss anybody, the result could be “a long and protracted outbreak.” Oh and hey guess where the Super Bowl is happening Sunday?

Reminder: The CDC thought we’d eliminated measles in America fifteen years ago, and from 2000 to 2013, just 37 to 220 people caught the disease annually. But here it is, turning right back up like a bad penny. Surely it is merely a coincidence that this happened as a bunch of Americans decided they didn’t need to vaccinate their children!!!! (It is not a coincidence.)