December 22, 2025
The vast majority of Utahns have been vaccinated against measles. In fact, more than 90% of Utahns have gotten the MMR vaccine. This means most of us are protected and do not need to worry. Nothing is perfect, including the measles vaccine, but it is quite close. About 3 people in 100 who are vaccinated and exposed to measles will get sick with measles. Happily, those 3 people still get a benefit from the vaccine and don’t get nearly as sick as people who never got the vaccine.
Nothing is perfect, including the measles vaccine, but it is quite close.
Utahns who have not gotten vaccinated are at risk of infection as the virus continues to spread through many parts of the state. There is no magic age where you are no longer at risk of measles if you haven’t either been vaccinated or already gotten sick with it. Measles is a real risk for all unvaccinated Utahns.
The group I am most worried about are the people at highest risk—the babies who aren’t old enough to get vaccinated. We know if their mom was vaccinated they get some protection from her for the first few months, but they are quite vulnerable for a few months before they can get vaccinated when they reach 1-year old.
What does that mean for your day-to-day life? For me, since I am vaccinated, I am not really worried. Certainly if I know someone has measles I am not going to go near them intentionally, but I feel fine going about my regular life. If one of my family members wasn’t vaccinated I would want to sit down with them and talk about their concerns about the vaccine. And for those friends who have very young babies, I talk to them about making sure to surround those babies with vaccinated people. Almost all the babies who have gotten measles in Utah have gotten measles from an unvaccinated family member. Fortunately, if your household is vaccinated your baby is quite well protected.
There is an option to give babies older than 6 months old an extra dose of the vaccine before their first birthday, but it has some downsides (extra shot, low protection, long term decreased immunity). You can talk to your doctor about this and review the details on our website. I plan to cover this topic in more detail in another letter soon so please keep an eye on our website.
Dr. Leisha Nolen, Utah state epidemiologist