Measles Outbreak Nears 1,000 Cases in South Carolina as RFK Jr's Allies Push to Gut Vaccine Laws

South Carolina is grappling with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people — the worst spread of the disease since the early 1990s — as groups with ties to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. actively push to eliminate school immunization requirements in more than 20 states. The Guardian investigation found anti-vaccine organizations encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in at least six states with current measles outbreaks, creating a direct collision between the public health response and the political movement empowered by Kennedy's appointment. The outbreak arrives as the global health community already warns that childhood vaccination rates have fallen to their lowest levels in years, and the convergence of an active outbreak with organized political opposition to the vaccines that prevent it represents an unprecedented challenge for public health officials caught between science and ideology.