Minnesota's 80 measles cases this year are the most since 1990, health officials say
Minnesota has recorded 80 measles cases this year, the most since 1990, as the count in Todd County has tripled in recent weeks, state health officials said Thursday.
The Minnesota Department of Health said it has found 63 new cases in the past month. Todd County, home to roughly 25,000 people, accounts for 57 of the 80 cases. The county had 19 cases in mid-October.
Everyone who has gotten sick so far has been unvaccinated, the department said.
Linda Widmer caught measles as a child, before the disease was eliminated in the U.S. She said she felt terrible and stayed in bed for four or five days. Asked whether she would have wanted a vaccine if one had been available to her, she said, "Oh, I wish. And I think my parents would have definitely done that."
The CDC says there have been more than 4,500 measles cases across the country this year, nearly double last year's total.
Without naming them directly, Gov. Tim Walz criticized the nation's top public health official over vaccines in a post on X.
"The nation's highest-ranking public health official has spread misinformation about vaccines since the day he was appointed," Walz wrote. "These are the consequences."
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he supports measles vaccination. "The federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine," he told CBS News in April 2025, though he added that the government should not mandate it.
Measles cases nationwide were rising at the fastest rate in a generation as of February. The CDC said at the time that 94% of cases this year were in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. Minnesota recorded 26 cases in all of 2025, so this year's count is more than triple that.
Experts encourage everyone who can to get vaccinated. Officials recommend children receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at 12 to 15 months old and the second between ages 4 and 6.
