In a new opinion essay, physician Raj Panjabi warns that America's measles resurgence is not just a story of misinformation and polarization. He argues the deeper failure is public health's habit of telling people what to do instead of listening to them. With more than 4,400 confirmed cases this year and six deaths in Pennsylvania alone, he writes, the country risks officially losing the measles elimination it achieved in 2000.
Panjabi points to examples where door-to-door outreach worked. During New York's 2022 polio scare, officials combined vaccination requirements with in-person conversations in synagogues, clinics, and living rooms, and saw no new cases after 12 months. He also cites a Covid-era program that paid barbers and shop owners to share vaccine information, arguing that trusted local voices matter more than messages from Washington.
His recommendations include funding community messengers with multiyear grants, giving at-risk residents a role in outbreak task forces, and asking unvaccinated people about barriers rather than labeling them. "You don't necessarily have to change someone's beliefs to change their behaviors," he writes, urging a return to the model that originally eliminated measles: building collective immunity one conversation at a time.