Vaccine hesitancy in rich nations rules out measles eradication, says Gates

Bill Gates has said that eliminating measles as a global health threat is not currently achievable, pointing to rising vaccine hesitancy in wealthy countries.

The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist told a wire service in an interview that eradicating the disease had once been a possible target for his foundation, which works on global health and poverty. That goal has now been set aside.

"At one point, the foundation wanted to eradicate measles, but the vaccine hesitancy in rich countries has meant that's not on our list of goals," Gates said, describing the situation as tragic.

He linked the shift to a broader wave of vaccine skepticism, which he said had been promoted for years by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the US health secretary under President Donald Trump.

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases, causing high fever, cough and a distinctive rash. It killed around two million children a year before a vaccine arrived in the 1960s. Today about 100,000 children die from it annually, mostly in places where conflict or logistics hinder immunization. The World Health Organization says vaccination coverage must exceed 95% to prevent outbreaks.

Cases have nonetheless surged in recent years in countries where the disease had been nearly forgotten, including the United States and parts of Europe, as vaccination rates have slipped.

Gates said hesitancy had not spread to lower-income countries, where measles can be more lethal because of malnutrition and weak healthcare. "There's always that concern that if you have doubters in the U.S., that becomes a global thing," he said. "But we haven't seen an increase in vaccine hesitancy in the countries the foundation works in."

He spoke ahead of the foundation's annual Goalkeepers event, which tracks progress on United Nations development goals for 2030, including health. In last year's report, he warned about the impact of aid cuts led by the Trump administration and followed by other wealthy nations such as the UK and Germany.

This year, Gates said the cuts had likely caused many deaths, but that the restoration of some funding and efforts by affected countries and health groups had averted the worst-case scenario. "The most dire predictions, which went above 10 million deaths, we don't see that taking place," he said, adding that he continues to press governments to restore aid or at least not reduce it further. "It's still a very tragic situation."