Hawaii's First Measles Case Occurs After Gov't Vaccination Campaign: Cause and Effect?

Hawaii rewrites vaccine exemption rules to pressure religious families to accept MMR jab.

Hawaii’s first confirmed measles infection has occurred in the weeks following the state government’s messaging campaign that urged citizens to receive a measles (MMR) vaccine, raising questions as to whether the MMR jab itself could be to blame.

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The live virus in the measles vaccine is the product of gain-of-function (GOF) laboratory experiments and can be shed for weeks from the vaccinated, potentially infecting the unvaccinated.

Recently, measles outbreaks have followed government-led vaccination campaigns in Texas and Ontario, Canada.

Now we can add Hawaii to the list.

Timeline

On March 11, the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) issued a medical advisory to healthcare providers to urge citizens to get vaccinated.

In a March 17 DOH news release, Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green implored citizens to receive an MMR jab:

“Prevention is the best cure, and a measles outbreak is preventable,” Gov. Green said. “The best protection is vaccination. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective in preventing infection and stopping the spread. Measles was once eliminated in the U.S., but low vaccination rates are bringing it back. We can’t let that happen here in Hawaiʻi.”

DOH also strongly encouraged Hawaiians to get vaccinated, in that news release:

DOH urges all residents, particularly parents, to ensure their children are up to date on immunizations. High vaccination rates not only protect vaccinated individuals but also safeguard the broader community. For more information on measles and vaccination, visit the Hawai‘i Department of Health website.

Mainstream news outlets parroted the story far and wide, as did local news.

On April 2, DOH sent a letter to parents and guardians of K-12 students of public, private, and charter schools “encouraging them to get their child vaccinated against measles if the child is not fully vaccinated,” according to the department.

The letter also announced that DOH was issuing new “emergency rules” to “remove a barrier to vaccination against the highly contagious measles virus.”

Before April 2025, families with religious vaccine exemptions faced an “all-or-nothing” choice—if they opted to get the MMR shot for measles protection, they risked losing their broader religious exemption status for all other school-required vaccines.

The new emergency rules allow children with a religious exemption to receive the MMR shot “while retaining the exemption to other vaccines and continuing to attend school. The rules can be effective only for and would expire in 120 days.”

Parents were asked to report any updates to their child’s vaccination record to their school “to ensure that the school’s vaccination data is accurate and up to date.”

The letter was clear that, should a measles outbreak occur in Hawaii, students without a record of an MMR vaccine “may be prohibited from attending school.”

DOH said it would “reach out to schools to assess interest in hosting on-site vaccination clinics.”

The agency offered a phone number (808-586-8300) for schools and offices interested in hosting vaccination clinics can also call and reach the DOH Immunization Branch.

Then on April 7, just 20 days after the DOH medical advisory urging citizens to get vaccinated and only five days after the pro-vaccination emergency rules letter was sent, the Hawaii DOH State Laboratories Division confirmed the state’s first case of measles in an unvaccinated child under 5 years of age on Oʻahu.

The infection occurring after the state’s vaccine campaign raises questions about whether the child was exposed to vaccinated individuals who may have been shedding the vaccine virus.

A person vaccinated within 5–20 days prior to contact could plausibly have been shedding the vaccine strain measles virus, particularly around day 7–14, which falls squarely in the timeframe leading up to Hawaii’s confirmed case.

On the following day, April 8, Gov. Green issued another “urgent call” to Hawaiians to get vaccinated, in another DOH announcement.

With state-sponsored vaccination campaigns repeatedly preceding outbreaks, the question Hawaii officials won’t answer is whether their own intervention could have sparked the very infection they claim to prevent.

Follow Jon Fleetwood: Instagram @realjonfleetwood / Twitter @JonMFleetwood / Facebook @realjonfleetwood

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