One of the biggest reasons is parents’ ‘vaccine hesitancy.’
By Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: May 29, 2026
Host: Measles are on the rise again, and Sarasota has one of the lowest children vaccination rates. Gretchen Cochran brings us this report.
[Children playing]
Gretchen Cochran: That’s the sound of happy children at play—quite the opposite of kids with high fevers, aching red eyes, itchy rashes who have been diagnosed with measles. Their number is on the rise, on track to be twice as many this year with Florida already reporting 138 cases. The biggest recent outbreak in Florida was at Ave Maria University in Collier County with 107.
The reasons vary, but the increasing numbers alarm epidemiologists noting that the virus was nearly wiped out in 2000 by routine vaccine injections.
What changed?
A young Bradenton mom told us her 15-month-old healthy boy would not be receiving any vaccines. She asked not to be identified, so we are calling her Debbie.
“Vaccines can cause a child to get autism,” Debbie said with conviction even though studies have confirmed that is not true.
She noted that, routinely, by the time her child entered kindergarten, he would have received 15 vaccines in 94 doses. That number is confirmed by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the CDC.
“I don’t want all that junk pumped into my son’s body,” Debbie said, fuming that the mother has been taken out of the equation. The Kansans for Health Freedom group’s website she sent us to noted that in 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that removed legal and financial liability from vaccine manufacturers for injury and death allegedly caused by vaccines. The number of required vaccines mushroomed after that, while medicines to treat vaccine reactions were created by the same companies that made the vaccines, the Kansas group said.
Not coincidentally, Kansas, along with New Mexico, Texas and South Carolina today are showing the highest number of cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University Measles Tracking Team.
Some call Debbie’s views “vaccine hesitancy.” An article in the New England Journal of Medicine referred to MMR hesitance. (MMR stands for Measles, Mumps and Rubella, also known as chicken pox.) Those fears correlated to middle to high-income mothers with a college-level education. Those moms preferred internet/social media narratives over physician-based vaccine information, the study results showed.
Autism diagnoses have indeed increased, the study said, according to statistics compiled by the CDC. But there is no scientific consensus on the reasons why, the journal article said. Most experts say it is likely due to a combination of factors, including changes in the way the condition is diagnosed, the article added.
Whatever the reason, Sarasota now has the lowest vaccination rate in the state, with 18& unvaccinated, according to the U.S, Canada and Mexico Measles Tracker.
Measles is unusually contagious, Dr. Frank Peacock, an emergency room doctor, told us using this example: If a measles-infected person walks into an elevator, coughs, and then leaves, and five minutes later, another person enters that elevator, that person can get the first person’s measles.
Robin Willliams is a local resident, having taught biology for three and a half decades and years studying vaccines. Williams said likewise:
Robin Williams
Robin Williams: Say you had a bunch of kids in the Mote Aquarium or something, and you have families and mothers pushing baby strollers and stuff like that, and you have pregnant women. This thing is so highly infectious, if you’re in a room and there’s somebody infected with measles—and, you know, it’s got a several-week incubation program—it especially is dangerous to infants. So even if there’s parents who are vaccinated and they’re pushing a baby stroller with a six-month-old in it, that child is particularly vulnerable.
When Debbie’s son heads off to school, she will be able to file a form saying for religious or medical reasons, he has not been vaccinated. A bill working its way through the Florida Legislature would add “for reasons of conscience” to allow children to enter school unvaccinated.
Sarasota School Board candidates Jimmy Glover and Heidi Brandt gave their views on vaccines at a WSLR gathering this week. Brandt mentioned “choice” four times in a question about vaccination requirements:
Heidi Brandt
Heidi Brandt: I believe that healthcare is a personal choice, but I have listened to my pediatrician all along because she knows best in my belief. I hire a pediatrician to watch over my child. I don’t go to a lawyer to prescribe vaccines. I would not change the vaccine right now. I think that they’re fine. I don’t know why we would change them. I personally vaccinate my child because I listen to my pediatrician. But I think healthcare is a choice. I think it’s a parental choice. I think it’s a family choice. And I don’t think we need any more or any less restrictions on vaccines right now.
GC: Glover referred to state law.
Jimmy Glover
Jimmy Glover: First and foremost, as a school board member, I will follow whatever the state law is. Once again, if parents, based upon state law, make those decisions, there are avenues for them to opt out of taking vaccines. All I’m concerned about is the public health of our citizens and our students and our teachers.
GC: The World Health Organization estimates globally 90% of measles cases are in unvaccinated people. It says 95,000 of them died of measles.
So it is no wonder in the next two weeks, local and state health departments are mobilizing when an expected 1.5 million people will gather here in the U.S, Canada and Mexico for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The closest of the 16 cities will be Miami, says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist podcaster. Local and state health departments are activating Emergency Operations Centers to receive a feared onslaught of measles and other communicable diseases.
For WSLR, this is Gretchen Cochran.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.