NEWS

By Dr. Sallie Permar

One of the most heartbreaking events of 2025 has been watching the U.S.’s measles elimination status slowly slip away due to further declining childhood vaccination rates, and without a unified plan to stop its trajectory.

I am a virologist and vaccinologist who studied measles and how it manifested in an HIV+ population for my PhD thesis. I got the advice from many of the vaccine giants who were my mentors to not continue in the measles virus field as research funding would not need to continue due to its near elimination status across the globe. Now I give the advice to junior colleagues to consider measles virus research because it seems it is here to stay - and those who cannot be protected, including babies and immunocompromised people, will need new innovations to keep them safe. All the while knowing eliminating it in our country would just take the political will to use the tools we have in hand.

Thank you to those who continue in the fields of science that have been deprioritized in 2025, and continue to invest in the pipeline of future scientists - it is those scientists and experts we will turn to again when the next pandemic is on our doorstep.

Editor's Note: Dr. Permar, a Davidson College alumna, has given News of Davidson permission to share her posts to social media. We think her well-informed insights are helpful for our readers, especially those who do not use social media.