In an episode of the first season of the TV show The Pitt, Dr. Robby and his team tend to a critically ill 13-year-old patient, whom they determine has contracted measles. Most people in the United States are fortunate to never have witnessed firsthand the situation illustrated in the show: the life-threatening consequences of measles, even for an otherwise healthy child.
While most patients do make a full recovery, measles can be complicated by pneumonia, ear infections, inflammation of the brain and secondary bacterial infections resulting in sepsis, permanent damage of affected organs and even death.
Are these risks worth skipping the vaccine?
As infectious diseases specialists in adults and children, with decades of experience, we have treated patients here in Brooklyn for severe illnesses that could be prevented simply by universally recommended immunizations. It is our hope that as few people as possible suffer or even die from vaccine preventable diseases.
Unfortunately, there has been a resurgence of measles, a highly contagious disease, that was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000. In 2025, more than 2,200 confirmed cases and three deaths were reported. The disease continues to spread, exposing vulnerable people and causing unnecessary disease and death, until immunizations are widely accepted again as one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements.
To protect everyone from these deadly diseases, every eligible individual has to be immunized.
It’s not just measles, either. While influenza, Covid-19, RSV, tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis may feel less threatening because they’re more familiar to us, they are no less dangerous—and preventable in many cases. All adults should ensure themselves and their children are up to date on these and all other recommended vaccines.
Even if you personally feel the flu and Covid-19 are no threat to you, you can never be sure. More unvaccinated individuals mean a greater chance of disease spreading overall, and higher fatalities for vulnerable individuals and groups who could not be vaccinated, like newborns or those with cancer and other immune-suppressing diseases that do not allow them to be vaccinated. It’s simple: decisions we make as individuals clearly have a much wider impact than we realize.
It’s easy to get complacent when we have many treatments and advanced care available to us at this time in history. But we can’t forget that vaccines are the single largest factor in reducing mortality from the diseases they protect against. And our health systems aren’t equipped to care for the number of sick people we’d have if even fewer got immunized.
Take polio, for example. With all the years free from this devastating disease that the polio vaccine gifted to us, our collective memory may have diminished. But many of those who saw it in real life are still alive today, now among the most staunch vaccine advocates. They saw people get paralyzed and die from polio—people who would have given anything to save themselves and their loved ones from it—not to mention the widespread panic, closure of public spaces, and other serious ramifications on daily life. And then, all of a sudden, the polio vaccine emerged and no one else had to suffer.
As of December 2025, just 52% of Brooklyn children ages 24 to 35 months had completed the recommended combined 7-vaccine series by their second birthday. Those who decide to skip these immunizations for their children should know that this is no minor decision. It’s a vote for living in a world where diseases like pneumonia, meningitis along with measles, mumps, polio, chicken pox run rampant and take the lives of children, where infants too young to be immunized fight to survive in the ICU, and where the effects of these diseases turn into lifelong consequences. For adults, especially older ones and those fighting certain illnesses, common influenza or Covid-19 infections can spread unchecked, robbing precious years spent with loved ones or forever altering quality of life.
And once infection occurs and the effects set in, it’s too late to reverse this decision.
Let’s work together to keep everyone in our city safe with our number-one line of defense: prevention through immunization.
Edward Chapnick, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, is an infectious diseases specialist. He is vice president and chief infection prevention officer and executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine at Maimonides Health.
Rabia Agha, MD, is the director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Maimonides Health.
