{"id":540499,"date":"2026-03-23T13:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/540499\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T13:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:43:14","slug":"a-measles-outbreak-in-florida-is-simmering-but-we-know-almost-nothing-about-it-we-went-to-investigate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/540499\/","title":{"rendered":"A measles outbreak in Florida is simmering, but we know almost nothing about it. We went to investigate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ave Maria, Florida
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n One Wednesday this month, loud cries erupted from two teenage girls huddled over a cellphone in the parking lot of a local supermarket. They had just learned that a classmate at the private K-12 school just a few blocks north had been diagnosed with measles. Unvaccinated students were going to be kept out of school for the next month.\n <\/p>\n

\n I overheard the commotion just as I was packing my notebook away and preparing to leave Ave Maria, a small but rapidly growing planned community on the northwestern edge of the Florida Everglades. It\u2019s a place with little formal leadership aside from the real estate developers and the heads of the Catholic Church that the community is based around.\n <\/p>\n

\n I was visiting because one of the largest measles outbreaks the United States has seen on a college campus in decades erupted just a few blocks west at Ave Maria University at the end of January, but very little information was being shared with the public.\n <\/p>\n

\n I tried to get in touch with the Florida Department of Health and Ave Maria University over phone and email for a month, with no response, before making a trip to the center of the outbreak. There have now been more than 100 cases reported in the county: 88 confirmed and 16 probable.\n <\/p>\n

\n My visit had shown me that a lot was happening outside of the public view, but that night at the grocery store, I was feeling defeated. I still couldn\u2019t pin down the trajectory of the outbreak or gauge the level of risk to the community.\n <\/p>\n

\n Just a couple hours earlier, the university president had reprimanded me for stopping by a town hall he was hosting for students, and he refused to answer my questions about the outbreak. Visits to county health department offices had yielded new phone numbers to call but no new calls back. And for the previous two days, many local folks had met my questions about measles with a certain level of indifference and some past-tense reflections, as if the outbreak were long over.\n <\/p>\n

\n There was a general sense among the public that the outbreak had died down and that the broader community had been spared. Yes, there was a measles outbreak, but it had stayed \u201cacross the street,\u201d as the locals say, referencing a small road that serves as an unofficial border between the university campus and the rest of the town.\n <\/p>\n

\n But for a small group of in-the-know people \u2014 including local health care providers and a former assistant secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services who call the town home \u2014 this moment in the supermarket parking lot was anxiously anticipated: Measles had jumped from the university to the broader town. A second wave of the outbreak was probably underway.\n <\/p>\n

\n Measles is extraordinarily contagious. Florida\u2019s outbreak hasn\u2019t reached the record-breaking scale of others<\/a> the US has seen over the past year, such those in Texas and South Carolina, but it is still unusual; before last year, there were only 10 other times in the two and a half decades since the US declared measles eliminated that an outbreak had surpassed 50 cases. Vaccines can effectively prevent it, but any place where the vaccination rate has dropped below about 95% is at risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ave Maria sits near the middle of Collier County, in the southwest part of the state, which has reported at least 104 measles cases since the start of January, and more than 10% of them have come in the past two weeks, since measles made the jump \u201cacross the street.\u201d Most cases in the county have been concentrated among the 15-to-24 age group \u2014 which aligns with an outbreak on the university campus \u2014 but not all cases have been among college students. A growing share are among young children and teens.\n <\/p>\n

\n The handful of community leaders I was able to connect with had positive things to say about the way the Florida health department is managing the response to the measles outbreak. But the department has not responded to any of the calls or emails I\u2019ve sent over the past month, so I have no firsthand accounts of the work it has done or what it\u2019s still doing.\n <\/p>\n

\n Experts in infectious disease and in public health say that the unusual lack of public communication has probably hindered the public health response. More could have been done to get out ahead of the spread and prevent more cases.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMost jurisdictions do what they can to get the word out about measles outbreaks because they need the public\u2019s partnership and engagement to bring the outbreak under control,\u201d said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBecause measles is airborne and very transmissible, there are sometimes public exposures like at the grocery store or medical clinic that need broader attention,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Ave Maria brands itself as \u201ca big kind of small town,\u201d and it\u2019s quickly getting bigger. Thousands of newly constructed homes rise in the middle of a rural part of Collier County roughly halfway between Naples to the west and Fort Lauderdale to the east, and acres of flat land stand ready to house thousands more. About 8,000 people live in Ave Maria, and about 1,300 students are enrolled at the university.\n <\/p>\n

\n I traveled into town along a highway dubbed Alligator Alley, and after a few miles along a rural road with signs warning drivers about panther crossings, palm trees sprung up to line the last few miles to the town center. A massive Catholic church dominates the main square, ringed by shops and restaurants, and it directly faces the Ave Maria University campus.\n <\/p>\n

\n As I stood in the center of it all, a bright spot under my feet caught my eye: A Domino\u2019s Pizza logo had been emblazoned on one of the pavement stones; the pizza chain\u2019s former CEO had also founded Ave Maria University and helped build the town around it.\n <\/p>\n

\n People riding golf carts, bikes and scooters seemed to outnumber those in cars as they zipped around the town center. Most were dressed in typical Florida attire: casual sundresses and polo shirts. I noticed one golf cart driver who stood out for being dressed in a sharp navy blue suit and colorful pocket square \u2014 and I would quickly learn what it means to visit a small town.\n <\/p>\n

\n I walked a few blocks for a meeting I had scheduled with Tony Musingo, a local physician assistant who had diagnosed many of the community\u2019s first measles cases. He didn\u2019t want to meet in his office; the clinic had moved its check-in desk outside when the measles outbreak started a few weeks earlier and was generally limiting who could go inside as a precaution.\n <\/p>\n

\n A graduate student studying theology at the university \u2014 who also happened to be one of the early measles cases on campus \u2014 helped coordinate my meeting with Musingo. He brought us upstairs, through an office and out to a patio for a shaded place to sit and talk. The well-dressed man in a suit who I had seen in the golf cart was waiting to greet us: Michael Caputo, an assistant HHS secretary for public affairs in the first Trump administration during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n <\/p>\n

\n Caputo now runs a startup biotech business from the small Florida town and studies theology at the university. His company makes a device that works as a smoke detector for airborne viruses, and the university is using pilot versions of it in some of its classrooms.\n <\/p>\n

\"Vaccines<\/p>\n

\n As measles cases grow nationwide, other states with outbreaks have sent out timely status updates and regularly made leaders available for questions. The South Carolina health department started hosting weekly media briefings when there were less than a dozen cases associated with their local outbreak. Utah state health officials have also held multiple briefings offering updates on the situation there.\n <\/p>\n

\n South Carolina, Utah and many other states with far fewer cases than Florida \u2014 which currently ranks third for the most measles cases in 2026, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \u2014 have stood up measles dashboards that provide details about case demographics and exposure locations. Florida provides a case count by county and an option to filter by age group, but there\u2019s no context provided. It updates once a week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Age group data from the Florida health department suggests that the outbreak has spread beyond the college campus, said Rivers, the Johns Hopkins epidemiologist whose organization developed a measles case tracker<\/a> and worked with health departments from across the country to help them learn from their experiences responding to measles.\n <\/p>\n

\n This \u201cgoes to show that outbreak information is usually of interest to the entire community,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ave Maria University had a \u201ccampus health update\u201d alert on its website that was updated regularly in the early days of the outbreak, often with more recent case counts than the state health department was sharing. But at some point, updates slowed, and the university started linking back to the state health department data \u2014 essentially revising the case count down from what it had reported earlier.\n <\/p>\n

\n The university prominently identifies a contact for media inquiries on the website, but that person did not reply to any of my questions about the outbreak. During my visit, she sent me an email to reiterate the university president\u2019s message that I was not welcome on campus but also did not return my phone call after that.\n <\/p>\n

\n In Ave Maria, the public health response to the measles outbreak seemed to be as elusive as the Florida panther: prominent in the area but largely hidden from public view. You need to know the right places to look.\n <\/p>\n

\n The lack of official communication from the public health department has left unofficial town leaders to fill gaps in awareness and guidance \u2014 and they\u2019re all seemingly coordinated by Caputo.\n <\/p>\n

\n When I couldn\u2019t get in touch with the state health department or the university, I tried other ways to learn more about the measles outbreak in Ave Maria: I reached out to the local parish, builders associations, community organizations and more.\n <\/p>\n

\n Most didn\u2019t respond to me, but they had all told Caputo about my calls. This is a small town. He knew I was coming and exactly who I was trying to talk to.\n <\/p>\n

\"Ave<\/p>\n

\n The role may not be one Caputo asked for, but it\u2019s one that he seems to have embraced. He says he\u2019s coordinated with the local parish on a message about measles that has been shared at multiple masses and helped draft the email communication that the K-12 school sent out once a student tested positive.\n <\/p>\n

\n A few weeks ago, email and text blasts sent from his company \u2014 Ave Maria Biotech \u2014 informed thousands of residents about a webinar that local health care providers would be hosting about the measles outbreak with Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC during the first Trump administration who is now chief science adviser for Ave Maria Biotech.\n <\/p>\n

\n In it, Redfield warned about a second wave and raised specific concerns about the risk that measles poses to pregnant women.\n <\/p>\n

\n He also encouraged vaccination. He spent a significant portion of time sharing negative reflections on Covid-era policies but was staunch in his support of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine \u2014 especially because the Catholic Church has formally dispelled concerns about the use of fetal tissue in development, endorsing vaccination as not only morally permissible but virtuous.\n <\/p>\n

\n When I asked Caputo how he views his own role in the current measles response, he said he\u2019s just a concerned resident.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNobody wants a self-proclaimed expert coming in to tell you what to do, so I tried to keep myself out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the community has done a great job.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Caputo and Musingo, the local physician assistant, agree that when they heard about the first cases of the outbreak, they thought things would be much worse than they have been.\n <\/p>\n

\n Congregation is a key part of life in Ave Maria, they said. Strong community ties bring people together at daily church services, for neighborhood rosary walks, for university classes and community events. They worried that there were too many opportunities for the virus to spread.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe students really did their part,\u201d Caputo said, saying that they isolated when sick and generally stayed on campus and away from town. \u201cThe people here look out for each other.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, as a resident, Caputo says, he would have liked to hear more from the state health department.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is a storytelling town, and they\u2019re missing the narrative,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In many ways, it seems that Florida leadership is particularly focused on avoiding the narrative. But history has shown that public communication is critical to help families and health care providers do their part during a measles outbreak.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s important for families to hear directly from the department of health during a measles outbreak because they\u2019re the experts, said Dr. Jennifer Takagishi, vice president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The department is central to the data gathering and to the response.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor families who may or may not have access to a physician or other provider, they are the safety net for all these families, too,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more scientific and medicine hesitancy and mistrust than there used to be, so being able to really give doctors the tools to be able to explain the data in a meaningful and up-to-date way is also very important.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n There are also suspicions among local health care providers that even though the public health department was able to host a vaccination clinic, it couldn\u2019t advertise about the value of the vaccine or that it was available \u2014 and that made it less successful than it could have been. This is a point I would have liked to clarify with the state health department, if I was able to connect with them.\n <\/p>\n

\n What I do know is that Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo has spoken at events supporting the \u201cmedical freedom\u201d movement. He wants to ban mRNA vaccines in Florida and announced plans to end childhood vaccination mandates in the state, likening them to slavery.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI do know that some of our state officials are vaccine hesitant themselves, and are therefore not promoting vaccines for our families,\u201d said Takagishi, who practices a few hours north of Ave Maria, in Tampa. \u201cWhat we\u2019d really prefer is that they\u2019re out in front of the public in advance, so that they can be encouraging families to get vaccinated, to get information, so that we can avoid the outbreaks or manage them very early and not wait until there\u2019s a significant number of people before we act.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Statues<\/p>\n

\n The lack of official narrative may have led local folks to a premature sense of safety, believing that the outbreak had ended even as cases continue to add up.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOh, yeah, that\u2019s over\u201d was a common refrain during my first few laps around town. But some doubt would creep in, and they\u2019d follow up to be sure: \u201cIsn\u2019t it?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Ave Maria University\u2019s \u201ccampus health update\u201d link has been removed from the university\u2019s homepage. The last update from a couple weeks ago reads that \u201cthere are currently zero nurse-assessed confirmed cases on campus\u201d \u2014 but it shows a total case count that is nearly a dozen cases behind the current total for the county.\n <\/p>\n

\n A measles case at the K-12 school seems to have piqued the public\u2019s doubt and shifted perceptions at least a bit, though. Only after the revelation of cases among a younger student did I hear any mention of fear.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jessica Tolentino doesn\u2019t live in Ave Maria, but her family is in town often; her husband oversees some of the new development there, and her teenage son has friends at the private K-12 school.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier that week, her son told her that a few of his friends were meeting up to play basketball in Ave Maria but that he didn\u2019t want to go because \u201csomething was going around.\u201d It was very unlike him, she said, so she was already on alert when the measles news landed.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAnd if the case was just confirmed Wednesday, that means it\u2019s been spreading around long before,\u201d Tolentino said.\n <\/p>\n

\n She\u2019s especially nervous because her younger son has a heart condition that makes him more susceptible to severe complications from a viral infection. He had to avoid certain vaccines for the first seven years of his life, she said. And although he\u2019s vaccinated against measles now, his weakened immune system puts him at higher risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe might have to avoid town for a while,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Caputo and Musingo are still hopeful. They say all signs indicate that the second wave will be small. But even after spending time in town and visiting the nearest health department, I still don\u2019t know what the formal public health response will look like.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Diocese of Venice in Florida, a jurisdiction of the Catholic Church that runs the K-12 school in Ave Maria, says it has consulted with the Florida health department to develop its quarantine protocol for students. The school has also cancelled some events for parents amid the outbreak.\n <\/p>\n

\n The diocese mentioned that a local pediatrician in Ave Maria was offering MMR vaccination through extended hours at her office and local house visits. It said the Florida health department has made itself available to answer questions about measles and the situation \u2013 responding to hourly phone calls early on \u2014 but didn\u2019t say anything about whether it might help with promoting vaccination or managing the outbreak on the ground.\n <\/p>\n

\n I ran into one dad who was visiting the pediatrician with two of his five kids. He was quick to say it was for a regular checkup, not for measles. The family had just moved to town over the summer, and a few kids were old enough to attend school.\n <\/p>\n

\n Keeping unvaccinated kids out of school is a \u201ctough decision,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s safe and decisive and will hopefully help get things under control.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hearing about the measles case at the school made him \u201ca little nervous,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we\u2019re vaccinated.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Time will tell how the measles outbreak will progress in Ave Maria, but I\u2019ll keep watching the weekly case count and trying to get more information from the Florida health department.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ave Maria, Florida \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 One Wednesday this month, loud cries erupted from two teenage girls huddled over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97],"class_list":{"0":"post-540499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}