Bill Gates says measles eradication — once a realistic ambition for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — is no longer on the table. Speaking ahead of the foundation's annual Goalkeepers event, Gates told Reuters that rising vaccine hesitancy in wealthy nations has made eliminating the disease as a global public health threat impossible for now. He pointed to a wave of skepticism that has taken hold in the US and Europe, fueled in part by figures like US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Measles, one of the world's most contagious diseases, killed around 2 million children annually before a vaccine was introduced in the 1960s. Today, roughly 100,000 children still die each year — mostly in low-income countries — but cases are now surging in places where the disease had nearly disappeared. Gates noted that hesitancy has not yet spread to lower-income countries, which he sees as a small silver lining.

By the Numbers:

• ~2 million: children killed by measles annually before the 1960s vaccine
• ~100,000: children still dying from measles each year today
• 95%+: vaccination coverage required by WHO to prevent outbreaks
• 10 million+: deaths feared in worst-case aid-cut scenarios — which Gates says have not materialized

Why it matters: Vaccine hesitancy in rich countries isn't just a domestic issue — it threatens global disease control efforts and undermines decades of public health progress, making once-achievable goals like measles eradication increasingly out of reach.