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Paranoia and fear have spread throughout this human-resource-rich but politically dysfunctional nation, allowing a disease once nearly eradicated to return and ravage large swaths of the U.S. population. Measles, a highly communicable and potentially deadly illness, has been mostly preventable since a vaccine was developed more than 50 years ago. And for decades this North American superpower — like other Western nation-states — had near-universal immunization rates. (Catherine Rampell, 2/5)

The alarming number of measles cases — a record 644 last year, and 102 last month, the most since the disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 — has focused scrutiny on parents who refuse vaccinations for their children. There are some who want state and local governments to sue, or even criminally charge, such parents. A bill in California would end all nonmedical exemptions to immunization requirements. For epidemiologists like me, eliminating exemptions may seem satisfying, but it is not the wisest policy for protecting kids. Instead, we should borrow a concept from behavioral economics, and use administrative rules and procedures to “nudge” parents to immunize their kids, rather than trying to castigate or penalize these parents. (Saad B. Omer, 2/6)

When I walked through the door of Carl and Jodi Krawitt's well-appointed hillside home the other day, I could tell their 6-year-old son Rhett was not super happy to see me. I'd interrupted him as he was getting ready for a swimming lesson. It was easy to read his expression: Please mom and dad. Not another reporter? I don't blame him. Quite unexpectedly, Rhett has become the angelic public face of the pro-vaccination movement in California. (Robin Abcarian, 2/5)

“I have heard of many tragic cases,” said Dr. Paul, “of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.” Following the ensuing firestorm, the Republican senator from Kentucky insisted, “I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporally related.” In effect: I did not sleep with that causation. Paul blamed his troubles on the “liberal media” — which, after a little digging, reported that, in 2009, he had called mandatory vaccinations a step toward “martial law.” When Chris Christie commits a gaffe on vaccination and reverses himself, it indicates a man out of his depth. With Paul, it reveals the unexplored depths of a highly ideological and conspiratorial worldview. (Michael Gerson, 2/5)