Healthcare

Gates-Backed Pro-Vax Outlet Appears To Say Quiet Part Of The Measles Outbreak Out Loud

[Flickr/Asian Development Bank, CC BY 2.0]

A pro-vaccine outlet admitted foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. for the FIFA World Cup fueled the transmission of measles as recent outbreaks have rocked parts of the country.

VaccinesWork published a story Monday with the headline, “Measles vaccine push urged in Americas after World Cup.” While the story pushed for increasing vaccination rates, quoted epidemiology researchers attested that foreign tourists traveling to watch the soccer tournament were a major factor in spreading the highly infectious disease into Western Hemisphere countries such as the U.S., the article found.

“The Americas reports record levels of measles as vaccination coverage declines and football World Cup fuels transmission,” the articles’s subheading stated.

Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance started VaccinesWork in March 2020 to cover news, features and explainers about global health and immunization. The Gates Foundation in 2025 announced its commitment to contributing 1.6 billion dollars to Gavi with the goal of vaccinating more than half the world’s children by 2030.

The story quoted Bianca de Oliveira Cata Preta, an epidemiology researcher who conducts child vaccine research for Gavi and the World Health Organization.

“High mobility associated with international travel and mass events are factors that can favor the spread of the virus within and between countries,” Cata Preta said.

The large volume of people traveling across Mexico, the U.S., and Canada from the months of June to July, could be tied to the resurgence of the disease in the Americas, the article claims. Now 95% of measles cases in the Americas in 2026 are collectively in the U.S., Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, the VaccinesWork piece reported citing the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). However, the story’s link to the alleged data was broken as of Friday afternoon.

The U.S. hosted 78 World Cup games across 11 host cities in summer 2026 — making up nearly 75% of the 2026 tournament, according to EuroNews. Fans from all over the world came to support their nation’s teams.

Before the games began, the U.S. State Department expected five to seven million international travelers, according to The National Desk.

Pennsylvania — the state that claims the highest number of measles cases in the U.S. — held six soccer matches in Philadelphia this summer with over 500,000 people traveling there to attend, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.

Five of the teams that competed in Philadelphia represented countries in the Western Hemisphere: Ecuador, Brazil, Haiti, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

Pennsylvania continues to report high cases of measles with 850 measles cases recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Thursday. Lancaster County has frequently made the news with the highest reported measles infection rate in the state.

Republican Lancaster County Commissioner Joshua Parsons told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he is “not aware of any particular discussions of medical issues as a result of the World Cup.”

The DCNF previously reported that there is a dispute between the Pennsylvania Public Health Department and the Lancaster County coroner over one of the deaths attributed to measles. Investigations into other deaths are ongoing and not much public information has been released. Lancaster County officials share that the government and public health department has not been forthcoming about the demographic details and driving causes of the spread.