CBS News
U.S. measles cases rise to 41, as CDC tallies infections now in 16 states
At least 41 cases of measles have been reported in the U.S. across 16 states so far this year, according to new weekly figures published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is up from 35 cases in 15 states reported to the CDC, as of Feb. 22. Michigan is the new state now included in CDC’s tally.
The figures mark one of the steepest increases in recent history of the virus at this time of the year. It comes as experts worry the country could face a repeat of 2019’s massive surge, which authorities at the time said could threaten the U.S. status of having eliminated the virus.
“That is not a good slope of the curve, in terms of where we’re going with measles,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Feb. 29 to a panel of the agency’s advisers.
Daskalakis said measles was preventable with safe and effective vaccines, warning that communities with low vaccination coverage were at the greatest risk.
Federal officials have voiced growing concern in recent weeks over the climb in measles cases, which come as vaccination coverage has declined in many parts of the country.
A CDC spokesperson confirmed Feb. 28 that it was working to support investigators in Florida, which has reported the most infections this year. The CDC is offering genotype sequencing from its laboratory, which in the past has helped trace links between cases.
“We are a global community. As measles continues to increase in other parts of the world, these importations continue to happen. And when they land places where coverage is low, we are at risk for ongoing larger outbreaks,” he said.
Which states have reported measles cases in 2024?
Local and state health authorities have publicly discussed the details of at least 39 confirmed or suspected cases of measles across 16 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.
Pennsylvania was among the first states to report cases this year, with three infections reported from an outbreak that began there in 2023. On Feb. 27, authorities in Philadelphia announced the outbreak was officially over.
New Jersey also later confirmed a case of measles in a resident of a county bordering Philadelphia, though officials said they were unable to find a direct link to that outbreak or another route of exposure.
Missouri’s Clay County reported a measles case in a resident on Jan. 12 who the department said had traveled through Kansas City International Airport.
Virginia and Maryland each reported a case of measles in residents who had recently traveled through Dulles International Airport – one of the three major airports serving the Washington, D.C. region – following travel.
Georgia also reported a case of a resident on Jan. 18. A spokesperson for the state’s health department said the case had returned from a trip in the Middle East. A second case was later confirmed in an unvaccinated family member.
New York City has also reported two cases of measles in residents so far this year. Authorities in the city believe both were cases following international travel, and have not been directly connected to each other.
California has tallied two measles cases this year. One was in Los Angeles County, following a flight from Istanbul. The other was reported a day later in San Diego, also after international travel.
Ohio has confirmed at least four cases so far. The first was announced in the Dayton area by authorities in Montgomery County on Feb. 3, from a child who had recently traveled. Two more infections were later confirmed in nearby Miami County. A fourth case was later confirmed in Richland County near Cincinnati, which has not been linked to the other cases. A fifth potential case is being investigated, officials said on Feb. 20 in Clermont County.
Minnesota announced a case linked to international travel on Feb. 7 in Dakota County, near Minneapolis. Two more infections – in a sibling and a cousin of the original case – were later also confirmed in the state.
Arizona’s Maricopa County confirmed a measles case on Feb. 10 after international travel. Two more infections that authorities linked to the original case have since been reported by the same county, which spans Phoenix.
Florida has reported the most cases of any state so far this year, after at least seven elementary school students were infected at an elementary school in Broward County. Two more cases were reported in the same county, near Miami. The state’s records tally all nine of the cases in the county as having been infected in Florida. Another travel-related case was also announced on Feb. 23 in a resident of Polk County, between Orlando and Tampa.
Louisiana said on Feb. 21 that two residents in the greater New Orleans area were diagnosed with measles, after returning from a trip outside of the state.
Washington’s Spokane County also announced a case on Feb. 21. The county said their case was initially exposed to the virus out of the country.
Indiana reported a case on Feb. 24 in Lake County, near Chicago. Citing privacy concerns, the department has refused to release additional information.
Michigan’s health department announced a case on Feb. 23 in Oakland County, north of Detroit, which they said was “associated with international travel.”
What is driving the increase in measles cases in 2024?
Measles cases globally have been rising, with an increase in what the World Health Organization deems large or disruptive outbreaks in countries across the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe and Asia. The CDC has said this increased the share of unvaccinated travelers exposed to the virus and bringing it back to the U.S.
“We’re a little bit concerned we’re now in the same or similar position to what we see epidemiologically in the run up to that 2019 year, where suddenly we had this explosion of cases. And that’s what’s troubling us,” Natasha Crowcroft, the WHO’s senior technical adviser for measles and rubella, said Feb. 22 at a meeting of federal vaccine advisers.
Crowcroft warned efforts to catch up on measles vaccination rates have fallen behind other shots, she said, leaving more than half of countries at “high risk” of outbreaks this year.
“We’ve lost 7% in our coverage in low income countries. We’re already way behind in low income countries, but they’ve fallen even further,” said Crowcroft.
New outbreaks of measles have emerged in European countries that appeared to be ranking well in their overall rates of measles vaccinations, officials said, but harbored communities with dangerously large immunity gaps among younger children. That is different than in 2018 and 2019, when those countries saw many unvaccinated older children and adults infected too.
“What we’re currently experiencing really is the results of accumulation of susceptible children who were not reached by immunization programs that were impacted by the COVID pandemic,” said José Hagan of the WHO’s European arm.
Among health departments in the U.S., officials say greater awareness of the need for measles vaccinations before traveling abroad is also needed.
“People traveling to let’s say Africa or Southeast Asia may go to travel clinics and make sure they’re up to date on their immunizations, but travelers going to the European region, from the United States, don’t necessarily think that way,” said Christine Hahn, medical director for the Idaho Division of Public Health.
In 2023, Idaho faced its largest measles outbreak in decades after an unvaccinated resident was infected while traveling in Europe. Officials in Philadelphia say their large outbreak could also have been avoided by an immunization before travel.
“Our initial case, while too young to get routine vaccinations, would have been old enough to get an early vaccine for travel, and could have prevented our whole cluster had they done that,” said Shara Epstein of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
CBS News
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.
Ukrainian security sources had told CBS News Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.
AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”
Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.
Sefa Karacan / Anadolu via Getty Images
Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago was put to death Wednesday, without any independent witness, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that officials said the execution process started just after midnight.
Indiana Department of Corrections via AP
Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Corcoran’s execution was the 24th in the U.S. this year.
According to WTTV, the statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
He was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.
According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.
While jailed for those killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions following a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.
The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were permitted under state law.
Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his death penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his attorneys asked the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana last week to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same Tuesday.
Corcoran’s attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s options with the courts.
His sole remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran’s death sentence. But that commutation never came and the execution proceeded as scheduled.
WTTV says Holcomb issued a statement saying Corcoran’s case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the last 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court.”
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.
Since then, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana, but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.
State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.
For years, there has been a shortage across the country because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That’s pushed states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some use more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause intense pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles east of Chicago.
“We can build a society without giving governmental authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.
Other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Execution Is Not The Solution” and “Remember The Victims But Not With More Killing.”
“There is no need and no benefit from this execution. It’s all show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the U.S.
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran said farewell late Tuesday to relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including attending high school together. She reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and she didn’t think he fully grasped what was happening to him.
“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
BALTIMORE — One person was killed and nine others injured in a shooting and fiery crash in the Baltimore suburb of Towson Tuesday night, authorities said.
Law enforcement responded at around 7:15 p.m. in the 8500 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in a news briefing.
“It appears to be a mass shooting incident,” McCullough told reporters. “We have multiple persons who were shot. Right now, we are determining the circumstances and the conditions in this case.”
The first arriving officer found a vehicle on its side in flames near a funeral home, McCullough said, and then several gunshot victims were found in the area.
“There appears to be some type of incident that led to the vehicle crashing and catching on fire,” McCollough said. “Investigators are looking into the circumstances leading up to that.”
The name of the person killed and the manner of death was not released, nor were the conditions of the nine people injured. McCollough did not specify how many of the nine people injured were gunshot victims.
At this time, investigators believe this was an isolated and targeted incident, with no further threat to the community, he added. It’s unclear if any suspects have been arrested. There was no word on a possible motive.
“We will leave no stone unturned and we will dedicate every resource to this,” McCullough said. “We don’t generally see incidents like this in our community in Baltimore County. I assure you as your police chief that we will put all resources toward trying to clear this case.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was at the scene assisting police, as was the Baltimore County Fire Department.
“This is an incident that is shocking, particularly for those of us in Baltimore County,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “These types of incidents are unheard of here, so it really shocks the conscience. However, we want our residents to know that we are, as always, fully committed to ensuring that both our fire and police departments have the full support and all the resources they need from the Baltimore County government to ensure that they bring this investigation to a conclusion.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-4636.
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death
1 killed, 9 injured in shooting, fiery crash in Baltimore suburb of Towson, police say
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death