Measles vaccination rates for toddlers plummet across LI

Data Point

Only 82% of children under 2 received an MMR shot in 2025

Even as public sentiment is beginning to push back against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccination policies, on Long Island, Kennedy’s ideas seem to be taking root.

The Point’s analysis of a ZIP code-level breakdown of vaccination rates against the measles, mumps, and rubella viruses among children by the age of 2 shows alarming declines across the region from 2024 to 2025. This echoes the uptick in comments expressed in Long Island parenting groups on social media by those who want to delay vaccinating their children.

Just as the United States recorded 1,575 confirmed cases of measles as of last Thursday, newly released data from the state Department of Health for 2025 shows that only 82% of Long Island’s toddlers received at least one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Regions need vaccination coverage rates at about 95% to ensure herd immunity, especially for measles. That level would reduce the transmission of the viral infections and the serious complications they can cause. By that standard, only two ZIP codes would qualify — 11804 in Old Bethpage and 11724 in Cold Spring Harbor. The measles virus was considered eradicated 26 years ago.

In 2025, 82.2% of Nassau County’s eligible children and 82.3% of Suffolk’s were vaccinated for MMR, a trend largely unchanged from the previous year. Click here to see vaccination rates by zip code.

Some ZIP codes saw as much as a 16-percentage point drop in MMR vaccination rates from 2025 to 2024, namely Nesconset in Suffolk, which saw a 15.8 percentage point decline, and Great Neck in Nassau, which saw a 14.3 percentage point decline. Westhampton Beach recorded a vaccination rate of 65.5%, a 10.3 percentage point drop from the year before. The hamlet of Oyster Bay also recorded an abysmal 67% vaccination rate.

Meanwhile, ZIP codes in Sag Harbor, Shoreham and Sea Cliff saw an uptick, although several of those communities had extraordinarily low rates a year ago. In Sag Harbor, 84% of eligible children were vaccinated in 2025, compared with 58% in 2024. Neighborhoods in Old Bethpage, Woodbury and Cold Spring Harbor were among the few on the list where more than 90% of all children under 2 were vaccinated in 2025.

Children are supposed to receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months of age and a second one after they turn 4 years old. But as trust in vaccine has waned, many parents attempt to delay or even avoid the first MMR vaccine dose. New York requires the MMR vaccine for children to attend school, offering only a medical exemption for those unable to get the vaccine. Many Long Island parents have sought pediatricians who will allow them to wait, leading vaccination rates to often remain low when children are young, and increase only just before those children attend school.

But that makes young infants, especially those too young to be vaccinated, more susceptible to measles, mumps or rubella, as herd immunity across the region remains so low,

RFK Jr. has long cast doubt on the efficacy and safety of vaccines, including the MMR vaccine. In the past, he has erroneously suggested unproven links between the MMR vaccine and autism. When he first became HHS secretary, parents who oppose vaccines and vaccine mandates expressed hope that he would change the childhood vaccine schedule and remove requirements, such as those that exist for school-age children in New York State. However, attempting to slash the number of recommended childhood vaccines has polled poorly among Republicans across the country, causing the White House to sideline this part of the health secretary’s agenda before the midterm elections.

According to the state Health Department, there were 48 confirmed cases of measles in New York State in 2025, 20 of which were in New York City. So far this year, there have been eight total cases — half of which were in New York City.

Across the country, 70% of all confirmed measles cases were among those younger than 20 years old with 26% affecting children under the age of five and 44% affected those between ages five and 19. In 93% of all those cases, the patient was reportedly unvaccinated.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Seat of contention

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Talking Point

Will Mr. Schneider go to Washington?

The newest Democrat to declare his candidacy for Congress: Jonathan Schneider of East Setauket.

Political insiders might assume we’re talking about the Jonathan Schneider who worked for former Rep. Tim Bishop and former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who once headed the Brookhaven Town Democratic committee, and who now works as a managing partner for McBride Consulting.

But it’s not that Jonathan Schneider.

Indeed, The Point has found that there are two people named Jonathan Schneider who live in East Setauket and are interested in politics. They live 1.6 miles apart. 

There’s Jonathan G. Schneider, 39, a respiratory equipment manager at Stony Brook University Hospital, who filed his candidacy for CD1 with the Federal Election Commission last month under the committee name "Take America Back," and often goes by John.

Then there’s Jonathan M. Schneider, 48, who is not running for Congress, a known face in Suffolk County political circles for years, and often goes by Jon.

The federal filing was enough to cause some confusion among local political players and Democratic Party loyalists who know Jon Schneider well.

"I was almost 100 percent sure it was not true, but I called Jon and said, ‘I’m a little offended you didn’t tell me. When’s your kickoff?" Suffolk Democratic Party chair Rich Schaffer told The Point. "We got a laugh out of it."

ZE Creative executive vice president David Chauvin, who considers Schneider a friend, said a mutual friend put a screenshot of the FEC filing in a group text, as the group tried to figure out the truth behind the situation.

"I immediately called him with righteous indignation, saying 'How dare you decide to do this without talking to me?'" Chauvin told The Point. "There was absolutely also a moment of disappointment. Like many of the people I really respect and love in this industry, Jon has a resume that would make him uniquely qualified to hold elected office, as someone who could get tangible results based on the experience and intelligence that he has. And I’d love to see more of my friends in elected office."

The notion of a Schneider candidacy particularly grew as there’s been talk among Democratic insiders of the desire for an alternative candidate to Democrats Christopher Gallant and Lukas Ventouras, who’ve been slow to raise money and develop campaign infrastructure in any challenge to GOP incumbent Nick LaLota.

But noncandidate Jon Schneider was quick to confirm that he’s not seeking elected office this year.

"No, I am not running for Congress," Jon Schneider confirmed. "I was very confused. I felt like the Michael Bolton character in Office Space. But when this happens, you find out who sends you a line like ‘How can I help’ versus those who send a line like ‘What the hell are you thinking’."

Candidate John Schneider, meanwhile, told The Point that he has significant concerns about "the issues that are really affecting everyday Americans," especially affordability. He pointed in particular to student loans, and the cost of big-ticket items like day care. He said he had reached out to his representatives and others in the House and Senate to try to talk about such issues but never heard back from anyone he had contacted.

So, he filed with the FEC to start his own campaign.

But he has since come to realize that he may not be able to run a national campaign right now, adding that he’d also consider a more local campaign to start his political career.

"I really thought about running for a lot of different reasons but unfortunately, with two small children, it will be very difficult to do," candidate Schneider said. "It’s a great idea, but as I was thinking more and more, at least this year, it may not be the right time. Maybe in the near future when my children are a little older, I will."

Schneider said he didn’t know there was another man by the same name who lived nearby.

In the end, the two Schneiders said they hoped to connect with each other.

But for now, Jon Schneider added, he has a message to friends and foes alike.

"You can call off the opposition research," he said. "This Jon Schneider is not running for office."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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