Study Shows Most ‘Measles’ Cases Appear In The ‘Vaccinated’
A 2025 Shandong province CDC-authored study confirms that vaccinated infants, NOT the unvaccinated, frequently develop clinically measles-like illness caused by live attenuated vaccine virus, and that these post-vaccination illnesses are often indistinguishable from wild measles in surveillance systems, contaminating official measles case data
The study showed 95.24 percent of vaccinated infants developed fever, 16.40 percent developed measles-defining symptoms, ~70 percent of cases could not be genetically classified, and when classification succeeded, 90.91 percent matched the vaccine strain—establishing vaccine-derived illness as a measurable contributor to reported measles cases.
That means many measles cases routinely cited by the mainstream media could be caused by the measles vaccine itself, not a “wild” virus.
The study, “Molecular and epidemiological analysis of measles vaccine-associated rash illnesses in Shandong province, China, 2014–2021,” was published last week in BMC Infectious Diseases.
Population Studied: Vaccinated Children Only
All 189 cases analyzed in this study occurred in vaccinated individuals, not unvaccinated patients.
The authors state:
“Among the 189 cases of VARIs, 90.47 percent (171 cases) were children aged 8 to 18 months who had received a single dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV).”
There is no cohort of unvaccinated patients analyzed in this paper.
All illness described occurred after vaccination.
Clinical Illness in Vaccinated Patients
Among these vaccinated children, the study documents not just rash, but symptoms classically used to diagnose measles:
“16.40 percent (31/189) of these VARIs exhibited at least one symptom such as cough, coryza, or conjunctivitis.”
Additional findings in vaccinated patients included:
- Koplik spots
- Pneumonia
- Diarrhea
Fever occurred in 95.24 percent (180/189) of vaccinated cases, usually before rash onset.
“Fever was observed in 95.24 percent (180/189) of cases, occurring within 1–14 days post-vaccination, with a median onset of 8 days.”
Surveillance Confusion: Vaccinated Illness vs. Wild Measles
The authors explicitly acknowledge that vaccinated patients with vaccine-caused illness are difficult to distinguish from unvaccinated patients with wild measles when relying on symptoms alone:
“Clinical criteria alone were insufficient to consistently distinguish the two.”
They further state:
“Some vaccine-strain-confirmed VARI cases exhibited minor ‘measles-like’ symptoms, illustrating the difficulty of distinguishing VARI from true measles on clinical features alone.”
This means vaccinated children experiencing vaccine-induced illness are being counted as measles cases in surveillance systems.
Genotyping Limitations in Vaccinated Cases
Although genotyping (genetic analysis) is presented as the solution to finding out whether the vaccine or a wild virus caused the measles symptoms, the authors document major failure rates:
“Genotyping was successful in 30.28 percent (33/109) of the cases.”
This directly implies that ~70 percent could not be genetically resolved.
That means that in roughly seven out of 10 vaccinated children with measles-like illness, public health authorities had no genetic evidence to determine whether the illness was caused by the vaccine strain or wild measles, yet those unresolved cases still enter measles surveillance and response pathways.
They acknowledge:
“Genotyping alone cannot absolutely confirm vaccine origin.”
This limitation applies specifically to vaccinated patients suspected of having vaccine-associated illness, not unvaccinated cases.
Vaccine Virus Identification in Vaccinated Patients
However, in vaccinated patients where genotyping succeeded, the virus matched the vaccine strain:
“90.91 percent (30/33) of sequences were 100 percent consistent with the Shanghai-191 strain.”
This means that when testing actually worked, the virus causing illness in vaccinated children was almost always the vaccine virus itself, not a circulating wild measles strain.
These sequences were detected in throat swabs from symptomatic vaccinated children.
Timing Confirms Post-Vaccination Viral Activity
The timing of illness is tightly linked to vaccination:
“The rash in VARI cases appeared within 5–14 days post-vaccination, with a median onset of nine days.”
This window corresponds to active replication of the live attenuated vaccine virus, not coincidental illness.
That means the illness showed up exactly when the live vaccine virus is known to multiply in the body, making it unlikely the symptoms were random or unrelated to the vaccination.
Correlation With Measles Incidence
The study reports a statistically significant relationship between vaccine-associated illness in vaccinated children and reported measles incidence:
“Bivariate linear correlation analysis revealed a significant linear correlation between the two variables (R = 0.76, p = 0.03).”
The authors interpret this as evidence that vaccine-associated rash illness in vaccinated patients may be misclassified as measles, including modified measles.
Authors’ Own Constraint Acknowledgment
The authors concede that misclassification is structurally likely:
“VARI cases were confused with modified measles.”
They conclude:
“There is an urgent need to develop rapid, resource-efficient, vaccine strain-specific assays.”
Authors & Funding Sources
All authors are affiliated with Chinese government and academic public health institutions, specifically:
- Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, China
- Academy of Preventive Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China
- Shandong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Jinan, China
The corresponding authors are Aiqiang Xu and Zexin Tao, both based at Shandong CDC and Shandong University
The research was funded by provincial government health and talent programs, including:
- Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Plan Program of Shandong
- Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong Province
- Taishan Scholar Program of Young Experts
Bottom Line
This paper from one of China’s top health agencies does not describe disease in unvaccinated populations.
It documents that vaccinated infants frequently develop clinically measles-like illness caused by live vaccine virus, that current surveillance systems cannot reliably distinguish these cases from wild measles, and that official measles data may therefore include vaccine-induced disease by design, not error.
The study raises questions about whether most “measles cases” routinely cited by the mainstream medical and media establishment—often used to justify renewed calls for measles vaccination—are caused by the measles vaccine itself.
See more here substack.com
Some bold emphasis added
Header image: Cone Health
very old white guy
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When we were were kids we all had measles and no one died, what changed?
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