In March, 2024, the Health Service Executive (HSE) launched a full scale campaign, at an expected cost to the taxpayer of 4.6 million euro, to get everyone, including adults, vaccinated against measles. The purported rationales for this campaign are as follows:

1. Death of a man with confirmed measles. As of March 5th 2024, there has been no clarification as to whether measles caused this man’s death or whether he happened to have measles at the time of death. Westmeath Coroner Raymond Mahon has confirmed that no autopsy report exists listing measles as a cause of death in relation to the man, saying only a full post-mortem can conclude whether the man died of measles. We will await further clarification on this matter before including it in our Measles article.
2. Alleged outbreak of measles. As of 8 March, 2024 there were just 2 confirmed measles cases in Ireland. If we compare this to 2018, there were 76 confirmed cases of measles and 403 cases in 2010 yet no widespread campaign ensued.
3. A recent study showing 10.7% of 18 to 34 year olds in Ireland are susceptible to measles. In 2022, the National Surveillance Programme (NSP) undertook a measles IgG seroprevalence (level of pathogen in a population) study to identify the proportion of adults who may be susceptible to measles infection. Over 2,000 specimens (using remnants of blood tests carried out on adults aged 18-34 years) were obtained from six participating Laboratory Surveillance Network (LSN) laboratories. Based on this study, which concluded that 10.7% of young adults show potential susceptibility to measles, the government is recommending that anyone born after 1978 should get a “catch up” vaccination. 
4. Decline in vaccine uptake. The WHO recommends a vaccination uptake of at least 95%. Since 2003, vaccination uptake in Ireland has ranged from 77% to 93%. Despite Ireland not having achieved the recommended 95%, the WHO still (June 2019) declared that measles elimination had been sustained in Ireland. 

This chart illustrates that measles cases rise and fall with no visible correlation to vaccination uptake.

Refer to the Health Freedom Ireland Measles article for detailed information on measles, risk of contracting measles, dying from measles versus the risks of the MMR vaccine that the HSE recommends for babies.