Dr. Ryan Westergaard, who leads monitoring of communicable diseases in Wisconsin, shared an update on a growing measles outbreak in southwest counties of the state. J. Michael Collins, a consumer finance professor at UW-Madison, said the number of Wisconsin borrowers defaulting on their student loans is a sign of an increasingly difficult economy.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard
Chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

• With Wisconsin’s coverage rate for the MMR vaccine sitting at about 80% for two year olds in 2025, Westergaard said it was just a matter of time before a measles outbreak happened in the state. On Aug. 11, the state health department announced confirmed cases in Iowa and Lafayette counties, and a week later announced additional confirmed cases in Grant County. He said in order to prevent an outbreak in a community,95% vaccine coverage or greater is required. In southwest Wisconsin, the outbreak has multiplied quickly, even as the state and local public health departments rush in to try to prevent the spread and deliver vaccines.
• Westergaard: “Unlike some previous outbreaks, we didn’t catch this one at the very beginning. We identified cases that may have been associated with some families that had symptoms for a few weeks. So it might even have been going on for a month. When we did first detect it a couple of weeks ago, it’s doubled about every four or five days. So we started with just two cases confirmed. oNw we’re up to 48. So that number goes up when our investigators in local health departments are out in the community, following up on people who report symptoms, identifying contacts, and when they find people with new symptoms, or they hear about a new test, that number goes up So this is often what we see with measles outbreaks.”

J. Michael Collins
Professor, UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs

• Thousands of people across Wisconsin are not keeping up with repayment of student loans. According to a Wisconsin Watch and AP report, more than 100,000 borrowers in the state carry loans that are in default, as defined by not making payments in more than 360 days. Collins said the student loan default rate is a bellwether for the overall economy right now given the cost of other obligations many people have.
• Collins: “It is a little bit of a canary in the coal mine, because if you think about it, many people who have student loans also have credit card loans. They might have mortgages, auto loans. These are the loans that they probably have delayed making payments on. So once they get behind on these loans, there could be a cascade where they fall behind on their credit card loan and other kinds of loans. So it is something that’s very concerning.”

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