One of the big victories of American science in the last few decades was conquering measles. But that achievement is being reversed, as the U.S. now stands on the brink of losing its measles elimination status.

Measles cases are “skyrocketing” across the country, with cases reported in nine states, and “hundreds” of patients were quarantined in South Carolina in late December, said Axios. Some of the surges are happening in places where the measles vaccination rate is under the 95% level that public health officials say is “necessary to contain the virus’ spread.” A “record share” of kindergartners were exempted from the vaccine last school year, said CNN.

The Pan American Health Organization will review America’s measles elimination status in April, said USA Today. The designation is “more symbolic than anything” but still carries some meaning. The designation is a “significant public health signal,” said the group. 

What did the commentators say?
The South Carolina quarantines are “just a taste of what’s coming” under the anti-vaccine stewardship of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said The Washington Post editorial board. It might be easy to dismiss the loss of measles elimination status, but outbreaks “almost certainly will become more frequent and more intense in the coming years” thanks to the loss of vaccination coverage. Other vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough and chicken pox will also surge. 

Measles is a “nasty virus,” said Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in a blog post. Most people survive an infection, but it can cause “many different complications,” including blood clotting. The larger problem is that measles is “usually the first, but not the only, pathogen to show itself” when vaccination rates drop. If vaccines are “cast aside, it will not be the only disease to return.”

What next?
Public health authorities consider a virus endemic “after one year of continuous transmission,” said NBC News. That status will be achieved in the U.S. if the current measles outbreaks can be traced back to the first West Texas measles case a year ago. That possibility is astonishing to some health experts. It’s “unheard of to lose your elimination status,” said Amira Albert Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University, to NBC, “unless it was a war-torn, collapsing country.”

“Once scorned by purists as the fake Rolexes of the reading world,” audiobooks are now booming, said Nilanjana Roy at the Financial Times. But questions remain about whether listening to a book instead of poring over its pages counts as reading.

‘Little mental sojourns’
Many people don’t think audiobooks “qualify” as proper reading, said Brian Bannon, the chief librarian at the New York Public Library, at The New York Times. There’s a “pride, even a snobbishness, to being well read.” Telling someone that you have listened to a book instead of reading the physical copy often “comes out sounding like an apology.”

Our minds sometimes “wander” when we are reading or listening, said David Daniel, a psychology professor at Virginia’s James Madison University, to Time. But snapping out of these “little mental sojourns” and finding your place in the text isn’t as easy when you are listening to a recording, especially when “grappling” with a complex piece of writing.

‘Parallel way to read’
We need to “reframe what it means to be a reader,” moving past the “traditional hierarchical values” that still put physical books at the top, said Debbie Hicks, the creative director at the U.K. nonprofit Reading Agency, to The Guardian. When it comes to reading, “content” is more important than the “medium.”

To suggest that reading books is the “only kind of reading that counts” does a “disservice” to the “many dyslexic or visually challenged booklovers among us,” said Nilanjana Roy at the Financial Times. Audiobooks should be seen as a “parallel way to read,” not dismissed as inferior.

The “destigmatizing” of audiobooks could offer a “path to a more nuanced way of thinking about literacy,” said Bannon. “We need more readers, however they get there.” After “struggling to read as a kid, audiobooks were my lifesaver,” said Miranda Larbi at Stylist. They turned out to be a “gateway for physical books — a key for unlocking a world that felt totally inaccessible.”

A bird cools down in a birdbath in Kandos, Australia, during soaring temperatures across much of the country. South Australia faced yet another day of a record-breaking heat wave that has topped 118°F in some towns.
Mark Evans / Getty Images

You spend enough time on land. For your next vacation, consider heading under the sea. Swap your shoes for fins and clothes for swimsuits, then embark on an aquatic escapade. 

Explore the Museum of Underwater Art in Australia 
Snorkelers and scuba divers glide by dozens of underwater art installations at the Museum of Underwater Art in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It features work by eco-sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor that brings “greater awareness to our threatened oceans,” said Afar. Highlights include “Coral Greenhouse,” the world’s largest underwater art structure.

Stay in the Underwater Room at Manta Resort Pemba Island in Tanzania
It doesn’t get more immersive than this. The “one-of-a-kind” Underwater Room at Manta Resort Pemba Island is a three-level floating suite about 800 feet from shore, with the bedroom below the surface of the Indian Ocean, said Travel and Leisure. The bed is surrounded by almost 360 degrees of glass, and schools of fish, octopus and squid regularly travel by. (At night, dim lights are activated to attract nocturnal marine life.) 

Swim with humpbacks in Mo’orea
Whales are respected in French Polynesia, and the island of Mo’orea is a “prime destination for swimming with the gentle giants,” said the BBC. Guided tours are available for small groups, with strict protections in place for the safety of the whales. The peak season is July through November, and those lucky enough to come across a majestic humpback on their tour can expect an "otherworldly" and “humbling” opportunity to “witness the magnificence of nature.”