The measles crisis is worse than we know—and the CDC can’t keep up
The Trump administration has been busy hacking away at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the results have been devastating.
David Sugerman, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that a large number of measles cases are going unreported—and that the government’s ability to respond has been strained by recent federal budget cuts.
“We do believe that there’s quite a large amount of cases that are not reported and underreported,” Sugerman said during a rare meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Tuesday.
"In working very closely with our colleagues in Texas, in talking with families, they may mention prior cases that have recovered and never received testing, other families that may have cases and never had sought treatment," he explained.
Sugerman is the first CDC official the Trump administration has allowed to directly address the public about the growing measles outbreak.
"We are scrapping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions,” he said.
Sugerman pointed to the $11.4 billion in COVID-19 funding cuts ordered by President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy last month, which he said has created “funding limitations” in places like Texas.
The funding previously supported clinics that treated illnesses like measles and supported vaccination programs.
Across 25 states, nearly 750 cases have been reported—most of which are in Texas—with growing outbreaks in New Mexico and Kansas. The majority of cases have been among unvaccinated children, with 2 children and one adult marking the first U.S. measles deaths in more than a decade and the first child measles death since 2003.
Sugerman estimated that each measles case may end up costing the government between $30,000 and $50,000 for a public health response.
Meanwhile, Kennedy was once again pushing misinformation about the measles vaccine, calling it “leaky” and saying that it “wanes,” during a separate press event on Tuesday.
"He's dead wrong, the measles vaccine protects you for the rest of your life. The notion that it's a leaky vaccine is dead wrong,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told USA Today.
Kenedy’s misinformation session was in promotion of an ass-backward public health policy undermining vaccines in general.
"We can't rely simply on the vaccine. We also have to know how to treat measles,” he said.
Kennedy’s time as HHS secretary has been marked thus far by dangerous budget cuts and even more dangerous hirings of quack anti-vaccine charlatans.
The results are in, and the people are dying.
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