All posts tagged "measles"

Top vaccine skeptic suddenly quits CDC amid rumors of Trump's 'pivot' from RFK Jr: report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, Dr. Ralph Abraham, has stepped down from his role and left the agency effective immediately, according to reports released Monday.

Abraham reportedly decided to step down "to address unforeseen family obligations," according to a statement from the CDC. No further details were released.

"It has been an honor to serve alongside the dedicated public health professionals at the CDC and to support the agency's critical mission," Abraham said.

He is the second top official to exit the CDC this month, after starting his role in early January amid a wave of departures at the agency, The Guardian reported.

Abraham has previously referred to the COVID-19 vaccine as "dangerous" and is among several vaccine skeptics who have left the Trump administration's health roles, according to The New York Times.

"His departure thins the ranks of vaccine skeptics at the agency’s helm, a sign of the administration’s pivot away from the agenda pursued thus far by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees," The Times reported.

In his role as Louisiana’s surgeon general, Abraham ordered his state to stop urging people to get vaccinated and called the measles outbreaks during his time at the CDC as the “cost of doing business" as the country could lose its measles elimination status, according to The Times.

Right-wing pro-life march ends up being measles super spreader: health officials

Anti-abortion protesters who travelled to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life ended up at a measles super spreader-event, according to health officials.

Thousands of pro-lifers came for the Jan. 23 march and concert at the National Mall and now the D.C. Department of Health has reported multiple cases of the potentially fatal disease reported in the weeks after, The New Republic reported.

"The march is a big event for religious conservatives, this year attracting politicians such as Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Republican Representative Chris Smith," according to The New Republic. "Many on the right oppose vaccination, with some citing religious reasons, making the march a possible hotbed of measles infections."

The U.S. has two ongoing major outbreaks, including one in South Carolina, where the state has the largest outbreak in America since 2000 and another in Texas, which prompted an ICE family detention center last week to go under lockdown.

Health officials have said the March for Life measles outbreak could have spread through different transit areas, such as Ronald Reagan National Airport and Union Station. Of the reported people infected, they also visited Catholic University of America and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“DC Health was notified of multiple confirmed cases of measles whose carriers visited multiple locations in the District while contagious,” the department said in a press release Sunday. “DC Health is informing people who were at these locations that they may have been exposed.”

Both South Carolina and Texas, the location of other measles outbreaks, "are Republican-run and home to countless anti-vaxxers," The New Republic reported.

"The March for Life gathers people from right-wing areas all over America in one city, and it’s not shocking that an outbreak was the result. What is shocking is how much the Republicans in power right now are still undermining a return to widespread vaccination, leaving other public officials begging people to get vaccinated," according to the outlet.

Trump official's alarming health advice akin to saying 'smoke like a chimney': experts

Doctors were bewildered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s directive for federal agencies to seek new measles treatments — including vitamins — instead of promoting long-established safe and effective vaccinations, according to The New York Times.

“This is akin to saying, ‘Go ahead and eat whatever you want, don’t exercise, smoke like a chimney — we’re going to invest all of our resources in heart transplants,’” the Times quoted Dr. Jonathan Temte, a former chairman of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee.

The nation is in the grips of the "largest single measles outbreak in 25 years," the Times reported. "On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 930 cases nationwide, most of which are associated with the Southwest outbreak" that killed two young girls.

"The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the nation’s top health official that experts fear will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool," wrote reporter Teddy Rosenbluth.

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And, even though RFK Jr. is a well-known anti-vaxxer, doctors found his position on measles "to contradict his longstanding focus on disease prevention instead of treatment," she wrote.

According to the Times report, current treatments revolve around "supportive care" to help make patients "more comfortable while the virus runs its course, like Tylenol to bring down their fever, supplemental oxygen and IV fluids."

“We don’t want to send the signal that you don’t have to get vaccinated because there’s just a way to get rid of it,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Brown University School of Public Health, told the Times.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the decision to look for new treatments "is meant to help people who chose not to vaccinate," although, he added that "the CDC still recommends the measles, mumps and rubella shot as the most effective way to prevent measles."

Read The New York Times article here.

Health dept. head claims getting measles is good thing: 'Gives you lifetime of protection'

Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has stopped short of recommending Americans be vaccinated against measles, is now suggesting everyone should get the virus to build up their immunity.

"It used to be, when I were a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” Kennedy told Fox News' Sean Hannity as reported in The Daily Beast. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

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Kennedy, who downplayed his anti-vaccine stance during his Senate confirmation, also told Hannity, "There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, like encephalitis and blindness, etc., so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.”

Kennedy did admit, however, that the vaccine does “stop the spread of the disease.”

His comments come in the midst of a measles outbreak in Texas that has killed at least two unvaccinated people.

"More than 220 people in the state have been diagnosed with the infectious virus, and California, New York, and Maryland have also reported cases of late," according to the article. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sweating over the outbreak, warning health-care workers and travelers to 'be vigilant.'”

Read The Daily Beast article here.

'Does not bode well': Doctor slams Trump's response as child dies in measles outbreak

The Trump administration is hampering efforts to fight the measles outbreak that took the life of a an unvaccinated school-aged child this week in Texas, according to an MSNBC medical consultant Dr. Davita Patel.

The child's death was the first linked to an outbreak in West Texas that has infected more than 100 people. ABC News reported that most all of the cases "are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown."

In an article Wednesday, Patel, a physician and health policy researcher, wrote, "The current Texas outbreak mirrors 2019’s surge in New York, where 1,274 cases nearly cost the U.S. its designation as a country that had eliminated the disease."

She continued, "Health experts stress that measles’ 90% transmission rate demands rapid, well-resourced responses. With hospitalizations rising and containment protocols delayed, the window to preserve this public health milestone is narrowing. Investment in immunization programs and disease surveillance remains critical to preventing measles from regaining endemic status.

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However, the Trump administration's reluctance to encourage vaccines while simultaneously cutting public health outreach efforts, "does not bode well for the next four years," she wrote.

"In a normal presidency, this would be a time for action, with federal support for local public health programs or maybe the president using the bully pulpit to encourage people to get their children a safe and effective vaccine that prevents a brutal disease that can cause deafness, intellectual disabilities or even death," Patel wrote.

Patel also laid blame with President Donald Trump's own "vaccine skepticism" that led the president to reinstate military service members who refused the Covid vaccine during the pandemic. Trump has also echoed concerns about vaccines espoused by his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spread conspiracy theories about vaccine safety.

In the piece, Patel wrote that, "Vaccination rates continue to decline nationally, with exemptions reaching record highs in 12 states." And, although a push to vaccinate would certainly save more lives, Patel concluded, "Unfortunately, we will not get the kind of response we need from the Trump administration soon."

Read the MSNBC article here.