2/ I FOIA’d health departments to learn about the response to measles. These documents show that in early Feb, West Texas health officials warned the outbreak was far larger than numbers suggested. They asked to speak with CDC scientists. Nearly a month would pass. www.cbsnews.com/news/measles...
3/ As measles took off in Feb, the Trump admin was interfering with CDC reports, censoring data, and laying off CDC staff. Amid the chaos, CDC experts told me they felt restrained from advising local health officials grappling with measles in Texas. www.cbsnews.com/news/measles...
4/ “The CDC had gone dark,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the Texas nonprofit, the Immunization Project. “We had anticipated a measles outbreak, but we didn’t expect the federal government to be in collapse when it hit.” kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
5/ “It’s not that the CDC was delinquent,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of @apha.org. “It’s that they had their hands tied behind their backs.” kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
6/ As cases rose, RFK Jr. exaggerated the power of vitamin A while spreading false rumors about vaccines. “HHS pressed us to insert vitamin A into all of our communications with clinicians and health officials,” one CDC scientist told me. www.cbsnews.com/news/measles...
7/ Although Texas declared the outbreak over last week, it fueled new outbreaks in Mexico, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas – if not more. Together, these linked outbreaks have sickened more than 4,500 people and killed at least 16. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
8/ Frontline public health officials are the heroes of this story. Their struggles are growing due to budget cuts & the amplification of misinformation at the highest levels of gov’t. Here’s an email I obtained from a West Texas public health director, sent to her weary staff amid the outbreak.
thank you
FFS