As the deadly Texas outbreak at the heart of America’s alarming measles resurgence continues to grow, a former Biden-era official is sounding the alarm about the upsurge.
“We are on track to have the worst measles outbreak of this century, of the last 25 years,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, told ABC News Monday.
He noted that measles infections are preventable with immunization. Two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are 97 percent effective against measles, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We should not be at this point in our country,” he noted, “And yet, here we are because of bad information being spread by Secretary [Robert] Kennedy and others.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has promoted the measles vaccine as a way to broadly protect communities, but his support for individual vaccination against measles has been lukewarm.
Concerns about continued spread – and potentially worse outbreaks among unvaccinated communities – come as West Texas has seen hundreds of cases. There were 400 reported across the Lone Star State on Friday, and more than 40 hospitalizations.
The majority of those who were affected were unvaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
More than 20 states and communities have reported cases this year. Health authorities in Colorado – which is not yet on the CDC list of affected areas – confirmed a case in an unvaccinated Pueblo resident. The patient had recently traveled to an area of Mexico experiencing an ongoing measles outbreak.
According to federal data, there have been five outbreaks reported this year, and the majority of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated.
While there are nearly 500 cases reported across the country, there were only 285 in total reported across the country last year.
The CDC says that the risk to the American public remains low due to “robust U.S. immunization and surveillance programs and outbreak response capacity.”
Its response to measles also occurs as the agency and others within the Department of Health and Human Services are the current subjects of Department of Government Efficiency layoffs.
However, the agency issued a health advisory ahead of warmer weather and the summer travel season.
“With spring and summer travel season approaching in the United States, CDC emphasizes the important role that clinicians and public health officials play in preventing the spread of measles,” the CDC advised. “They should be vigilant for cases of febrile rash illness that meet the measles case definition and share effective measles prevention strategies, including vaccination guidance for international travelers.”
