Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Call Out RFK Jr. Over Inaccurate Measles Information
CNN: RFK Jr. Said Measles Outbreaks Are ‘Not Unusual’ In The US. Doctors Say He’s Wrong
When Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy answered questions during the first cabinet meeting of the new Trump administration, he incorrectly described the number of people who died in a West Texas measles outbreak and the reason people were hospitalized. Measles outbreaks are “not unusual,” Kennedy said. Doctors say that was wrong, too. (Mukherjee, 2/27)
Stat: On Texas Measles Outbreak, Trump Administration's Messaging Is Atypical
In 2019, amid a measles outbreak in New York, federal health officials uniformly preached the power of immunizations. “Measles is preventable and the way to end this outbreak is to ensure that all children and adults who can get vaccinated, do get vaccinated,” said Robert Redfield, then the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Secretary Alex Azar echoed that, saying “the suffering we are seeing today is completely avoidable.” President Trump, then in his first term, also implored people to get immunized. “They have to get the shot,” he said. “The vaccinations are so important.” The new Trump administration, at least so far, is sending a different message. (Joseph, 2/27)
ABC News: Measles Cases Reported In New Jersey, Kentucky Amid Ongoing Outbreak In Texas
More measles cases are being confirmed across the United States as health officials work to treat patients in an ongoing outbreak in Texas. The Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) and the Franklin County Health Department announced on Wednesday a confirmed case of measles in an adult resident, the first in the state in two years. The departments said the resident recently traveled internationally to an area where measles is spreading. (Kekatos, 2/28)
The Texas Tribune: Texas Leaders Quiet Amid Measles Crisis
Texas is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades, as cases have jumped from two to 124 in just one month. A child is dead, 18 more are hospitalized and the worst is likely still ahead, public health experts say, as Texas’ decreasing vaccination rates leave swaths of the state exposed to the most contagious virus humans currently face. State and local health officials are setting up vaccine clinics and encouraging people to get the shot, which is more than 97% effective at warding off measles. But neither Gov. Greg Abbott nor lawmakers from the hardest hit areas have addressed the outbreak publicly in press conferences, social media posts or public calls for people to consider getting vaccinated. (Klibanoff, 2/28)
Bloomberg: Measles Was Eradicated in the US. How Did It Make a Comeback?
Thanks to the introduction of a vaccine in 1963, measles was considered eliminated in the US in 2000. Yet the highly contagious disease has reemerged as a threat as declining vaccination rates have fueled outbreaks around the country. In Texas, an unvaccinated child died on Feb. 26 in the first reported US death from the disease in a decade. Other clusters of cases have occurred in recent years, including a large outbreak in New York State in 2019. (Nix and Gale, 2/27)
The Guardian: Formerly Anti-Vax Parents On How They Changed Their Minds: ‘I Really Made A Mistake’
When Nikki Hill Johnson’s first daughter was born in 2012, Johnson didn’t hesitate to take her to the doctor for routine infant immunizations. Soon after the birth, South Carolina-based Johnson, now 42, joined a fitness- and nutrition-oriented multilevel marketing company (MLM). There, she encountered a colleague who made her question the safety of vaccines. (Matei, 2/27)
