bitchy | Former health official: ‘we are on track for the worst measles outbreak this century’

A coworker told me this week that everytime he watches the news, he hears my dry, sarcastic voice in his head saying: “Thank goodness we have such a robust federal (fill in the blank) agency to fix this (fill in the blank) disaster.” Followed by a sad clown noise. Not gonna lie, I was touched and proud to learn that my witty pessimism has seeped into his brain during non-office hours. So it’s in his honor that I now say: Thank goodness we have such a robust federal Health & Human Services agency to fix this measles disaster. Womp womp. As we’ve covered, massive layoffs were made this week across the CDC, FDA, and more health agencies, despite the fact that the measles outbreak in West Texas is spreading. The US had 285 reported measles cases for all of 2024. Three full months into 2025, and we’re fast approaching 500. The numbers have prompted Dr. Ashish Jha, a Biden administration Covid response coordinator, to declare “we are on track for the worst measles outbreak this century.”

“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.

[From The Independent]

RFK, Jr. “has promoted the measles vaccine as a way to broadly protect communities, but his support for individual vaccination against measles has been lukewarm.” Tell me, Bobby, how do vaccines achieve “broadly protected communities” if it doesn’t start with individuals getting vaccinated? I know, I know… Vitamin A. I keep having this vision of a classroom in 100 years (if we make it that far), and what the back and forth between students and teacher is gonna look like:

“So they didn’t have the science yet to know that the MMR vaccine is 97% effective?” “No, they knew that.” “So they didn’t have the resources to make the vaccine?” “Actually, at the time, the country had many of the most advanced and consequential research institutions in the world.” “So why didn’t the doctors tell the people the vaccines worked?” “They did.” “So why didn’t they give the people the vaccines?” “They tried, it’s just that the president appointed a health secretary who didn’t believe in vaccines, and who decided to fire so many health agency workers—” “Wait, you mean the people from his own department?” “Yes.” “Why? Did he want to do everything himself?” “He wanted to play tennis and drink raw milk.” “What’s raw milk?” “Milk that still has disease-causing bacteria.” “He wanted to drink that?” “Yes.” “And he was in charge of the health department?” “Same guy. But as I was saying, he fired so many health workers that the institutions were gutted.” “But didn’t he know people were sick and that the vaccines could help them?” “Yes. He did.”

And then the kids just blink dumbfounded at the teacher.

Note by Celebitchy: I recently received an MMR booster at CVS, I made the appointment myself. You can get an MMR booster at a local pharmacy near you. Here’s a link to more information about whether you may need a booster and you can ask your doctor. While I technically didn’t need a booster, I’m glad I’m now protected.

In 2019 I caught measles because I was unvaccinated. It left me with long term damage to my immune system, skin and hair. I went from being a fit hiker to puffing walking down the street. It made me vulnerable to every other bug going around. It also triggered my immune system

— Becky 💬 (@beckynzwrites) September 25, 2021