Overview
- MS NOW published an interview in which former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry said U.S. measles cases have reached a 35‑year high and that the outbreak’s severity is being underestimated.
- Houry attributed falling childhood vaccination rates in part to misinformation she links to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and she criticized his promotion of unproven treatments like steroids and antibiotics.
- She warned that children are being hospitalized and that measles can cause deaths and delayed brain infections, stressing the disease is not a harmless childhood illness.
- Houry said staffing cuts at the CDC and the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization have reduced the nation’s ability to track outbreaks and monitor threats.
- Separately, USA TODAY reported that this year’s case count has already exceeded last year’s total and that the bulk of infections have been in unvaccinated people, underscoring gaps in immunity and surveillance since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.