Posted on 04/08/2025 4:06:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun redeploying staff to respond to the deadly outbreak of measles in Texas, a spokesperson said Monday, a week after steep layoffs at the agency impacted its response to the spread of the virus.
"A team of three deployed yesterday to meet with county and state officials to assess the immediate needs to respond to this outbreak. The team is meeting with officials again today," CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said in an email.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first said Sunday that the CDC would be redeploying to Texas at its governor's request, after another unvaccinated child died in the measles outbreak. An 8-year-old girl was the second fatality there this year.
"Once the assessment is complete, more CDC staff will be sent to Texas per Sec. Kennedy's order and the governor's request. The first teams deployed to Texas arrived on March and returned to CDC on April 1," McDonald said.
Multiple agency staff working on the CDC's measles response were among the thousands cut from the agency last week, officials have told CBS News.
A handful of employees at agencies within the department have been brought back to work so far, multiple officials said, at least through the end of the 60 day period before their layoff notices formally take effect.
McDonald did not comment on whether laid-off staff who had been working on the agency's measles response would be among those Kennedy might reinstate.
The ongoing outbreak in Texas and neighboring states has driven this year's tally of U.S. measles cases to the highest levels seen since a large wave of cases in 2019, which was the worst in the U.S. in decades.
Measles cases by state
So far this year, the U.S. has reported 607 cases. Click or hover over a state for more details.
U.S. map showing number of reported cases of measles in 2025. # of cases
While dozens of measles cases are reported every year, usually linked to undervaccinated travelers returning from trips outside the country, health authorities have warned that ongoing community spread of the virus this year is now threatening America's status of having eliminated endemic spread of the virus.
There have been six measles outbreaks so far this year, a CDC spokesperson told CBS News on Friday. The outbreak in Texas and neighboring states makes up the majority of cases. Smaller outbreaks are also ongoing in New Jersey, Georgia, Ohio and Kansas.
Details of the sixth outbreak have not yet been released, the spokesperson said, citing patient privacy.
Kennedy calls vaccine "most effective way" to stop measles spread While in Texas, Kennedy also posted on X that the "most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine." The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella, and is normally given in two doses in early childhood.
Kennedy's range of statements about the measles vaccine in recent weeks have drawn scrutiny from health experts, including after a Fox News interview in which he falsely inflated the shot's risks.
In a later post, Kennedy also said he had met with "two extraordinary healers" who he said have "healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin."
Budesonide can sometimes help to treat respiratory illnesses, reducing inflammation in the lungs, said pediatrics professor Dr. James Campbell of the University of Maryland in an email in March. CBS News reached out to Campbell after Kennedy previously hailed "miraculous and instantaneous recovery" from use of these treatments.
"In 2025, we should not have to treat measles in the US because it is completely preventable, but of course, like all preventable diseases, we do," said Campbell.
Campbell is vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee that develops recommendations for treating measles and other infectious diseases.
Clarithromycin, an antibacterial drug, has no effect on viruses like measles but can be used by doctors to treat coinfections from some bacterial pneumonias that sometimes develop in infected children, Campbell said. However, it does not work for all bacteria.
"These choices should be made on an individual basis by the doctors, not as sweeping recommendations for all children with measles," said Campbell. He said that the drugs don't have evidence proving they should be used as routine treatments for measles and cautioned against "sweeping statements about how those singular choices related to treatment of measles in general."
"Vaccination will prevent measles, but for those who do get measles, rigorous studies, and not anecdotal reports, will help us to better treat them," said Campbell.
Kennedy's embrace of alternative therapies has been contradicted by other health experts, including former Trump administration officials.
"My children and grandchildren will not die of measles, because they are vaccinated. And there is no substitute, nor any effective treatment, for measles," Dr. Brett Giroir, an adviser to the department this year, wrote in an opinion piece published by RealClearHealth last week.
The editorial from Giroir, who previously worked as assistant secretary of health during President Trump's first term, was published before news of the second child to die in the Texas measles outbreak. In the U.S., a child last died from measles in 2015.
"One child's death from measles is a tragedy not only for the family and their community but also for our nation. If we can't stop measles, really what can we do? Let's not wait for another tragedy," Giroir said.
geeeee—I LOOK AT THE MAP OF THE AREA WHERE THE MEASLES OUTBREAK IS—_AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF CASES ARE IN TEXAS....
I AM PRETTY SURE THOSE DISEASES MIGRATED FROM/THRU MEXICO===
GOT TRAVEL ACCOMMODATIONS WITH ILLEGAL INVADERS.
Should also announce that the Vaccine Manufacturers will pay the hospital, doctor, and additional expenses for all vaccinated people that caught the measles.
I would not bet against that the illegal aliens from countries south of the border.
Follow the third world vectors for all of our “ new” old plagues.
They are trying to pin this on RFK Jr.
Kind of hypocritical.
Decisions not to vaccinate had to be done a long time ago, long before he became the secretary.
I do not think the majority of vaccines for childhood illnesses are harmful.
BUT, I believe that the number and frequency of them are harmful and the CDC needs to take a hard, hard look at them.
You would be incorrect.
It is in the heart of the Mennonite community. They don’t vaccinate against anything—never had. It gets into the place and literally spreads like wildfire.
Hasn’t anyone yet noticed that the measles out-break in Texas really starting ramping up AFTER they started a intense measles vaccination campaign a few weeks ago?
Measles used to be a normal childhood disease...not that I dont think it should be today, but seems a lot of excessive panic here
Might it be illegals carrying it in? And wouldn’t ridding the country of illegals solve this?
There was a young fellow named Pfister
Who noticed an odd sort of blister
Where no blister should be
What was worse, do you see
He had got it at home from his sister.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun redeploying staff to respond to the deadly outbreak of measles in Texas, a spokesperson said Monday,
a week after steep layoffs at the agency impacted its response to the spread of the virus."
The team is meeting with officials again today," CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said in an email."
" Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first said Sunday that the CDC would be redeploying to Texas at its governor's request,
after another unvaccinated child died in the measles outbreak.
An 8-year-old girl was the second fatality there this year."
"Once the assessment is complete, more CDC staff will be sent to Texas per Sec. Kennedy's order and the governor's request.
The first teams deployed to Texas arrived on March and returned to CDC on April 1," McDonald said."
While it was one of the common childhood diseases, the mortality rate is not “common.” And it can mess kids up pretty badly.
The vaccine has pretty much eradicated it in the US. Until people started thinking they were smarter than nature. I cannot understand why people dont get their kids vaccinated using proven and effective vaccines. We are not talking mRNA crap.
How many who get vax for measles get measles?...just wondering
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/mary-holland-media-playbook-measles-covid-children-pawns/
The Media Playbook for Measles Looks a Lot Like Its COVID Playbook — This Time, Kids Are the Pawns
The media would have you believe that measles is a “deadly” disease. But any suggestion that MMR vaccines are safer than measles infection isn’t supported by facts.
There are moments in the history of a movement that test its resolve. For the medical freedom movement, this is one of those moments.
We are in the midst of another full-on attack by the pharmaceutical-industrial complex, aided and abetted by a beholden mainstream media united around its allegiance to a $69 billion vaccine industry.
Five years ago, we fought back as our government, Big Media and Big Pharma orchestrated and executed a COVID-19 fear campaign — a campaign built on lies, deception and censorship — and then parlayed the public’s fear into dangerous and deadly medical mandates and hospital protocols that continue to cause profound harm.
The upside to COVID-19 global disaster?
It opened the eyes of millions more people to the dangers of shoddily tested vaccines, regulatory agency hubris and one-size-fits-all “medicine.”
As our movement has grown exponentially, so has our threat to Big Pharma.
In response, we’re seeing the same tactics rolled out again. This time, it’s measles. This time, children are the pawns in pharma’s playbook.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) stood strong and stayed true to our mission during COVID. We’re standing just as strong now. We remain just as committed now to the truth, informed consent and medical freedom as we were during the pandemic.
As pharma ramps up its measles playbook, our No. 1 job is to dismantle the vaccine industry’s lies — broadcast far and wide through the industry’s most reliable and faithful megaphone: mainstream media.
The media would have you believe that measles is a “deadly” disease. But any suggestion that MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccines are safer than measles infection isn’t supported by facts.
In fact, between 2000 and 2024, nine measles-related deaths were reported to the CDC. During the same period, 141 deaths following MMR or MMRV vaccination were reported in the U.S. to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) — suggesting the MMR vaccine can be deadlier than measles.
The media echo the same familiar refrain: The MMR vaccine is “overwhelmingly safe.”
In fact, the MMR vaccine is associated with serious health risks. The package insert for Merck’s MMRII says, “M-M-R II vaccine has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential or impairment of fertility.”
I can’t help but be suspicious of the reason the children died.
When I was growing up and measles was a common thing, I NEVER heard of anyone dying from it or even having complications. And we were in a neighborhood with LOTS of kids. Lots of big families.
The death rate that is being implies by the reports from this outbreak just don’t fit with what I saw as reality as a child.
It’s my understanding that the first reported death purportedly from measles was actually from another cause.
I’d be interested in knowing what the medical treatment this child got was because we know that after the COVID fraud, most of the deaths were preventable. People who didn’t hesitate to kill off people who had Covid won’t stop at little kids and measles..
Which is inexcusable considering how many years this vaccine has been out.
The vaccine loses its effectiveness after a number of years.
I was vaccinated in the mid 60’s. I went to work for a hospital in 2015. They tested me and my vaccine was about 50% effective. So I had to get a “booster.”
So, the answer to your question is that it is very, very effective within a short time after you get the shot. It remains effective for many years afterwards.
Possibly related, from 2021...
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