“People Will Die” – Kennedy Unleashes Unprecedented Effort To Dismantle America’s Health Care System
Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly roundup from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping war on health care. From installing anti-vaccine zealot RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS to empowering Elon Musk to make indiscriminate cuts to our public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans. Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch will shine a spotlight on the worst of the Trump/RFK/Musk war on vaccines, science and public health and serve as a resource for the press, public and advocacy groups to hold them accountable.
What’s Happening In Public Health?
Catastrophic Cuts Are Creating Chaos And Endangering Americans’ Health And Scientific Innovation
Politico: RFK Jr. said HHS would rehire thousands of fired workers. That wasn’t true. When HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that he planned to rehire 20 percent of the employees he’d just terminated, he insisted such a move was “always the plan.” Turns out, it wasn’t the plan at all. HHS has no intention of reinstating any significant number of the staffers fired as part of a mass reduction-in-force on Tuesday, despite Kennedy’s assertion that some had been mistakenly cut, a person familiar with the department’s plans told POLITICO. The layoffs eliminated roughly 10,000 jobs across HHS, gutting several public health offices and purging prominent senior scientists from the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. They came after the department had already jettisoned 10,000 people who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by the Trump administration. Kennedy at the time called the cuts necessary to refocus and improve HHS, even as he acknowledged it was a “difficult moment.” Yet on Thursday, he appeared to signal that some of those firings would be walked back. “Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” Kennedy said, indicating that CDC officials focused on monitoring lead exposure levels among children would be among those brought back. “The part of that, DOGE — we talked about this from the beginning — is we’re going to do 80 percent cuts but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled because we’ll make mistakes.” But contrary to Kennedy’s vow, his team had no expectation of reinstating anywhere near 20 percent of the fired workers.
CBS: RFK Jr. to lay off more NIH employees amid HHS restructuring, officials say More employees at the National Institutes of Health are expected to be laid off in the coming days, multiple federal officials say, less than a week after an initial wave of cuts gutted many offices within the health research agency. The NIH was initially supposed to lose about 1,200 scientists, support staff and other officials as a result of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s restructuring. It is unclear how many additional employees will be targeted for cuts. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not provide a response when asked why the additional cuts were occurring. In a statement, a department official said that HHS is doing its reorganization “in phases,” following the layoffs of roughly 10,000 employees who were notified Tuesday that they were cut.
Washington Post: How the CDC’s widespread layoffs cut lifesaving health programs Drowning prevention. Hotlines to report school shootings. Contraceptive guidelines. Tips from former smokers on how to quit. Hundreds of employees who worked in these programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were laid off Tuesday, part of widespread job cuts across the Department of Health and Human Services designed to streamline the federal bureaucracy. The programs have lower profiles than the CDC’s infectious-disease investigations of the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, or last year’s E. coli illnesses from contaminated onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. But these efforts reflect the ways the CDC’s portfolio has broadened over time to include a wider range of health issues as leading causes of death in the United States have shifted over decades, from infectious disease to accidents, suicides, overdoses and chronic illnesses. Employees who were laid off worked on measures to prevent drowning, gun violence and smoking. Scientists researched asthma, climate change and worker safety.
Stat: Trump administration orders NIH to eliminate $2.6 billion in federal contracts Leaders at the National Institutes of Health have been meeting this week to figure out how to cut $2.6 billion in contracts from the biomedical research agency’s budget, according to three people familiar with the matter and internal emails obtained by STAT. Early last week, the Trump administration’s federal government-shrinking task force, known as the U.S. DOGE Service, directed the NIH to reduce contract spending across each of its 27 institutes and centers by roughly 35%. The NIH was told to comply by April 8, according to the emails obtained by STAT. The cuts are likely to further paralyze an agency that on Tuesday lost 1,200 employees, including the directors of five institutes and the heads of several labs, and has had key grantmaking, research training, and science communication functions severely limited since Trump’s return to the White House.
Vox: A catastrophe is unfolding at the top US health agency — and it will put American lives at risk When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to be confirmed as Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), he had to overcome a long record of fringe anti-science beliefs. He had indulged in conspiracies about chem trails, questioned whether HIV was the actual cause of AIDS, and, most notably, spread the repeatedly debunked theory that childhood vaccinations could lead to autism. In private meetings with senators and public confirmation hearings, he downplayed that record and claimed he wasn’t anti-vaccine: “I am pro-safety,” Kennedy said in his opening statement at one hearing. “I believe vaccines have a critical role in health care.” He gave assurances to Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, an MD and one of the last Republican holdouts on his nomination, that he would not change federal vaccine guidance But less than two months into his term, Kennedy is blocking the release of pro-vaccine data amid a widening measles outbreak even as he puts into motion long-term projects that seem set to further erode Americans’ wobbly trust in childhood vaccination. Coupled with the massive staff cuts at HHS, a weakened federal health department is being remade in Kennedy’s anti-vax, anti-science image — an overhaul that could have dangerous consequences for Americans’ health for years to come. On Tuesday, the Trump administration began to lay off 10,000 workers across HHS, which includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. Combined with workers who had already departed or were laid off earlier, the department’s overall headcount is expected to shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 people.
The Bulwark: ‘People Will Die’—RFK Jr. Guts America’s Health Bureaucracy The Trump Administration just took a sledgehammer to America’s public health infrastructure. On Tuesday morning, the Department of Health and Human Services informed thousands of employees they were losing their jobs. The notices came by email and, in one sense, they were not a surprise. Last Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs were imminent, as part of a broader restructuring designed to shrink the department’s total workforce by 25 percent. But it’s one thing to know those layoffs are coming, quite another to learn about the real people who will no longer have jobs, the real positions that will no longer exist, and the real divisions that will no longer operate as they did before. The sheer breadth of the cuts is staggering: The layoffs affected agencies that exist to fight deadly pathogens, to protect the nation’s drug supply, to finance and carry out cutting-edge research—along with countless other divisions and offices that touch everything from rural health to early childhood care.
CNN: ‘It’s a bloodbath’: Massive wave of job cuts underway at US health agencies A massive wave of job cuts got underway at US health agencies Tuesday, with some employees receiving early-morning emails saying their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when they arrived at work. It was not immediately clear how many employees had received notice Tuesday morning. The US Department of Health and Human Services has not responded to CNN’s request for comment. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week that 10,000 full-time employees would be cut on top of thousands who had already left and probationary employees currently on leave. He said the changes would make fighting chronic disease the priority and reduce “bureaucratic sprawl.” Kennedy promised that the department would do more with less. After weeks of worry from agency staffers, job cuts — known as a reduction in force, or RIF — were sweeping across offices at multiple agencies, hitting leadership, longtime staffers, scientists, administrators and communications staff. “It’s a bloodbath,” one US Food and Drug Administration employee said.
Health Impacts:
Local Impacts:
Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:
Cruel and Destructive Policy Changes:
RFK Jr. Is An Extreme MAGA Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed And Mis-Managing HHS
Stat: ‘Most effective way’ to prevent measles is vaccination, RFK Jr. says, in most direct remarks yet Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” his most direct statement yet on the issue, following the death of a second child of the condition in the outbreak in West Texas. Kennedy, who has long described the vaccine as dangerous, has largely avoided endorsing its use since the start of the outbreak, and he stopped short of explicitly saying he “recommended” it in his latest remarks, as public health officials have called on him to do.
- The Daily Beast: RFK Jr. Touts Bogus Measles Treatment Hours After Burying 8-Year-Old Child Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the work of two controversial “healers” Sunday—just hours after advocating for vaccinations and attending the funeral of a child who died as part of a measles outbreak taking over Texas. Kennedy praised Dr. Richard Bartlett, who, according to CNN, has a history of using unconventional treatments and who was disciplined for “unusual use of risk-filled medications” by the Texas Medical Board in 2003. While none of the patients at the time had measles, the Texas Medical Board found that Bartlett had misdiagnosed his patients and mismanaged their care. He was cleared to return to practice in 2005. Kennedy then touted the work of Dr. Ben Edwards, who, according to The New York Times, is a vocal antivaxxer and who has a “wellness clinic” that dishes out vitamin C supplements and cod liver oil, both as a lemon-flavored drink and unflavored soft gels. In his latest X post, Kennedy was flanked by two families affected by the measles outbreak.
- Washington Post: Can vitamin A treat measles? RFK Jr. suggests so. Kids are overdosing. Some unvaccinated children hospitalized with measles had signs of vitamin A toxicity, a hospital in West Texas said in a statement last week, adding that patient reports said it was being used “for both treatment and prevention of measles.” And in Gaines County, in West Texas, the center of a measles outbreak, there has been a surge in demand for products rich in vitamin A, such as cod liver oil.
Wall Street Journal: Ousted Vaccine Chief Says RFK Jr.’s Team Sought Data to Justify Anti-Science Stance The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the health secretary’s team has sought nonexistent data to justify antivaccine narratives and pushed to water down regulation of unproven stem-cell treatments. “I can never give allegiance to anyone else other than to follow the science as we see it,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration official. “That does not mean that I can just roll over and take conspiracy theories and justify them.” Marks, who is leaving his FDA post on Saturday after he was offered the choice to resign or be fired, described Kennedy’s tenure to date as “very scary” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The outgoing official said he was speaking out to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against measles, as cases mount in Texas and New Mexico. He urged the Trump administration to give a full-throated endorsement of the measles vaccine because it can prevent deaths and recommended a vaccination campaign.
Politico: Top Trump FDA official Brenner hits pause on Novavax Covid-19 vaccine decision A top FDA official directly intervened in an agency review of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, pausing the approval process to ask for more data on the shot, according to four people familiar with the decision granted anonymity to discuss the approval status. Dr. Sara Brenner, FDA’s Principal Deputy Commissioner, took the highly unusual step, cutting against longstanding precedent at the agency designed to shield scientific assessments from political interference. Typically, political FDA appointees follow the advice of career staff tasked with reviewing reams of data on drugs and vaccines seeking approval. The move comes amid HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to force out the top official responsible for reviewing such vaccines, Dr. Peter Marks, and put his deputy Julie Tierney on administrative leave.
New York Times: Kennedy’s Plan to Send Health Officials to ‘Indian Country’ Angers Native Leaders Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a show on Facebook of his meeting with American Indian and Alaska Native leaders last month, declaring himself “very inspired” and committed to improving the Indian Health Service, which he says has “always been treated as the redheaded stepchild” by his agency. Now Native leaders have some questions for him. Why, they would like to know, did he lay off employees in programs aimed at supporting Native people, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Tribes initiative? Why has he shuttered five regional offices of the Department of Health and Human Services that, by the estimate of one advocate for tribes, cover 80 percent of the nation’s Indian population? Why were five senior advisers for tribal issues within the department’s Administration for Children and Families, all of them Indian or Native people, let go? Why are all of these changes being made without consulting tribal leaders, despite centuries-old treaty obligations, as well as presidential executive orders, requiring it? But the final indignity, Native leaders say, came last week, when Mr. Kennedy reassigned high-ranking health officials — including a bioethicist married to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a tobacco regulator, a human resources manager and others — to Indian Health Service locations in the American West, when what the chronically understaffed service really needs are doctors and nurses who are familiar with the unique needs of Native people.
NBC: How Kennedy is already weakening America’s childhood vaccine system Last week, Jackie Griffith showed up at her office at the Collin County Health Care Clinic in north Texas ready to start her day — answering emails from local doctors before heading to a nearby high school to go over the latest vaccine record requirements. Instead, the 60-year-old registered nurse was called into her director’s office and told to pack up her belongings. The federal government had yanked funding, she learned, and her position — supporting vaccination efforts for uninsured children through a network of more than 60 providers — was gone. Across the country in New Hampshire, Kayla Hogan, 27, was hearing the same. She worked for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, onboarding clinics and hospitals into a data system that would help them administer free childhood vaccines. Now that project was in jeopardy, threatening the process of getting children vaccinated. The cuts that ensnared Griffith, Hogan and many others whose work touches vaccines in dozens of states were part of $11.4 billion in funds that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services pulled back from state and community health departments last week, included in the larger slashing of federal government under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. More than $2 billion was taken from “Immunization and Vaccines for Children” grants, which support the delivery of vaccines to children whose families may not be able to afford them, according to a list HHS published.
Mother Jones: During a Past Measles Outbreak, RFK Jr. Dismissed Concern as “Hysteria” In early 2015, the California Department of Public Health identified a case of measles in an 11-year-old who had recently traveled to Disneyland. Within a month, at least 125 US residents were stricken with the disease. About a third of them had visited the Magic Kingdom theme park, many were unvaccinated, and the outbreak spread to Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, as well as Canada and Mexico. This burst of measles prompted much public discussion about vaccine hesitancy. Yet Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed concern about the outbreak as “hysteria.” At the time, several state legislatures were considering measures that would limit vaccine exemptions, in many cases ending the ability of parents to skirt immunization requirements for their children by citing a personal belief (as opposed to a medical reason). As one of the most prominent anti-vaxxers in the nation, Kennedy opposed these bills.
Washington Post: NIH prepares to launch new research into autism causes, a Trump priority The National Institutes of Health is planning a new, multimillion-dollar research program examining the causes of autism and the spike in U.S. diagnoses, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe in-progress discussions. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Principal Deputy Director Matthew J. Memoli and other agency officials have discussed a broad agenda to investigate autism spectrum disorders. The effort could involve launching a public competition intended to jump-start research ideas and interest, or a more traditional approach of awarding research grants, the people said. NIH also may purchase additional data compiled by outside researchers, the people said. NIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The research plan, which is still being finalized, would focus on understanding the causes behind the rise of childhood autism diagnoses, which have increased more than fourfold in the past two decades and have emerged as a top public health priority of the Trump administration. It would also delve into an issue that has been complicated by the long-lasting effects of a widely discredited 1998 research study that linked measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines to autism. While the study was retracted — and more than two dozen other studies into MMR vaccines have shown that the immunizations do not increase the risk of autism — about a quarter of Americans continue to mistakenly believe that there is a connection, and President Donald Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some vocal advocacy groups have refused to rule it out.
Politico: RFK Jr. drops plan to have Medicare, Medicaid cover weight loss drugs Medicare and Medicaid will not cover blockbuster drugs such as Ozempic to treat obesity, the Trump administration announced on Friday. The Biden administration in November proposed allowing the public insurance programs to expand coverage of the anti-obesity medications but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now says that is “not appropriate at this time.” More than 7 million people would have gained coverage to the medicine, CMS said when it proposed the rule. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the class of weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s, arguing the obesity problem can be solved by improving Americans’ diets and encouraging exercise. Kennedy said in a Fox News interview in October that pharma companies are counting on selling the drugs to Americans because “we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”
Axios: RFK Jr.’s emerging vision for HHS: More centralized power Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says sweeping layoffs and restructuring in the department will bring order to a bureaucracy he claims is in “pandemonium.” But experts say the overhaul also likely gives him far greater control over dozens of federal health agencies. Why it matters: HHS has long functioned like a decentralized behemoth, with key decisions on hiring, grant funding, and public health priorities often in the hands of career staff and scientists. The big picture: Along with cutting more than 10,000 jobs, HHS last week unveiled a plan centralize all human resources, IT, procurement and policy decisions, moving administrative control away from individual divisions. Central to this restructuring is the creation of the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), a new entity that aims to centralize functions related to public health, addiction services and environmental health under a single umbrella This move is seen by some as an attempt to exert greater political control over public health initiatives, potentially compromising the independence of operating agencies with specialized missions. Experts warn that folding an agency like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration into a larger entity could dilute its focus and undermine efforts to combat the nation’s ongoing addiction and mental health crises.
Other MAHA Activities:
Court Battles
New York Times: Trump Is on Shaky Legal Ground With Mass Layoffs at H.H.S., Experts Say A “policy lab” that generates ideas to improve mental health. An office that studies the effects of smoking. A team of scientists and public health experts who focus on birth defects. All three are programs in the Department of Health and Human Services that were created by Congress, which funds them. And all three have been hollowed out by mass layoffs at the agency ordered by President Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser leading the federal government’s cost-cutting efforts. Since Tuesday, when the layoffs began, lawmakers, medical associations, research universities and state health agencies have scrambled to sort out which jobs were eliminated, and how to respond. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already admitted that some workers were mistakenly fired alongside nearly 20 percent of the agency’s work force, and has promised that they will be reinstated. The Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate health committee asked Mr. Kennedy to testify about the cuts next week, but it is not clear if he has accepted the invitation. One thing is clear: The layoffs and wholesale reorganization of the department are the latest in a series of Trump administration actions ripe for legal challenges. The administration has been on shaky ground, legal experts said, in dissolving agencies created and funded by Congress.
CBS: CBS: Federal judge temporarily blocks $11 billion in Trump administration’s cuts to public health funding A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to cut over $11 billion in public health funding to states after 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to keep the funding intact. The coalition of states sued the Health and Human Services Department and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that the money is used for many “urgent public health needs,” including tracking diseases, funding access to vaccines and mental health and addiction services, and improving health infrastructures. The attorneys general allege that the funding was “abruptly and arbitrarily terminated” on March 24. The Trump administration has pointed to the easing of the public health threat posed by COVID-19 in justifying its move to cut off the funding, which was first offered to state and local health departments earlier during the public health emergency declared for the virus.
New York Times: Judge Permanently Bars N.I.H. From Limiting Medical Research Funding A federal judge permanently barred the Trump administration on Friday from limiting funding from the National Institutes of Health that supports research at universities and academic medical centers, restoring billions of dollars in grant money but setting up an almost certain appeal. The ruling by Judge Angel Kelley, of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, made an earlier temporary order by her permanent and was one of the first final decisions in the barrage of lawsuits against the Trump administration. But it came about in an unusual way: The government asked the court to enter that very verdict earlier on Friday so it could move ahead with an appeal. The decision nonetheless was an initial win for a diverse assortment of institutions that conduct medical research. After the Trump administration announced the policy change in February, scores of research hospitals and universities issued dire warnings that the proposal threatened to kneecap American scientific prowess and innovation, estimating that the change could force those institutions to collectively cover a nearly $4 billion shortfall.
New York Times: 16 States Sue to Restore N.I.H. Funding California, Massachusetts and 14 other states sued the Trump administration on Friday for withholding grant funding from public health and medical research institutions, cuts that have forced universities to curtail research and to delay the hiring of new staff. The National Institutes of Health is the world’s leading public funder of biomedical research, supporting studies on aging, substance abuse and other major issues. More than 80 percent of the agency’s $47 billion budget goes to outside researchers — grant funding that in recent weeks has been eliminated, paused or delayed by the Trump administration in a “concerted, and multi-pronged effort to disrupt NIH’s grants,” according to the lawsuit. Cuts and delays to N.I.H. funding have crippled research teams in universities across the country and halted studies midstream, setting back work on diseases like cancer and diabetes and plunging American medical research into crisis. The attorneys general are asking the courts to restore pulled grant funding and to allow pending grant applications to be evaluated and approved fairly.
CNN: Scholars, groups sue Trump administration over canceled NIH research funding
A public health association and one of the nation’s largest worker unions are suing the Trump administration over the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of research grants, arguing that the moves were arbitrary and capricious and that the federal grant process is supposed to be above politics. The complaint was filed Wednesday in a Massachusetts court by the American Public Health Association, the United Auto Workers, which also represents research scientists, and several scholars against the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Disastrous, Dangerous Appointments
USA Today: Mehmet Oz wins Senate confirmation to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Television host and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on a 53-45 vote that split the U.S. Senate along party lines with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. During his confirmation hearing last month, Oz vowed to empower patients to take charge of their health care and crack down on fraud, waste and abuse to safeguard federal health programs.
- New York Times: Dr. Oz ‘Disavows’ Support for Transgender Care, Assuaging a Senator’s Concerns Senator Josh Hawley, the Missouri Republican, said on Monday that he had decided to support the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead Medicare and Medicaid because Dr. Oz told him that he would no longer support transgender care for minors and was “unequivocally pro-life.” The Senate is expected to vote on Dr. Oz’s nomination to become administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sometime this month. Mr. Hawley was vocal about withholding his support for Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon who became a daytime TV celebrity, over concerns about his previous positions on transgender care and certain state abortion laws. Dr. Oz featured segments on the television show about transgender care and had also previously raised possible objections to proposed state legislation that would prohibit abortion based on fetal heartbeats. In his responses to Mr. Hawley’s written questions, Dr. Oz assured the senator that he “disavows his previous support for trans surgeries & drugs for minor children,” Mr. Hawley posted on X, the social media site. He added that he “also walks back past criticism of state pro-life laws.” Dr. Oz said he would also “work to end funding for abortion providers,” Mr. Hawley said.
Politico: New FDA commissioner agreed to oust top vaccine regulator after private swearing-in Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary signed off on the ouster of top vaccine official Peter Marks shortly after being quietly sworn in as the agency’s new leader late last week, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. The forced removal was Makary’s first major act as commissioner and sent a powerful signal to a stunned Washington that was already anxious about the role vaccine skepticism would play under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department. Makary and Kennedy had previously agreed to push out Marks, who led the FDA’s vaccine division for more than eight years, as part of a broader overhaul of HHS leadership.
Public Health Threats
NBC: Second measles death reported in Texas Another child with measles in Texas has died, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed late Saturday night, though the exact cause of death is under investigation. This would be the second pediatric death amid a fast-growing outbreak that’s infected nearly 500 people in Texas alone since January. An adult in New Mexico is also suspected of dying from measles. The deaths are the first from the disease in the United States in a decade. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was expected to attend the child’s funeral, which is scheduled for Sunday, according to a person familiar with the plans.
NBC: Texas measles outbreak nears 500 cases as virus spreads among day care kids Six young children at a Lubbock, Texas, day care center have tested positive for measles — a dreaded scenario with the potential to accelerate an already out-of-control outbreak that has spread to at least two other states. More than a dozen other states and Washington, D.C. are dealing with cases of measles unrelated to Texas. On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services said the toll rose to 481 confirmed cases, a 14% jump over last week. Fifty-six people have been hospitalized in the area since the disease started spreading in late January.
- Stat: U.S. may be reverting to a time when measles deaths were not very rare, experts warn The United States recorded three measles deaths in the first 24 years of this century. In just over three months of 2025, it has equaled that number. The most recent patient, an 8-year-old unvaccinated and previously healthy girl in West Texas, died late last week. Infectious disease experts warn that the days when measles deaths in the United States were ultra rare may be over for now. With vaccination rates falling in parts of the country and a long-term critic of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — as the country’s leading health official, experts interviewed by STAT warned the country may be on a trajectory where increasingly large measles outbreaks will occur and some of those cases will be fatal.
CNN: Two infants die of whooping cough in Louisiana as cases climb nationally In his 20 years working in pediatric infectious disease, Dr. John Schieffelin has never seen another illness like pertussis. Also known as whooping cough, it’s a contagious respiratory illness that can develop into a painful, full-body cough. The coughing fits can be severe, often accompanied by a whooping sound when the person tries to catch their breath. And it’s continuous, even if a person needs to be placed on a ventilator, says Schieffelin, an associate professor of pediatrics at Tulane University. “For infants, it’s really rather terrifying,” he said. “They’re just coughing so much, they can’t eat, they can’t drink, and they often get a pneumonia, which means we have to put them on a ventilator. … They just never stop coughing.” In Louisiana, two infants have died of pertussis in the past six months, according to the state health department, the first deaths from the disease in the state since 2018. Louisiana has had 110 cases of pertussis reported so far this year, the health department said – already approaching the 154 cases reported for all of 2024. Cases are on the rise nationally, too. There were more than 35,000 cases of whooping cough last year in the US, the highest number in more than a decade, and 10 people died — six of them less than 1 year old.
Public Health Threats Around The World:
Opinion and Commentary
