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- Oct 17, 2011
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As measles cases soared, Texas sought help from Trump’s CDC. No one answered
As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows.The outbreak soon became the worst the United States has endured in more than three decades.
In the month after Donald Trump took office, his administration interfered with CDC communications, stalled the federal agency’s reports, censored its data and abruptly laid off staff. In the chaos, agency experts felt restrained from talking openly with local public health workers, according to interviews with seven CDC officials with direct knowledge of events, as well as local health department emails obtained by KFF Health News through public records requests.
“All of us at CDC train for this moment, a massive outbreak,” one CDC researcher told KFF Health News, which agreed not to name CDC officials who fear retaliation for speaking with the press. “All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.”
[Lubbock Public Health Director Katherine] Wells was anxious the moment she learned that two unvaccinated children hospitalized in late January had the measles. Hospitals are legally required to report measles cases to health departments and the CDC, but Wells worried many children weren’t getting tested.
“According to one of the women I spoke with 55 children were absent from one school on 1/24. The women reported that there were sick children with measles symptoms as early as November.”
In that email and others, Wells asked state health officials to put her in touch with CDC experts who could answer complicated questions on testing, how to care for infants exposed to measles, and more.
“CDC hasn’t reached out to us locally,” ... “My staff feels like we are out here all alone,” she added.
A child would die before CDC scientists contacted Wells.
Wells heard from CDC scientists for the first time the following day. Also that day, the CDC issued a brief notice on the outbreak. The notice recommended vaccines, but it worried public health specialists because it also promoted vitamin A as a treatment under medical supervision.
Through private conversations, Benjamin learned that CDC experts were being diverted to remove information from websites to comply with executive orders.
“It’s not that the CDC was delinquent,” Benjamin said. “It’s that they had their hands tied behind their backs.”
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