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
Washington Post: NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake The National Institutes of Health will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase acceptance of vaccines, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post on Monday. The email, titled “required terminations — 3/10/25,” shows that on Monday morning, the agency “received a new list … of awards that need to be terminated, today. It has been determined they do not align with NIH funding priorities related to vaccine hesitancy and/or uptake.” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, has disparaged vaccines for years. He gained national notoriety over the past two decades by promoting misinformation about vaccines and a conjectured link to autism, drawing widespread condemnation from the scientific community. It is unclear if Kennedy had a role, directly or indirectly, in the move to cancel these grants. But his ascendancy to HHS leadership has caused a stir in the research community. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another part of HHS, was asked by the Trump administration to launch a study into a possible connection between vaccines and autism, despite repeated research that shows no link between the two.
Politico: HHS braces for a reorganization The Trump administration is readying to slash the Department of Health and Human Services workforce again, according to seven people familiar with the plans who were granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the changes. The announcement could come soon, three of the people said. HHS employees have braced for changes after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as health secretary in early February. In addition to Kennedy’s goals, the Trump administration has tasked him with downsizing key agencies and overhauling their policy priorities. As part of that, HHS agencies were asked to submit budgetary plans, including workforce reductions. Discussions of a reorganization come as the courts are pushing back on Trump’s initial attempts to shrink the federal government. On Thursday, federal district court Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ordered agencies to immediately rehire the tens of thousands of probationary employees fired in February under the Department of Government Efficiency initiative. It’s unclear whether Alsup’s decision would dissuade the administration, which is likely to appeal the decision, from making further cuts. Cuts are expected agency wide, according to the people. More specifically, job cuts could impact staff working with the assistant secretary for technology policy and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, according to four of the people, as well as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Administration for Children and Families, three of the people said.
- Stat: At NIH, ‘everyone is on edge’ as they brace for deep cuts and more centralized control With the National Institutes of Health facing deep workforce cuts and little information from agency leadership about how those cuts will be made, scientists, administrators, and other employees at the nation’s premier funder of biomedical research are reeling, afraid and confused. “Nobody feels like their job is safe. Everyone is on edge,” said Kim Hasenkrug, an NIH scientist emeritus with knowledge of ongoing activities at Rocky Mountain Laboratories. “They’re trying to hide these numbers. Even the top people can’t keep track because they’re hiring and firing so much. Direct supervisors of those who were terminated didn’t even know that it was happening.” The pending cuts add to what has already been two months of stress, uncertainty, shifting policies around funding, communications and travel, firings and, in some cases, rehirings — all before President Trump’s nominee for NIH commissioner, Jay Bhattacharya, has been confirmed by the Senate.
New York Times: Federal Agency Dedicated to Mental Illness and Addiction Faces Huge Cuts Every day, Dora Dantzler-Wright and her colleagues distribute overdose reversal drugs on the streets of Chicago. They hold training sessions on using them and help people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction return to their jobs and families. They work closely with the federal government through an agency that monitors their productivity, connects them with other like-minded groups and dispenses critical funds that keep their work going. But over the last few weeks, Ms. Wright’s phone calls and emails to Washington have gone unanswered. Federal advisers from the agency’s local office — who supervise her group, the Chicago Recovering Communities Coalition, as well as addiction programs throughout six Midwestern states and 34 tribes — are gone. “We just continue to do the work without any updates from the feds at all,” Ms. Wright said. “But we’re lost.” By the end of this week, the staff of the agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, could be cut by 50 percent, according to senior staff members at the agency and congressional aides who attended briefings by Trump officials. With just under 900 employees and a budget of $7.2 billion for large state grants and individual nonprofits that address addiction and mental illness, SAMHSA (pronounced SAM-sah) is relatively small. But it addresses two of the nation’s most urgent health problems and has generally had bipartisan support.
- Stat: ‘Deliberate trauma’: SAMHSA employees detail a federal agency in shambles The new administration’s decision to fire a tenth of the workers at the federal government agency that oversees mental and behavioral health will imperil efforts to curb suicides and drug overdose deaths, according to current and former employees. Roughly 100 employees of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were let go according to insiders’ estimates. That’s more than 10% of the agency’s workforce, the 2025 fiscal report shows. The stories from former and current workers, who spoke with STAT on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, mirror similar news of chaos and confusion spilling out of other health agencies, as the Trump administration laid off probationary employees, mostly without notice and often under false allegations of poor performance. The actions, one employee said, were causing “deliberate trauma.”
HuffPost: Trump Administration Shutting Down HHS Legal Offices That Help Fight Fraud The Trump administration plans to shut down a half dozen regional offices at the Department of Health and Human Services that work on everything from violations of nursing home safety standards to fraudulent hospital billing. The regional offices are part of the Office of General Counsel, whose attorneys are basically the in-house lawyers for HHS. They advise the massive agency on how to write, publicize and enforce standards for a variety of federal health programs ― and what to do when a person, organization or business may be violating those standards.
Mother Jones: ‘Health Security Is At Risk’: Inside the Purge of HHS I spoke with five HHS workers over the past two days who are eligible for the buyouts, three of whom said they plan to try to take it. Two others said they will stay in their jobs. Each one characterizes the choice as a daunting one: Leave and lose income and abandon critical work, or stay and try to continue to make a difference in public health as officials at the highest levels of government seem hellbent on undermining them and imposing burdensome working conditions. “Somebody has to stay to help clean up the mess that they’re most likely going to make,” a public health advisor on infectious diseases at the CDC told me. “If you want to get rid of me, you’re basically going to drag me kicking and screaming out of here.”
ProPublica: National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval Employees at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, received internal guidance last week to flag manuscripts, presentations or other communications for scrutiny if they addressed “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics. Among the 23 hot-button issues, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica: vaccines, fluoride, peanut allergies, autism. While it’s not uncommon for the cancer institute to outline a couple of administration priorities, the scope and scale of the list is unprecedented and highly unusual, said six employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. All materials must be reviewed by an institute “clearance team,” according to the records, and could be examined by officials at the NIH or its umbrella agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Staffers and experts worried that the directive would delay or halt the publication of research. “This is micromanagement at the highest level,” said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. The list touches on the personal priorities of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has repeatedly promoted medical conspiracy theories and false claims.
Stat: Former NIH director Francis Collins, once beloved in Washington, now worries for his safety there As Francis Collins, longtime director of the National Institutes of Health, took to the steps below the Lincoln Memorial on Friday for a sound check before speaking at the Stand Up for Science rally, he was confronted by an agitated protester who warned, “You’re going to prison.” The incident was witnessed by a reporter from STAT, and the man afterward identified himself only as “Jeff” and said he was there to protest Collins’ oversight of NIH, and specifically the agency’s funding of gain-of-function research at a lab in Wuhan, China, where some believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have originated. “He’s an indicted felon, he lied before Congress,’’ Jeff, baselessly, told the reporter. The confrontation was the latest public manifestation of the dramatically altered public image of Collins, from a near-legendary geneticist who led the Human Genome Project and was beloved by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — and was asked to stay on by President Trump in his first term — to a target demonized by Trump’s Make America Great Again followers. Collins told STAT he is so concerned for his personal safety that he has hired security at his home.
Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:
Cruel and Destructive Policy Changes:
RFK Jr. Is An Extreme Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Already Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed
NBC: Kennedy spends first month as health secretary downplaying vaccines and targeting food additives A month into his new role as health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is beginning to make his priorities for the country clear — and confirming some public health experts’ worst fears. Since Kennedy was sworn in Feb. 13, the agencies he leads have canceled or postponed meetings about flu shots and other vaccines and announced plans to investigate already debunked links between vaccines and autism. He has downplayed the importance of vaccination in the Texas measles outbreak while endorsing unproven remedies for the highly contagious disease. At the same time, Kennedy has begun to act on his long-standing concerns about the U.S. food system, directing the Food and Drug Administration to tighten a rule about the use of food additives and railing against seed oils in a Fox News interview. As a whole, these actions and statements indicate that Kennedy has not abandoned some of the fringe beliefs that made him a controversial pick. His early moves on vaccines have worried health experts, who fear he is sowing confusion that could ultimately lead to the spread of preventable diseases.
New York Times: Without Offering Proof, Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments. He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research. He asserted that natural immunity to measles, gained through infection, somehow also protected against cancer and heart disease, a claim not supported by research. He cheered on questionable treatments like cod liver oil, and said that local doctors had achieved “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics. The worsening measles outbreak, which has largely spread through a Mennonite community in Gaines County, has infected nearly 200 people and killed a child, the first such death in the United States in 10 years. Another suspected measles death has been reported in New Mexico, where cases have recently increased in a county that borders Gaines County.
Rolling Stone: RFK Jr. Reminds Everyone He’s Not a Huge Fan of Vaccines in Bonkers Fox Interview As a major measles outbreak spreads out of West Texas into other states, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to spread a confusing message about vaccine safety. In an interview with Fox News that aired on Tuesday, Kennedy touted the vaccine — but also suggested that the best way to get lifetime immunity from the measles is to simply become infected with measles, and that the measles vaccine is dangerous to those who take it. “It used to be — when you and I were kids — that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that,” Kennedy told Sean Hannity from inside the Steak & Shake fast food restaurant where the interview was conducted. “The vaccine is effective for some people for life, for many people it wanes.”
New York Times: Keeping With Kennedy’s Advice, Measles Patients Turn to Unproven Treatments Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and postponing doctor visits until the illness has worsened. Hospitals and officials sounded an alarm this week, issuing a notice explaining which measles symptoms warranted immediate medical attention and stressing the importance of timely treatment. “I’m worried we have kids and parents that are taking all of these other medications and then delaying care,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, where many of the sickest children in this outbreak have been hospitalized. Some seriously ill children had been given alternative remedies like cod liver oil, she added. “If they’re so, so sick and have low oxygen levels, they should have been in the hospital a day or two earlier,” she said.
The Guardian: RFK Jr praises beef tallow on Fox News show with burger and fries Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, appeared with a cheeseburger and fries in a nationally televised interview on Fox News – a highly unusual move for a federal health official. The appearance, in which he endorsed the decision of the burger chain Steak ‘n Shake to cook its fries in beef tallow, comes as Kennedy has attacked seed oils and made claims about the measles vaccine that lack context. “We are poisoning ourselves and it’s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods,” said Kennedy, while seated at a table with the Fox News host Sean Hannity. “President Trump wants us to have radical transparency and incentivize companies like this one to switch traditional ingredients for beef tallow,” Kennedy added, before he was delivered a double cheeseburger and french fries at a restaurant location in Florida. Kennedy has moved to make the health department significantly less transparent using a little known provision called the “Richardson waiver”. In multiple interviews, Kennedy has claimed seed oils are harmful to health and that fats, such as beef tallow, are preferable. The advice contradicts that of the American Heart Association (AHA), the largest nation’s largest non-profit focused on heart disease. A 2017 review by the organization found replacing saturated fats such as beef tallow, lard and coconut oil with unsaturated vegetable oils could reduce cardiovascular disease at rates “similar to the reduction achieved by statin treatment”, according to clinical trials.
- Washington Post: Steak ’n Shake was struggling. It turned to beef tallow — and MAGA. Steak ’n Shake was looking for change. The Indianapolis-based fast food chain for burgers and milkshakes replaced its leadership after a lackluster 2024. In mid-January, it announced that all of its restaurants would switch to cooking their french fries with beef tallow. Executives said the move would make for tastier fries. It also aligned Steak ’n Shake with President Donald Trump’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has made replacing seed oils a key plank of his plans to overhaul America’s food industry. Conservatives hailed Steak ’n Shake’s decision as a win for Trump’s controversial Cabinet pick. The company leaned in. “We RFK’ed our fries,” Steak ’n Shake COO Dan Edwards said in a February Fox News interview. Now, Steak ’n Shake’s X account posts images of Tesla-themed storefronts on Mars and slogans like “Make Frying Oil Tallow Again” printed on MAGA-esque red hats. The account reposted endorsements from conservative firebrands like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Laura Loomer, who snapped a picture of herself dining at the establishment.
NPR: RFK says most vaccine advisers have conflicts of interest. A report shows they don’t Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to purge conflicts of interest from the government agencies he’s now in charge of, alleging close ties between employees and the pharmaceutical industry. In his confirmation hearings for the role, he took aim at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee that plays a key role in setting policies around vaccine schedules and access, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. Kennedy said on Jan. 29 of the committee: “I think 97% of the people on it had conflicts. I think we need to end those conflicts and make sure that scientists are doing unobstructed science.” He was citing an older government report on ethics disclosures, which he said came from a “government oversight investigation committee.” NPR tracked down that 2009 report, spoke with those involved with the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee at the time, and learned that Kennedy’s statement about it is inaccurate.
Stat: RFK Jr.’s ‘MAHA’ commission meets for the first time — behind closed doors An array of federal government officials and “Make America Healthy Again” moms met Tuesday in what was the first convening of a new commission led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The meeting, held in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, was not made public or announced before it occurred. It marked the start of a monthslong effort, birthed by President Donald Trump’s pen on Feb. 13, which aims to identify and then solve the nation’s chronic ills. The meeting was first reported by the New York Times. STAT independently verified that it took place. Among those empaneled to the MAHA commission are domestic policy advisers, as well as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who were both in attendance Tuesday. The leaders of the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health are also appointed to the commission. Trump’s picks for those roles — Marty Makary, Dave Weldon and Jay Bhattacharya — have yet to be confirmed.
Politico: Kennedy gives food company CEOs an ultimatum Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a stark ultimatum to major food company CEOs in a closed-door meeting this week: Ban certain artificial dyes from your products or the government will do it for you. Kennedy on Monday pressed leaders of companies like PepsiCo, General Mills, Tyson Foods, Smucker’s, Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s for commitments to reduce food additives, according to a readout of the meeting sent to industry stakeholders and viewed by POLITICO. It was the Health and Human Services secretary’s first major meeting with the very executives he’d spent months accusing of making Americans sick.
Disastrous, Dangerous Appointments
Rolling Stone: Dr. Oz Won’t Commit to Protecting Medicaid The Department of Health and Human Services is already headed by a vaccine skeptic, and the Trump administration would like to install a TV doctor to run the nation’s most vital health care systems. Dr. Mehmet Oz sat today for a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee to discuss his nomination as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. When asked by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) an incredibly basic question — if he would oppose cuts to Medicaid — Oz declined to answer the question directly. “I cherish Medicaid, and I’ve worked within the Medicaid environment quite extensively, as I highlighted, practicing at Columbia University,” Oz said.
Wyden interjected, restating his request that Oz answer directly. “I want to make sure that the patients today in the future have resources if they get ill, the way you protect Medicaid is by making sure that it’s viable at every level,” Oz replied, once again skirting the question. “Let the record show that I asked a witness, who said he cherishes this program, ‘will you agree to oppose cuts,’ and he would not answer a yes or no question,” Wyden told the committee.
Reuters: US Senate Memo says Dr. Oz, Trump Medicare nominee, may have underpaid taxes for 3 years Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician nominated by President Donald Trump to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, appears to have underpaid his social security and Medicare taxes in recent years, according to a memo drafted by Democratic staffers on the Senate Finance Committee. “Dr. Oz may have significantly underpaid his Social Security and Medicare taxes in 2021, 2022, and 2023–with negligible Social Security or Medicare taxes paid in 2022 and no Social Security or Medicare taxes paid in 2023,” the memo, seen by Reuters, states.
Fortune: Health care for more than 100 million Americans is being turned over to a supplement salesman President Donald Trump’s health officials want you to take your vitamins. Mehmet Oz, the nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has fed calves on camera to tout the health wonders of bovine colostrum on behalf of one purveyor in which he has a financial stake. Janette Nesheiwat, the potential surgeon general, sells her own line of supplements. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, said he takes more vitamins than he can count—and has suggested he’ll ease restrictions on vitamins, muscle-building peptides, and more. Their affection for supplements might lead to tangible consequences for Americans’ health regimens. Late in the 2024 campaign, Kennedy claimed the federal government was waging a “war on public health” by suppressing a vast array of alternative therapies—many of them supplements, like nutraceuticals and peptides. In February, Trump announced the “President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission” with Kennedy at the helm, calling for “fresh thinking” on nutrition, “healthy lifestyles,” and other pathways toward combating chronic disease. Spokespeople for Kennedy did not reply to multiple requests for comment. Supplements can be beneficial, particularly in aiding fetal development or warding off anemia, said Pieter Cohen, a general internist at the Cambridge Health Alliance, who researches supplements. “I recommend supplements routinely,” he said. Still, “the majority of use is not necessary to improve or maintain health,” and due to only light regulations, supplement makers may make claims about their benefits without sufficient evidence, Cohen said. “No supplement needs to get tested or vetted by the FDA before it’s sold.” Consumer watchdogs, regulators, and researchers have reported cases of finding traces of lead and other toxins in supplements. And a 2015 analysis from a team of federal health researchers attributed about 23,000 emergency department visits annually to supplement use. (The Council for Responsible Nutrition, the industry’s lobbying group, challenged the findings, arguing some visits were due to over-the-counter and homeopathic medicines that should not have been included.)
Washington Post: White House abruptly pulls Dave Weldon’s CDC nomination before hearing The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman who questioned vaccine safety, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid concerns he could not be confirmed by the Senate. The Senate health committee announced Weldon’s nomination had been pulled shortly before he was scheduled to testify Thursday morning before the panel. The pulling of Weldon marks a rare setback for a Trump administration nominee. The Senate has confirmed every controversial choice brought to a full vote on the floor to date. Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor who left Congress in 2009, drew scrutiny for his longtime promotion of the false claims that vaccines can cause autism. In a four-page statement, Weldon said a White House assistant called him Wednesday night to inform him his nomination was being withdrawn because he lacked the votes to be confirmed. Weldon said Republican senators concerned about his vaccine views doomed his nomination and that he suspected the pharmaceutical industry also played a role.
Public Health Threats
CNN: Measles outbreak holds higher risk for pregnant women, babies A newborn with measles is among the cases reported in the growing West Texas outbreak, Lubbock public health officials say. Experts say the case serves as a reminder that the disease can be especially dangerous for pregnant women and very young children. “This is how widespread this epidemic is, that it’s even showing up in unvaccinated pregnant women,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. At least two pregnant women have been infected in this outbreak, according to officials at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. Eighty-one measles cases have been reported in children ages 4 and younger across Texas and New Mexico. This is part of the larger outbreak that now spans three states, including Oklahoma, and totals 258 reported cases. The infant, who has recovered, was born to an unvaccinated mother who was recently infected with the virus, according to Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health.
CNN: Three months into 2025, US measles cases surpass total for 2024 Three months into 2025, the United States has surpassed the total number of measles cases in the country for all of last year. The high number of cases is driven by a multistate outbreak that has reached nearly 300 cases. As of Friday, Texas has reported 259 cases this year, New Mexico has tallied 35 cases and Oklahoma reported two. Experts say this is probably a severe undercount. In 2024, there were 285 total measles cases reported in the US, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CNN tally suggests that there have been at least 320 cases so far in 2025, including 296 associated with the multistate outbreak.
Stat: Why health experts fear the West Texas measles outbreak may be much larger than reported The growing measles outbreak centered in West Texas, with cases reaching into New Mexico and now Oklahoma, is the country’s largest in six years. But experts say that even with more than 250 cases reported across the three states, the outbreak is likely much larger. “My gut tells me there are cases that are unreported — you don’t have to come in and get tested for measles,” said Katherine Wells, the director of public health in Lubbock, a Texas city on the edge of the outbreak where some sick children have been taken to be hospitalized. “It’s going to be a long process to get everything measles-free again in this area, but I can’t tell you if that’s 500 cases or a thousand.” Public health officials and other experts believe they are capturing only a fraction of cases for reasons that have to do with the epidemiology of the outbreak as well as reports of a lack of cooperation among some people in the areas where cases have been detected. But a large part of it is simple math.
Politico: States target mRNA shots as vaccine critic RFK Jr. takes charge in Washington A growing number of states are considering measures to limit or ban the use of messenger RNA vaccines — the latest manifestation of Covid-19 pandemic backlash. Republican policymakers in states from Florida to Idaho propose more roadblocks to the vaccines based on a mix of medical freedom rhetoric and incorrect assertions of how they work in the body. Several bills introduced in the Texas Legislature would ban the administration, manufacture or sale of mRNA vaccines there. Legislation in Kentucky would prohibit the use of mRNA vaccines in children under 18. In Idaho, a GOP state senator has proposed a 10-year moratorium on mRNA vaccine administration. While some efforts have already failed — and likely would be challenged in federal court if they succeeded — public health experts worry that their existence now could be a bellwether for the future.
Wall Street Journal: In Rural Texas, a Measles Outbreak Hasn’t Swayed Vaccine Skeptics The dusty plains of Gaines County stretch endlessly, peanut fields fading into cotton farms and oil fields, punctuated by signs touting God. This sprawling rural region is defined by oil, agriculture and a large Mennonite community—members of the Anabaptist family of churches that includes the Amish—who emigrated here from Mexico in the 1970s. Now, it is also the epicenter of a measles outbreak that has spread across nine counties since late January, leading to nearly 200 documented infections, 23 hospitalizations and the nation’s first measles-related death in a decade. The same strain of the measles is responsible for 30 reported cases across the state line in Lea County, New Mexico, where a measles-related death is under investigation. Gaines County exemplifies pockets of America where antivaccine sentiment has surged, fueled by deepening distrust in the U.S. government after the pandemic. With many states making it easier to get vaccine exemptions for school-age children, what was once a rare exception has become common. “Personal choice” is a term I heard many times when talking to Gaines County area residents about the decision to get a vaccine, even among health officials. What has long been hailed by doctors as a critical lifesaving public-health tool is now considered optional. Even a measles outbreak and death isn’t enough to drive many residents into free vaccine clinics. While that is a personal choice, deeply entrenched vaccine skepticism affects us all.
Public Health Threats Around The World:
Opinion and Commentary
