This week, the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have ordered the staff not to release the evaluation of their experts, who found that the risk of caught measles is high in the nearby outbreaks, where the vaccination level is lagging behind, according to internal records, considered.
As a result of interruption of the plan to reveal the news agency, would emphasize the importance of vaccination of people from a very contagious and potentially deadly illness that has spread to 19 states, the records show.
The CDC press -secretary told Propublica in a written statement that the agency decided not to release the assessment, “because it does not say what the public does not yet know.” She added that CDC continues to recommend vaccines as a “best way to protect meal”.
But what is said in the country’s top health agency shows a shift in its long-standing vaccines, a sign that it can be in line with the Minister of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“The vaccination decision is personal,” the statement said, repeating the line with A Kennedy’s column wrote For the Fox News site. “People should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get a vaccine, and must be informed about the possible risks and benefits related to vaccines.”
Propublica shared a new CDC statement about personal choice and risk with Jennifer Nuts, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown Public Health School. For her transition to messages and compression of this usual announcement are anxiety.
“I am a little stunned by this language,” Nuts said. “No vaccine risks, but it sounds that it is a very active throwing coin.
For many years, CDC has not grinded the words on the vaccines. It promoted them with confidence. One company was called ‘Get my flu“Web -Sight Agency told medical suppliers They play an important role in helping parents to choose vaccines for their children: “Instead of saying” what do you want to do with the shots? “Tell” your baby needs three shots today. “
Nuzzo wishes that CDC forecasters have more details about their data and evidence of measles spread rather than less. “Growing up the scale and severity of this measles outbreak and an urgent need for additional data to guide the answer, emphasizes why we need a fully staffed and functional CDC and more resources for state and local health departments,” she said.
Kennedy’s CDC controlled and announced on Thursday that she was ready to eliminate 2,400 jobs.
Asked what role, if any, Kennedy played at the decision not to miss the risk assessment, the HHS communications director said that the “interrupted announcement” was part of a permanent process to improve the processes of communication – nothing more. “
“Secretary Kennedy believes the vaccination decision is personal, and that people should consult their healthcare provider to understand their opportunities to get the vaccine,” said Andrew G. Nixon. “It is important that the American people have radical transparency and be informed for personal health decisions.”
Answering questions about the criticism of the CDC staff, Nixon wrote: “Some people in the CDC seem more interested in protecting their own status or agenda, not in accordance with this administration and a true public health mission.”
The CDC risk assessment was carried out at the forecast center and the analytics outbreaks, which partially relied on new data from the Texas outbreak. The CDC created the center to solve the main lack, which was laid in the Covid-19 pandemic. It operates as a national meteorological service for infectious diseases, data use and experience, to predict the outbreak as a meteorologist, warns about thunderstorms.
Other at risk estimates were posted by CDC, although their findings may seem obvious.
For example, at the end of February, for example Forecasters that analyze the distribution of H5N1 Bird flu said people who contact potentially infected animals or contaminated surfaces or fluids, “faced a medium and high risk of infection. According to them, the risk to the overall population was low.
In the case of measles estimate, the models at the center determined the risk of the disease for the general public, but they found that the risk is high in low vaccination communities that are in the nearby outbreaks or share close social ties with these outbreaks. The CDC had moderate assurance in the assessment, in accordance with the internal question and questions that explained the conclusions. The agency, according to it, lacks detailed data on the onset of the disease for all patients in Western Texas and still studies the level of vaccination in the affected communities, as well as about trips and social contact among the infected. (H5N1’s assessment was also made with moderate confidence.)
The internal news plan for the disclosure of the forecast called for an expert doctor who heads CDC’s response to one to become a major press secretary, answering questions. “It is important to note that at the local levels the level of the vaccine may differ significantly, and the pockets of non -vicinated people can exist even in areas with high -covered vaccination,” the plan reads. “The best way to protect from measles is to get a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.”
This week, since the number of confirmed cases increased to 483, more than 30 employees of the agency have been said in the e -mail that after discussion at the CDC director’s office, “the management does not want to pursue it on the site.”
The cancellation was “not normal at all,” said the CDC officer who said anonymously, fearing repression with dismissal. “I have never seen the cleansing plan that has been canceled in the process.”
Anxiety among CDC staff causes the agency to bend their health care reports to match the fact that Kennedy, a lawyer who founded an anti-vaccine group and sent customers to a law firm sues the vaccine manufacturer.
During the first week, Kennedy stopped the CDC campaign at work, which urged people to get flu frames during the February flu season. On the night of the Trump administration started firing from test workers throughout the federal government, some key CDC influenza web pages were removed. Remains of some web -page companies were restored after Reports NPR This is.
But some in the agency thought that the new leadership sent a message loudly and clearly: if no one paid attention, long -standing health reports could be silent.
This day in February when the world learned that the non -vicinity baby died measles in Texas, the first such death in the US since 2015, secretary HHS Reduced seriousness flashes. “We have outdoor outbreaks every year,” he said at a meeting with President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Fox News this month, Kennedy spoke for doctors in Texas, who, he said, refer to measles steroids, antibiotics and liver cod oil, a high content of vitamin A. “They see that they describe as almost a miraculous and instant recovery.
Because parents near the Texas outbreak accumulated by Vitamin A, doctors raced to assure the parents that in this Only vaccination rather than vitamin can prevent measles.
Still the CDC added Record on Vitamin A On your measles site for clinicians.
CNN reported on Wednesday Several hospitalized children in Lubbok, Texas, had the wrong liver functionProbable sign of toxicity with too much vitamin A.
Texas Health Representatives also said the Trump administration’s decision to cancel $ 11 billion in grants related to pandemic across the country will interfere with their ability to respond Up to growing outbursts, Texas Tribune reports.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases and can be dangerous. About 20% of non -vicinated people who receive one are hospitalized. And Almost 1 to 3 every 1000 children With measles will die from respiratory and neurological complications. The virus can linger in the air Within two hours after the infected person left the area and patients can distribute measles before they even know what they have.
This week Amtrak said it reports to customers that they may have been ill this month when a passenger with measles rode on one of his trains From New York to Washington, District Columbia
