Sliding vaccine rates hang over vote on CDC director nominee as US measles cases hit dangerous milestone
There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago, according to CDC data, with at least 1,288 confirmed cases.
Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the previous record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases. And it's well above the average of about 180 measles cases that have been reported each year since the disease was declared eliminated in the US in 2000.
CNN reported this new milestone on Saturday using data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation, which updates its numbers more frequently than the CDC.
HHS has not responded to CNN's request for comment about the measles milestone.
Childhood vaccine coverage has been declining in the US, and the vast majority of measles cases this year – more than 90% – have been in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, according to the CDC.
When the measles case count reached its previous record in 2019 – during the first Trump administration – both the CDC director and the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services at the time released statements emphasizing the safety and effectiveness of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and encouraging Americans to get vaccinated.
However, almost six months into Trump's second term, the CDC still does not have a director and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long and complicated history with measles vaccines.
Concerns about vaccine skepticism were front and center Wednesday as members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted to advance President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the CDC, Dr. Susan Monarez, for a vote by the full Senate.
Committee members voted 12-11 to move Monarez's nomination. All of the committee's Republicans backed the longtime immunologist and government scientist, who spoke in her confirmation hearing about restoring trust in the CDC and defended Kennedy's decision to replace the members of a federal panel of vaccine advisers.
The vote puts Monarez one step closer to taking the helm at the public health agency, and she will now progress to a full Senate vote.
HELP Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and a doctor, voted to advance Monarez's nomination but nodded to falling vaccine coverage and the ongoing measles outbreak.
'Dr. Monarez will work to modernize our data health systems, to improve public health coordination and response while protecting American sensitive health information,' Cassidy said. 'This is especially crucial as the nation combats reemerging public health threats like measles, which has taken three lives in the United States this year.'
He continued: 'One that's not included but is tragic: A Canadian woman who was pregnant got exposed to measles and lost her child. [The ongoing outbreak has] hospitalized many more due to misinformation regarding the measles vaccine.'
Cassidy publicly pressed Kennedy last month to delay a meeting of the health agency's new vaccine advisers — several of whom have expressed skepticism and safety concerns about long-approved immunizations — amid concerns about their biases.
During Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, called on the committee to hold a hearing about the ongoing measles outbreak and Kennedy's shakeup of vaccine oversight.
'I am concerned because this committee, it feels like, has all but abandoned its serious oversight of this crisis,' she said. 'We haven't had a hearing on the record-breaking number of measles outbreaks or a hearing on how the CDC vaccine panel is now stacked with people who are actually not vetted, and all the previous board members, every single one of them, was removed with no credible explanation.'
There needs to be congressional oversight of these actions, Murray said after casting a vote against Monarez.
'I really do hope that Dr. Monarez will defy my expectations. I hope she will stand up for science and put public health first. But again, I hope I have hoped that for others, and here we are today,' she said.
Some health experts have emphasized the importance of vaccination rates and their trepidation about precedents being set under Kennedy's leadership of HHS.
'It is no surprise that the most widespread measles outbreak affecting the United States in a generation has occurred under Secretary Kennedy's watch,' Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, said in a statement Wednesday.
'His decades-long campaign to discredit vaccines at every turn, which has continued unabated during his time as health secretary, directly contributes to the alarming decline in routine childhood vaccination rates in our country that is resulting in more frequent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,' he said. 'In addition, the dramatic funding cuts to public health will mean that small outbreaks will grow and spread.'
Three people have died of measles in the US this year – two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated – matching the total number of US measles deaths from the previous two and a half decades.
'I worry that even more children will be forced to pay with their lives or health because of Secretary Kennedy's malfeasance,' Besser said. 'As a pediatrician, I strongly encourage all parents to talk to their healthcare providers, listen to their local public health officials, and learn the facts about measles vaccines, which are incredibly effective and safe.'
The MMR vaccine is highly effective. One dose offers 93% protection against measles, and two doses are 97% effective, according to the CDC.
'Vaccines work—full stop. They are one of the most powerful tools we have to protect patients, families and entire communities. We can prevent diseases through vaccines, but too many diseases that we once had under control are starting to reappear because people are choosing to delay or skip immunization,' Dr. Jennifer Brull, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said in a statement.
'There's a lot of confusion around vaccinations, but patients don't have to navigate this alone. Family physicians, pediatricians, pharmacists and other public health workers can help patients wade through all the information and cut through the noise,' she said. 'The bottom line is vaccines are safe, effective and save lives. It's critical that we continue to protect not just individual families, but the health of our entire nation.'
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