Congressional delegation urges Kennedy to promote vaccines in face of measles outbreak

New Mexico’s congressional delegation is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to rehire fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees and launch a national campaign to improve measles vaccination rates after nearly 100 measles cases were reported in Texas and New Mexico.

The CDC website recommends vaccines as a way to prevent measles, but the delegation asked Kennedy to go further and launch a vaccination promotion campaign. The new HHS secretary is well-known for his distrust of vaccines. The New Mexico Department of Health has recently reported nine measles cases in the state, all in Lea County.

“We request that you utilize HHS’ authorities for testing and monitoring and vaccine education and promotion, as well as rehire critical federal employees, to stop the spread of this dangerous infection,” reads the letter, which is led by Sen. Ben Ray Luján and signed by all five members of New Mexico’s all-Democratic congressional delegation.

The Trump administration has laid off approximately 1,300 probationary CDC employees, 10% of the agency’s workforce, according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Those layoffs included 50 first-year Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, disease detectives who investigate and respond to public health challenges and emergencies, The Associated Press reported.

NMDOH first declared an outbreak on Feb. 14 after three measles cases were found in Lea County. Since then, six more measles cases have been reported in the county. The cases include four children and five adults.

The outbreak started across the state line in Texas, which has recently reported 90 cases in Gaines, Terry, Lubbock and Yoakum counties.

The measles outbreak is linked to the wild type D8 strain, currently circulating in European and Eastern Mediterranean regions, according to HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon. The strain has also been detected in Southeast Asia. The outbreak in Texas and New Mexico has been “primarily centered in a Mennonite community in Gaines County,” Nixon said via email. The CDC is monitoring the outbreak and working with both states’ health officials to make sure they can support impacted communities, he said.

Nixon did not respond to questions about recent CDC layoffs.

The best way to prevent getting sick is a measles vaccine, NMDOH advises. Two doses of the MMR — measles, mumps, rubella — vaccine are highly effective at preventing measles, according to NMDOH.

For more information on the New Mexico outbreak, visit the NMDOH website, nmhealth.org.