Former CDC officials warn CDC response to measles deaths threatens trust

CDC removes two Pennsylvania measles deaths from its website

Former CDC officials and independent public health authorities are raising alarms about the agency’s handling of two measles deaths that Pennsylvania state officials recently attributed to measles, warning that the response could erode trust in federal health data at a moment when infectious diseases are resurging across the country.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly questioned the deaths, which Pennsylvania state officials had attributed to measles, and the CDC subsequently removed them from the agency’s website, according to NPR. Neither the CDC nor the Department of Health and Human Services responded to NPR’s repeated requests for comment.

“Red flag. Red alert,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned last year as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC to protest what he called political interference at the agency. “When they raise doubt on the adjudication that a state may have made around a death, that is highly problematic,” Daskalakis said. “This is dangerous.”

Under the normal process, the state where a measles death occurs determines the cause of death and reports it to the CDC, which then alerts the public, doctors, and health officials around the country. The CDC usually defers to the state’s determination. Kennedy’s public dispute with Pennsylvania, and the CDC’s response, has raised concerns about what it could mean for the working relationship between states and federal health officials, a partnership that has already become strained under the Trump administration, Daskalakis and other public health authorities said.

“What we have been seeing, that got amplified even more with these measles cases, is a breakdown in the coordination and trust between states and the federal government,” said Dr. Anne Zink, a senior fellow at the Yale School of Public Health who previously served as Alaska’s chief medical officer and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “That to me is a significant concern. These partnerships are critical and essential to making us healthy and well.”

The concerns extend beyond measles. The worst measles resurgence in the United States in decades is unfolding as vaccination rates fall and flu, COVID-19, and RSV continue to circulate. Zink and others said they worry about whether public health officials, doctors, and the broader public will be able to trust federal data on those diseases as well.

“We need to have good solid evidence-based national data. And I’m obviously concerned that it will happen again for other infectious diseases,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, who heads the American Public Health Association. “If it happens with flu and with COVID, the question is: Who can we rely on for the data on a national level. More people will get sick and more people because they won’t know what to do. They won’t know who to trust. And that is the problem here.”

Many had hoped that the new CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, would restore the agency’s morale and credibility by publicly pushing back against political pressure. Schwartz is a physician and attorney with public health experience. Public health authorities said the CDC has been left demoralized and diminished after a tumultuous year, and several said the agency’s handling of the Pennsylvania deaths does not bode well for Schwartz’s willingness to push back.

“We are seeing a pretty compromised CDC and a director who is at best facilitating non-scientific behavior and at worst colluding with non-scientific behavior,” Daskalakis said.

Dr. Debra Houry, who resigned as the CDC’s chief medical officer at the same time as Daskalakis, said the agency’s focus has been misplaced. “What the director should be doing instead of looking into these disease counts is responding to the outbreak itself,” Houry said. “I haven’t heard from her talking about the importance of getting kindergarteners vaccinated when we’re seeing declining rates. It’s back to school time around the United States. We need her to step up publicly to talk about what can be done.”