‘Out here all alone’: Texas health officials’ pleas for help were ignored by CDC as measles cases grew, report says

Officials in Texas scrambled to control the number of measles cases spreading throughout the western part of the state, largely without help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earlier this year, according to a new report.

Just days after the first measles case was reported in Texas, the Trump administration took office and ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to halt all public communications, according to an email obtained by KFF Health News.

Soon after, the administration began conducting mass layoffs, sending various agencies, including the CDC, into chaos and confusion, several CDC officials told KFF Health News.

When officials in West Texas began reaching out to the CDC for guidance on how to handle the measles outbreak earlier this year, they were apparently met with simple responses or complete silence from a “stressed” agency.

Katherine Wells, the director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, emailed her public health colleagues saying, “My staff feels like we are out here all alone.”

Even after the administration’s halt on communications ended, CDC scientists said there was “a lot of confusion and non-answers over what communications were allowed.”

Last week, health officials said that the measles outbreak in West Texas had ended. But thousands of people, including children, were likely infected with the potentially deadly disease and it’s likely the country will see more outbreaks, experts say.

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Source: The Independent, 25 August 2025