Experts say that federal officials do not be vaccinated against

In the first test of the Trump’s administration ability to respond to a sudden accident of an infectious disease, her best health official avoided one of the government’s most essential tools, experts on Sunday said: loudly and directly encouraging parents to vaccinate children.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health, was widely criticized as a minimization of the Odra explosion in Western Texas at the meeting of the office on Wednesday. In the post of social media FridayHe took a fresh tact, saying that the explosion was “the highest priority” for his department, health and human services.

He noticed different ways in which the department helps Texas, among them by financing a state vaccination program and updating the advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But in no case Mr. Kennedy himself did not advise Americans to make sure that their children got arrows.

Disease control and prevention centers, part of HHS, did not send the first notification of the explosion until Thursday, almost a month after reporting the first cases in Texas.

“They shouted in a whisper,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, who is an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota and a former official of the Health Department.

“I’m afraid their hands were bound,” he added.

CDC officials did not answer immediately at the request for comment.

The Odra explosion in Western Texas fell ill with over 140 inhabitants and killed one child, the first such death in a decade. Lutne support for vaccination and infrequent federal updates particularly concern scientists in the lightweight of Mr. Kennedy’s long history in the field of sowing distrust in vaccines.

Over the years, he suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was associated with autism, and the Odra epidemics were mainly “fabricated” for the beaten profits of drug producers.

If an explosion in Texas offers a window on the approach of Trump’s administration to public health, then problems for the future were said by some scientists.

Health officials in the state claim that they did not need extensive federal assistance, but future explosions in other places may not be possible to master without federal lend a hand. “This can be called a dress attempt,” said Catherine Troisi, an epidemiologist at Uthealth Houston School of Public Health.

She added: “In the theater, a bad dress means a good performance. I am actually sure that this is not in public health. “

In previous bonfires, CDC often plays a leading role in society’s education in terms of dangers associated with the conclusion of the virus and the importance of MMR vaccinations.

At the peak of the explosion in Up-to-date York in 2019, during the first term of President Trump, the agency issued press release Calling healthcare professionals to peaceful patients with vaccine safety and criticizing groups that disseminate information on this subject.

In the accompanying statement Alex M. Azar II, then the Secretary of Health, wrote that the Odra was “highly contagious, potentially threatening the disease.”

“With a sheltered and effective vaccine, which protects against measles, the suffering we see can be avoided,” he added.

His message was part of an intensive campaign aimed at suppressing the largest epidemics since 2000, when the Odram eliminated from the United States was announced. Energy campaigns led to over 60,000 MMR vaccination in affected communities.

Health officials contacted religious leaders, local doctors and groups of spokes. In some parts of Up-to-date York, officials announced emergency, authorized vaccinations and infected with children of unvaccinated children from public places.

This time the signals were much more muted.

Before CDC published its first public statement about the explosion, the Oder spread to nine poviats in Texas, and nine additional cases broke out on the border with Up-to-date Mexico.

The statement once mentioned vaccination, saying that “it remains the best defense against measles infection.”

When asked about matters in Texas on Wednesday, Mr. Kennedy said that the explosion “is not unusual” and falsely claimed that many people were hospitalized there “mainly for quarantine”.

He did not mention vaccines. In his post on social media, Kennedy emphasized that his department “still finances the vaccination program in Texas.” But he did not clearly call the Americans to make shots.

Instead, the vaccination campaign was largely left to state and local officials. In Information Conferences, vigorously promoting vaccine clinics and overthrow of disinformation, were often held in Texas.

Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana, who is a doctor, and who cast a key voice to confirm Mr. Kennedy to his position, called the inhabitants of his state, which borders with Texas to make sure they are up to date with vaccinations from the Oder.

But the virus as contagious as Odra does not respect the borders of the state, and CDC should provide greater guidelines and national leadership, said Dr. Osterholm.

“Each place can be another scorching place tomorrow” He said.

On Friday, the capital of Texas, Austin, reported the case of the Odra in an unvaccinated baby, which was disclosed during international travel.