South Carolina Passes Over CDC in Its Quest for Help Battling Measles Outbreak

South Carolina health officials are requesting help to deal with a large measles outbreak, but they have bypassed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to go to an adjacent, independent non-profit foundation that Congress established in 1992.The non-profit CDC Foundation confirmed to the New York Sun that South Carolina officials have requested its support. The foundation is funded through contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations.“The CDC Foundation has hired field staff including epidemiologists and data analysts to help strengthen disease surveillance and accelerate case investigation,” the associated vice president for communications at the CDC Foundation, Amy Tolchinsky, said.Ms. Tolchinsky adds that the CDC Foundation has a tradition of providing support to various states. The foundation is typically used to bolster a federal response, however, not replace CDC staff. The organization is not bound by the government’s bureaucracy or other restraints.Going to the CDC Foundation “may be much more politically palatable than asking CDC to help,” the former head of the CDC’s infectious disease unit, Dan Jernigan, told Reuters. Mr. Jernigan worked at the CDC for decades, but resigned last year.The CDC, in its latest update, says there are measles cases reported in 26 states this year. The largest number is in South Carolina. State officials reported on Tuesday that there have been six new cases since Friday, bringing the total number connected to the ongoing outbreak to 979. There are currently 91 people in quarantine and one in isolation.The newest cases have been linked to a homeschool co-op. Other schools have been sources of spreading the disease over the past several months. At least 21 hospitalizations, including both adults and children, have taken place for complications of the disease since the beginning of the outbreak.A large majority of the cases involve children who have not been vaccinated. Childhood immunization rates have declined in South Carolina in recent years. Governor Henry McMaster has said that he has been told the vaccine is effective to prevent measles but he won’t mandate the vaccines, calling it is a personal choice.“It’s dangerous, just like a lot of other diseases. If there’s some way to prevent it, you ought to do it, unless you have some good reason not to,” Mr. McMaster said at a December news conference.In January, the Department of Health and Human Services announced an overhaul of the childhood immunization schedule. While some vaccines are no longer recommended, the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella remains recommended.Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has been a longtime vaccine skeptic but when the outbreak first spread in Texas last year he did endorse the MMR vaccine.“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Mr. Kennedy said in an X post. That drew backlash from some of his supporters in the Make America Healthy Again movement.Mr. Kennedy has not remained vocal in an encouragement of the vaccine since then and has advocated for parental choice when it comes to vaccines.The United States has faced a year-old measles outbreak with thousands of documented cases and at least three deaths. The country is on the verge of losing its measles elimination status, a distinction it has held for nearly a quarter-century.The CDC has faced severe cutbacks during the current Trump administration. A quarter of its staff was released in the first half of last year and hundreds more were let go near the end of 2025. The agency has been without a permanent director for six months after President Trump dismissed Susan Monarez from her job just weeks after she was confirmed. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya recently took over as acting director.In an email sent to the CDC staff on Friday, Mr. Bhattacharya acknowledged “abrupt changes in leadership” at the agency and “overall uncertainty” felt by employees.

South Carolina Passes Over CDC in Its Quest for Help Battling Measles Outbreak

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