Measles Hype and Hidden Crises

Measles Hype and Hidden Crises
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Measles Hype and Hidden Crises

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A Lesson in Strange Public Health Priorities

The following was first published on SHARYL ATTKISSON‘s free Substack

The following is a news analysis.

Public health officials work hard to alarm the public when there is a measles outbreak
But they downplay, virtually ignore, or shroud in secrecy, more serious infectious disease events
In this article, we compare the attention given to a measles outbreak of several hundred that’s largely confined to two states, to a mysterious virus that sickened and/or paralyzed thousands of children that you probably neer heard about—with the CDC refusing to release details.

There’s been a rash of headlines as if measles were a horribly fatal disease that’s sweeping the nation, putting millions of children at serious risk (and, by the way, it’s the fault of MAHA architect Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many articles will imply).

The reality is far less dramatic.

As of March 25 updates, the CDC and states reports counting 381 people with measles across 18 states this year. Almost all of the cases are in Texas, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) on March 21. There are also several dozen cases in New Mexico—few to none sprinkled about in 48 other states.

Two deaths of children are reported in the Texas-New Mexico measles cluster. So far they come with scant confirmatory details. Some reports state that at least one of the deaths was not actually due to measles. And while nobody wants their child to get a case of measles— it’s rarely fatal.

Furthermore, although the CDC touts measles are “extremely contagious,” the agency fails to add that it’s not “extremely contagious” at all—among today’s current well-vaccinated population.

Compare the measles toll and publicity to the more than 1,000 kids sickened and/or paralyzed by a mysterious outbreak of virus a decade ago that you probably never heard about. That’s because the CDC seemed to have little interest in publicizing or raising alarms about. Or compare the measles publicity to the millions grappling with chronic diseases—true epidemics. You you may rightly start to wonder: Why the oversized megaphone for measles, and the muzzle for bigger public health threats?

Read on for details.

The CDC’s March 10 Health Alert Network advisory about the measles outbreak ramped up urgency, pushing MMR vaccines with gusto alongside calls for heightened surveillance. Fair enough—measles can be nasty and can be preventable. But the hype tends to feel outsized when you zoom out.

EV-D68: A Paralyzing Silence

Contrast the treatment public health officials and the media are giving measles with a mysterious dual outbreak of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) and acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a polio-like paralysis in children. I dug into that mystery on my TV program Full Measure several years ago.

In the span of four months in 2014, at least 94 children in 33 U.S. states developed the devastating form of paralysis with symptoms similar to polio. Some required a ventilator to breathe. And some of the greatest government health minds in the country said they had no idea what was causing it.

At the same time, a respiratory illness called EV-D68 began sickening American kids in worrisome numbers. By November 2014, it was linked to 12 child deaths—far more than the current measles outbreak that’s garnering so much media attention.

As I reported at the time, these illnesses were occurring together. It was believed that the EV-D68 was somehow triggering the AFM paralysis. Some doctors who were treating the sick and paralyzed children were alarmed. Yet CDC was far from eager to sound alarms with the public, or release much information at all.

Interestingly, the EV-D68 and AFM cases were occurring against the backdrop of another measles outbreak back then that was also getting oversized attention and media coverage. At the time in 2014, CDC and medical experts stated that measles was very dangerous. They claimed that for every 1,000 cases of measles there would be approximately 2 deaths. Yet the death risk among serious cases of EV-D68 that wasn’t garnering the same attention and concern appeared to be several fold greater: at least 14 associated deaths reported among 1,153 cases.

Below I compare the measles outbreak at the time, which the CDC termed “large” against the much larger EV-D68 outbreak, which the CDC was virtually silent about.

2014

EV-D68/Paralysis: ~1,153 cases in 5 months, 49 states, 14 deaths, 94 cases of paralysis

“Large” Measles Outbreak: ~141 cases in 2 months, 17 states (primarily California), 0 deaths

The CDC confirmed 2,609 AFM cases over several a period of several years and stated that it was assumed that thousands more AFM cases likely went undiagnosed. At the same time, EV-D68 was circulating widely, with some studies suggesting hundreds of thousands were infected annually.

Yet, the CDC clammed up about this duo of disorders hitting children. And unlike measles, where officials are happy to publicize where the cases are cropping up, the CDC weirdly refused to provide any detail as to which states had the AFM and EV-D68 cases, citing patient privacy.

In 2016, I sued the CDC, forcing the release of thousands of pages of records about EV-D68 and AFM that they’d fought to hide. Those docs showed a sprawling problem—some hospitals hit hard by clusters of the illnesses, parents terrified—but no emergency declaration, but no major campaign to warn the public. Why?

Swine Flu: The Phantom Menace

Rewind to 2009’s swine flu “epidemic”—another scandal I exposed while investigating for CBS News. The government hyped swine flu as a killer epidemic, committing to an experimental vaccine.

But I got tips from good sources that there was no real swine flu epidemic.

To get to the bottom of the facts, I asked CDC to provide lab results it had collected from all 50 states. The states were lab testing patients deemed most likely to have swine flu based on their travel, symptoms, and other risk factors. But CDC wouldn’t hand over the information—even though we, the public, own it.

So I filed information requests with all 50 states to get the lab test results directly from them.

Indeed, those results confirmed almost no swine flu was circulating. The vast majority of the sick were shown to have been suffering from a different, unspecified respiratory infection. The CDC knew this, yet stayed quiet as vaccine makers ramped up their new product to be given to thousands.

Outcome? The vaccine, rushed to market, was eventually linked to some deaths and injuries. The U.S. paid out $6.2 million to 12 injured claimants by 2017, per the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) vaccine injury data, with 1,310 claims filed for swine flu vaccine harms.

The swine flu “epidemic” never was, but the money sure rolled in.

Chronic Disease: The Silent Explosion

Then there’s the chronic disease epidemic—autism, and autoimmune disorders like juvenile diabetes, POTS, and Crohn’s—skyrocketing for decades while public health officials mostly shrug.

The CDC says autism hit 1 in 36 kids by 2020, up from 1 in 150 in 2000, per their March 23, 2023, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Type 1 diabetes in kids jumped 45% from 2001 to 2017, per a 2021 JAMA study.

POTS and pediatric Crohn’s diagnoses climb too, with no clear tally from the CDC—just nods to “rising trends.”

Treatments? Well, there are plenty of those—drugs and therapies generating billions in pharma revenue. But getting at root causes? Crickets. No national push to trace environmental triggers or dietary shifts, just a focus on managing symptoms.

The Pattern: Fear for Profit, Silence for Neglect

What ties these examples together?

Public health agencies like the CDC seem to crank the alarm when there’s a product to push—MMR shots for measles or swine flu jabs in ’09. Measles gets a red alert when it hits barely 100 cases. Swine flu got a war chest despite no real threat.

And EV-D68 and AFM sickening and paralyzing kids by the thousands? No vaccine, no fanfare—just secrecy until I pried it open. Chronic diseases afflicting millions? No focus on declaring an urgent need to identify causes—just pricey pills and treatments offered up.

In the end, it appears that when dollars align with “emergencies,” the public megaphone blares. But when the problem’s unprofitable for the big money players, or uncomfortable for reasons undisclosed, it’s a whisper.

Read Sharyl Attkisson’s bestseller “Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails.”