A MEASLES CALL TO ACTION — HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on health care leaders and policymakers Sunday to protect public health and make vaccines readily available amid the measles outbreak in Texas, where an unvaccinated child has died. In a Fox News op-ed, Kennedy, who has a decades-long history of questioning vaccines and promoting anti-vaccine views, said he is “deeply concerned” about the outbreak and touted HHS’ response. He said the agency is offering technical assistance, laboratory support, vaccines and therapeutic medicine to Texas health authorities. The state has reported 146 confirmed cases since late January. “As healthcare providers, community leaders, and policymakers, we have a shared responsibility to protect public health,” Kennedy wrote. “This includes ensuring that accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy is disseminated. We must engage with communities to understand their concerns, provide culturally competent education, and make vaccines readily accessible for all those who want them.” As the outbreak has predominantly affected children, Kennedy said, “All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine.” But he added that “the decision to vaccinate is a personal one” and “good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses.” Key context: The Texas Department of State Health Services recently told POLITICO that only one CDC employee — a field officer who’s usually based in Austin — is in Texas helping with the measles outbreak response because the state hasn’t asked for additional assistance from the federal agency, and the CDC can’t send personnel unless the state requests help. FORMER CMS OFFICIAL STRIKES BACK — An outgoing career official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday lambasted the HHS leader carrying out mass firings across the agency. Jeff Grant, a 41-year veteran of the federal workforce who retired from CMS on Friday, sent a scathing open letter to acting HHS Chief Human Capital Officer Jeffery Anoka, who’s been tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s chaotic purge of the federal workforce across the nation’s health agencies. Grant, who was the deputy director for operations of the CMS division that oversees Obamacare and other programs, said in the letter that 82 of his former employees were wrongly terminated and asked that they be rehired. “As a career federal official and senior human capital officer, you had to know that what you were doing was wrong,” Grant wrote. “If you were ordered to write those letters, you should have refused to follow that unlawful directive.” HHS did not respond to a request for comment. Background: While Trump officials have cast the layoffs imposed by billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency as methodical decisions meant to spare HHS’ core functions, people inside its agency have disputed that characterization and said the deep cuts have at times seemed indiscriminate. In the letter, Grant disputed the termination notice that 82 of his former employees — about 15 percent of his workforce — received a few weeks ago, where Anoka claimed they were “not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency.” Grant said the fired staff members were in positions that align with Trump administration priorities, including a new proposed program integrity rule that targets fraud in the Obamacare marketplace. Grant also emphasized that the dozens of employees fired from his division, the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, were highly qualified, and many “received the highest possible performance ratings.”
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