Congresswoman Schrier, Senator Bennet Demand Answers on Childhood Vaccines EO, Measles Deaths, & Delayed Vaccine Access

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) led 25 colleagues in a letter to Dr. Erica Schwartz, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to call out efforts to reject settled vaccine science and demand answers about the CDC’s efforts to implement President Trump’s childhood vaccine Executive Order (EO), underreport measles-associated deaths, and delay access to childhood immunizations. 

“[...] As the United States is experiencing the largest measles outbreak in 35 years, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) aimed at dismantling core immunization guidelines, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a Request for Information (RFI) to lay the groundwork for fundamentally restructuring the routine childhood immunization schedule. At the same time, reports indicate the CDC, under your leadership, excluded verified state-reported measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania from the public mortality count. All of this is happening while the CDC delayed access to fall respiratory virus vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. We are deeply concerned by this administration’s persistent efforts to reject settled science. As CDC Director, you bear a responsibility to uphold scientific integrity, and we write seeking answers on how the CDC will respond to the EO and the RFI, and how you will honor the pledge you made to ensure that the CDC leads with evidence-based public health,” began the lawmakers. 

The United States is facing a decline in childhood immunization rates. Recently, the CDC reported that 280,000 kindergartners did not complete their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine series. This comes as the Trump Administration has actively worked to lower the number of recommended immunizations, break up safe and effective combination shots, and promote legal action against states unaligned with such efforts.

Additionally, the CDC has a long-standing agency precedent and prides itself on “objective data collection and reporting.” At the beginning of September, numerous reports exposed that four measles-associated deaths verified and reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health were excluded from the CDC’s public outbreak tracker for weeks, even as internal CDC systems continued to track these fatalities. This omission breaks with agency standards, and raises serious questions about the CDC’s willingness to resist political pressure over settled science. 

“The health of American children and families depends on a CDC Director who is willing to follow the science, even when it may be politically inconvenient. We look forward to your response and to seeing whether the CDC under your leadership honors the commitments you made at your confirmation hearing,” concluded the lawmakers. 

The text of the letter is available HERE.

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