Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee member Scott Gottlieb said he is “very worried” about the outbreak of measles in the Texas spread.
Gottlieb Participated in CBS News “Face the Nation” was asked by host Margaret Brennan on Sunday about the outbreak in the South Plains area of Texas.
He pointed out that he believes it will “spread.”
“There have been 100 cases identified so far,” Gottlieb said. “There's probably more to it.
“So I think this will be in hundreds of cases and it may take months to try and sniff it out completely,” he added.
The Texas Department of Health has confirmed at least 90 measles cases and said 16 patients were hospitalized. Only five patients were vaccinated.
The department said there is likely an increase in cases of measles that have not yet been confirmed.
“When there is such a concentration of measles within a community, it will inevitably spread outside of that community,” Gottlieb said.
He noted that there is a pocket of low vaccine rates for highly contagious diseases in various communities across the country. The measles vaccine is also undergoing scrutiny from the Department of Health's Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There are concerns that Kennedy's skepticism about vaccines will encourage the politicization of vaccines.
Gottlieb Rebutted the argument Focusing on measles shots against vaccines is “very effective.”
“This is a very dangerous virus, and like I said, about 27% of children infected with the West Texas outbreak and the New Mexico outbreak were hospitalized,” he said. “So this can be a very serious illness with long-term consequences.”
Gottreive also noted that there could be economic consequences from the spread of measles, as other countries could place the US under travel advisories.
“The current risk to the US is that the virus that has largely disappeared from the US circulation is back and can continue to spread even at low levels,” Gottlieb said.
