Former FDA chief ‘very concerned’ about Texas measles outbreak spreading

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he is “very concerned” about the measles outbreak in Texas spreading.

Gottlieb joined CBS News's "Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he was asked by host Margaret Brennan about the outbreak in the South Plains region of Texas, which has left many children infected.

He noted that he believes it “will spread.”

“There’s been 100 cases that have been identified so far,” Gottlieb said. “There’s probably many more than that.

“So, I think that this is going to get into the hundreds of cases and could take many months to try to fully snuff out,” he added.

The Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed at least 90 cases of measles and said 16 patients were hospitalized. Just five of the patients were vaccinated.

The department said there were likely more measles cases that aren’t yet confirmed.

“When you have that kind of a concentration of measles within a community, it’s going to inevitably spread outside that community,” Gottlieb said.

He noted that there are pockets of low vaccine rates for the highly contagious disease in various communities across the country. The measles vaccine is also under scrutiny from Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

There are concerns that Kennedy’s skepticism about vaccines will fuel the politicization of the vaccine.

Gottlieb countered the argument against vaccines, noting the measles shot is “highly effective.”

“This is a very dangerous virus, and as I said, about 27 percent of the kids who have been infected in that West Texas outbreak and a New Mexico outbreak have been hospitalized,” he said. “So this could be a quite serious illness with long-term consequences.”

Gottleib also noted that there could be economic impacts from the spread of measles, as other countries could place the U.S. under a travel advisory.

“The risk to the United States right now is that a virus that has been largely extinguished from circulation in the U.S. could return and just continue to spread, even at a low level,” Gottlieb said.

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