By Sneha S K
March 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new acting director, Jay Bhattacharya, on Monday urged Americans to get vaccinated against measles, saying it was the best protection against the disease.
“Measles is preventable, and vaccination remains the most effective way to protect yourself and those around you,” Bhattacharya said in a video posted on X.
The public health message was in sharp contrast to those from the previous acting CDC head, Jim O’Neill, who raised questions about the shot’s safety last fall and called for it to be split into several shots.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped broad recommendations for six childhood vaccines, saying that parents must make these decisions on an individual basis and only after consulting a doctor.
South Carolina is battling a measles outbreak. The state reported 985 cases on Friday. As of February 26, 1,136 confirmed measles cases were reported in the U.S. in 2026, according to the CDC’s latest data.
A bipartisan majority of Americans believe vaccines are safe and that children should receive them to attend school, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
AMERICANS BELIEVE VACCINE IS SAFE
Bhattacharya said the CDC was surging resources to support prevention and response efforts, and coordinating regularly with health officials across the country.
“We stand ready to provide CDC technical staff, laboratory support, vaccines and therapeutics upon request,” he said.
Reuters last month exclusively reported that South Carolina was seeking non-CDC reinforcements to contain the growing measles outbreak. The South Carolina Department of Public Health had told Reuters it has requested personnel from the nonprofit CDC Foundation.
A South Carolina health official last week said the CDC had allowed the state to temporarily expand its epidemiology workforce, and that it would seek additional analytical support from scientists and infectious-disease specialists to help evaluate the data and guide future response efforts.
Bhattacharya, who is also the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, stepped in as acting director of the CDC in February.
The U.S. is trying to retain its status of having eliminated measles even after recording the highest number of confirmed infections in three decades.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Shinjini Ganguli)
