• Posted April 21, 2025

CDC Cancels Measles Help for Texas Schools Amid Staff Layoffs

MONDAY, April 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has canceled its plans to help Texas schools stop the rapid spread of measles. 

The decision came after some CDC staff involved in this year’s outbreak response were told they might lose their jobs, according to an agency employee.

CDC staff had planned to expand their work in Texas by offering on-site ventilation checks at schools, just like they had done in hospitals. 

These visits help spot issues that could make it easier for viruses like measles to spread. As of April 18, the Texas department of health services has confirmed 597 cases of measles in 10 counties, and two children have died.

"Being on the ground allows us to actually look at the filters that are in place, look at the HVAC systems, how they're set up, how they're being used, how they're being monitored. And after seeing what we did, I'm glad we did," Dylan Neu, a biomedical engineer at the CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), told CBS News.

Neu was sent to Texas in March to help hospitals treating measles patients. In one case, his team found that air was flowing out of room where a measles patient was in isolation — spreading the virus instead of containing it. 

In another hospital, a HEPA filter was installed in its plastic wrapping, making it pretty much useless.

"They might say in an interview, 'Yeah, we purchased HEPA filters. They've been running in the waiting room.' But if they're not actually out of the plastic bag, they're not doing what they think they're doing," Neu said to CBS News.

NIOSH, the CDC team that Neu works for, was largely dismantled earlier this month after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a massive round of layoffs. 

Neu was notified on April 1 that he would likely be laid off by the end of June.

"This action is necessary to align our workforce with the agency's current and future needs and to ensure the efficient and effective operation of our programs," Neu's notice said.

"My current understanding is that I'll be working in the office until the end of this month, and then I'll be on 60 days administrative leave until June 30th, and then we'll be separated at that point," he said.

Because Neu could lose access to CDC systems while in the field, the agency decided not to send him to assess schools in Texas.

The layoffs are affecting more than just the measles response. Neu says NIOSH has also had to stop doing health hazard evaluations — where experts help workplaces investigate cancer clusters or other types of outbreaks, according to CBS News.

"We're involved in pretty much every response the CDC is involved in. Especially if there's some sort of engineering or ventilation component, NIOSH gets called in as that scientific expertise," Neu said.

More information

Learn more about the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

SOURCE: CBS News, April 18, 2025