The official numbers say there are 1,596 measles cases in the United States this year—the worst outbreak in three decades. But experts believe the real number could be as high as 5,000 cases, with the disease spreading undetected across the country. Why don’t we know the true scale? Because the very systems designed to track and stop outbreaks have been systematically dismantled.
Throughout 2025, the CDC has lost nearly 2,000 employees, including the “disease detectives” who investigate outbreaks. Local health departments have been stripped of $12 billion in funding. The measles response team’s leadership has been fired. And now, with three deaths already recorded—the first in a decade—health officials warn we’re watching America’s disease surveillance infrastructure collapse in real time.
As one CDC official put it: “The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them.”
Join us as we investigate how cuts made without understanding their consequences are leaving America blind to a growing public health crisis, and what it means when the people tracking diseases disappear just as those diseases return.
