It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now our Health and Climate Tuesday section of the show, which we do every week on this day. and yes, it is Tuesday, not Monday today, right?

Today we're on the health side of things.

Measles was declared eliminated from the United States back in 2000.

But today the country is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in 30 years.

And it started, as many of you know, in West Texas.

As cases mounted, local health officials pleaded for help from the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control.

For weeks, though, according to a new report in KFF News, no one at the agency picked up the phone.

By the time federal scientists finally responded, children had died,

and the outbreak had spread into several states and across the border into Mexico. Amy Maxman

at KFF Health News obtained hundreds of emails showing how politics inside the Trump administration

prevented CDC scientists from doing their jobs.

They were muzzled, sidelined, even instructed to insert misinformation

about the so-called benefits of vitamin A into their official communications.

Local doctors and parents were left to deal with the crisis on their own.

So Amy Maxman joins us now with what her reporting revealed about how

public health broke down when science was politicized. Amy Maxman, Ph.D., National Public Health

correspondent at KFF Health News, joins us to share her stellar reporting on all this. Amy, welcome back to WNYC. Always

glad to have you on the show. Hi, Brian. It's a pleasure to be back. Can we just start

with the consequences of this outbreak? Your article says the Texas outbreak spread to New Mexico,

Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Mexico's Chihuahua State, at minimum.

Together, these linked outbreaks have sickened more than 4,500 people,

killed at least 16, and levied exorbitant costs on hospitals, health departments,

...