Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, describes her fight to stop the largest measles outbreak since 2000, despite a chaotic reorganization of federal health agencies.

The measles outbreak centered in northwest Texas appeared to slow on Friday, as health officials reported just seven new cases since earlier this week. The latest update from the Texas Department of State Health Services shows the state has seen 709 measles cases since the outbreak began spreading in late January.

There have been 1,001 confirmed cases of measles across 30 states so far this year, according to the latest update from the CDC on Friday, an increase of 66 over the previous week and far surpassing the 285 measles cases in total reported in 2024 (the CDC does not provide data on how many cases are actively infectious).