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Measles Cases Jump To 198 In Worsening West Texas Outbreak; New Mexico Health Officials Investigate Cause Of Death Of Resident Who Tested Positive For Measles; Unexploded World War II Bomb Discovered In Paris; Memo: Trump Admin Plans To Cut 70,000-Plus Jobs At Veterans Affairs Dept; "Twitter: Breaking The Bird" Premiers Sunday Night At 10 ET/PT. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 07, 2025 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:31:10]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's been a big jump in this measles outbreak. Health officials now reporting 198 confirmed cases in west Texas.

That is 39 more infections since an update on Tuesday when 159 cases were reported, and the majority of these cases, about three in four of them, are in kids 17 and under.

Often those are people who don't have a say in whether they are vaccinated or not. They are minors.

A 6-year-old unvaccinated child died from the virus last week. And we're now learning there might be a second measles death, this time, in neighboring -- in a neighboring county in New Mexico.

Health officials say they are investigating if the virus caused the death of an unvaccinated person who tested positive for the disease. The person did not seek medical attention before their death.

Joining us now is Dr. F. Perry Wilson, associate professor of public health at Yale University.

And I know hearing news like that is just -- it's so tragic, I think, because of how vaccinations could have prevented this.

But I wonder what you think about this new updated vaccination recommendation coming from the Texas -- from Texas health officials in these affected counties where they're saying that infants should get an early dose of the vaccine and adults without immunity should get a vaccine.

Are those effective?

DR. F. PERRY WILSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, YALE UNIVERSITY: Yes. Yes, they are. This is -- the MMR vaccine is one of the most effective vaccines we have against viral illness. About 97 percent effective. There is, you know, a routine vaccine schedule that that most of us

have received and much of the country has received. These additional doses or early doses are necessary in the face of trying to control an outbreak.

Those are just the decisions that need to be made to sort of create a fire line around a growing outbreak.

KEILAR: The vaccination, no doubt, incredibly effective. The recommendations, do you think people will follow them?

Because if people are hesitant to vaccinate their children, even if, as we know, science has proven some of their hesitation is not based in science, do you worry that they'll be hesitant to vaccinate their kids even earlier, which is this guidance?

WILSON: I see what you're -- you're asking. Yes, of course, there will be ongoing hesitancy. People are anxious about vaccines and becoming more so.

That said, there is good scientific evidence that vaccine recommendations that come from trusted individuals, including your own personal physicians, have an outsized effect on the decision whether or not to vaccinate.

So I would urge all my colleagues in Texas, the physicians in Texas, to reach out to their patients.

Because those messages coming from them to someone you haven't seen, from someone you have an established relationship with, people are much more likely to listen to than -- than, frankly, listening to people like me.

KEILAR: And do you think they're more likely to listen when they see someone in their community dying from measles?

WILSON: One-hundred percent. There are multiple surveys that show that as the perceived severity of an illness increases and the perceived proximity of an illness increases, the willingness to vaccinate increases. I think that's -- that's just human psychology.

In fact, I think one of the reasons vaccination rates against measles has gone down over time, in addition to a lot of misinformation out there, is simply because it was so effective we eliminated measles in the United States.

It just wasn't top of mind. It wasn't something that people even thought about. And so it made it easier to say, oh, well, why -- why should I even bother?

KEILAR: Yes. And as we're looking, maybe you can speak a little bit more of that because we are focused on these two states, right, Texas and New Mexico.

But bigger picture in the U.S., what has been that trend of vaccination backslide across the U.S.? Because for some people, it may be, why even bother? But that's certainly not the only reason.

[14:35:09]

WILSON: No, I think we can't -- the elephant in the room here is really the Covid pandemic and the amount of misinformation about Covid vaccines colored the experience for a lot of vaccines.

We saw, you know, a very dramatic decline in Covid vaccine uptake after the initial round of vaccines came out. And this strange off- target effect was that, simultaneously with people not getting Covid boosters and things, we also saw a decline in other more routine childhood vaccinations and flu vaccinations.

So it had this add on effect as mistrust of sort of relatively standard and well-established public health measures sort of eroded in the face of this new and scary pandemic. We've backslid quite a bit.

And for measles, this is particularly troublesome. It is the most infectious human virus, more infectious than Covid, more infectious than HIV. The only way to stop an outbreak of measles is to prevent infections.

And as I said, the vaccine is 97 percent effective at preventing infections. But you need to vaccinate a lot of people because it will find those people who are not vaccinated and take hold very readily. It's highly infectious.

KEILAR: Yes, we're seeing that play out, unfortunately.

Dr. Wilson, thank you so much for being with us,

WILSON: Anytime.

KEILAR: DOGE taking aim at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with plans to cut about 70,000 jobs there. Some veterans already let go say they feel betrayed by President Trump. We will discuss with an Army veteran who was recently fired from his job, next.

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[14:41:22]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A huge surprise for folks in France today. If you thought your commute was hard, listen to the nightmare that happened in Paris.

An unexploded World War II-era bomb was discovered along the tracks leading to the world's third-busiest train station. Train travel came to a screeching halt with almost 500 trains canceled, 600,000 commuters affected.

The French transport minister says the bomb has been defused. But it's still been just a day for commuters there.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Melissa Bell, is in Paris with the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Brianna, a day of travel misery for anyone hoping to get in and out of Paris' Gare du Nord this Friday after authorities found in the early hours of this morning a huge World War II bomb, 500 kilos of it, 200 of those sheer explosives.

Now, it's not unusual that these kinds of unexploded ordnance from World War II should be found. After all, this is a part of the world, northern France, that was so bitterly fought over in World War II.

What's unusual is that this huge bomb should have been found in the middle of railway tracks, and some of those closest to Paris, just a couple of miles out of Paris, on some of the busiest tracks, the ones that lead to London.

This bomb had lain for 80 years undisturbed. It was a work project that allowed it to be found. And of course, once it was found, a huge demining operation that has caused chaos and misery for thousands.

National, regional and international train services disrupted, huge parts of the motorway also closed off as they dealt with this huge bomb.

But essentially, what's most surprising is that for 80 years this thing had lain undisturbed in such a hugely populated part of Paris and beneath some of its busiest tracks -- Boris and Brianna?

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SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Melissa Bell for that report.

Back in the United States, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with its slash-and-burn approach to the federal government, we're following the stories of veterans whose jobs have been on the chopping block.

In an internal memo obtained by CNN, White House officials announced plans this week to cut over 70,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans, of course, make up over 25 percent of the V.A.'s workforce.

Let's discuss with James Stancil. He's an Army veteran who was recently fired from his job as a supply technician at the V.A. hospital in Milwaukee.

James, thank you for being with us.

I want to ask you about this justification, the explanation that was cited in your termination letter, saying that your performance wasn't good enough. You say that you'd gotten multiple positive reviews before that.

JAMES STANCIL, ARMY VETERAN WORKING FOR V.A. FIRED BY DOGE: Yes, sir. I can read the statement. It says, "Until the probationary period has been completed, a

probationer has the burden to demonstrate why it is in the public interest for the government to finalize the appointment to the Civil Service for this particular individual."

Unfortunately, the agency finds that my performance has not met the burden to demonstrate that my further employment at the agency would be in the public interest.

Every single performance review I have says fully successful, sometimes pivotal, in a critical position. It's a fraudulent statement that they make. it's an illegal termination.

SANCHEZ: Help us understand the status of this probationary designation. Had you been a recent hire?

STANCIL: I've actually been in the position since June of '23, but more as an intern. A federal employee officially since April of last year.

[14:44:58]

It was about a month from the end of that probationary year, which every time someone is promoted to the next pay grade, they then begin another probationary year.

You are more or less always under a probationary status of some sort. And in that capacity, the only thing you can be fired for is unsatisfactory performance.

That's right in my hiring paperwork, which my personnel file, like all of our personnel files, is a written document from the government stating that we are fully successful.

SANCHEZ: So if you think they are unjustified in -- in firing you, their response thus far has roughly been that a lot of the probationary folks are being eliminated.

What do you think that means for agencies like the V.A. long term if they're losing folks like you who have been proven to be, as you put it, pivotal in critical jobs, fully satisfactory, just because they haven't been on the job for a certain amount of time?

STANCIL: Well, exactly. And it's not just the job. It's that pay grade. It's that pay level. And again, it's a fraudulent illegal termination because it's based on false statements.

It's going to double the workload. Our -- our department was already understaffed. The day that I was let go, with a coworker, that was about half of our departments workforce, which automatically doubled their workload at the same pay, which means basically a cut in pay to them.

This translates to the patient, to the nurses, to the doctors, because nothing the nurses or doctors touch in that hospital isn't coming through us first. SANCHEZ: I do wonder what you say to folks who argue that these cuts

will make the V.A. work better for veterans.

I know you voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. So -- so perhaps it speaks to your political leanings. But there are a lot of Republicans out there who are essentially saying that the V.A. is broken, and these reductions are a way to fix it.

What would your response be?

STANCIL: I'd say we could cut Congress in half, cut the Senate in half, maybe take Elon out of the Oval Office, cut that in half. That might be better as well. If we want to go that route, let's go that route.

SANCHEZ: Can you respond to the idea that making the government more efficient would reduce the cost to taxpayers, therefore making lives easier for -- for veterans and for other folks? They would be able to save more money.

And that essentially their argument is that the government is going bankrupt and something needs to change. I imagine you would say that this is not something that should be fooled around with.

STANCIL: Well, I mean, right off the bat, you -- fraud and waste. Alina Habba is a counsel to the White House, counsel of the president, and she makes $420,000 a year. She's making over $1,100 today. She makes today what I would make in two weeks.

She has put out a statement that is more disparaging than that statement that was on the termination, calling us perhaps unfit to work any job, that maybe we didn't want to come to work.

Completely disparaging. That is fraud. That is waste. She is the woman who defended Harvey Weinstein and made $2.5 million to defend Harvey Weinstein, which she lost the case.

So, I mean, if you want to talk fraud, you want to talk waste, Teresa Barrett, the Office of Human Capital, is doing nothing but putting out falsehoods and lies, promulgating misinformation.

That's fraud. That's waste. What are they making a year? This is not cutting any waste. This is not -- we're talking about a hospital. We're talking about a hospital.

You're not talking about some DEI, you know, whatever program that has an office. And they know this is hands on medical work. This is hands on stuff.

It doesn't make anything more efficient. It makes things less efficient. It creates more waste.

SANCHEZ: James Stancil, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate you sharing your experience and your point of view.

STANCIL: Thank you. [14:49:23]

Stay with NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

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SANCHEZ: A new CNN original series follows the creation of one of the most famous social media platforms of all time, Twitter.

A group of tech visionaries came together in 2006 to create the app, and in just a few years, it transformed how people connected all around the world.

You're going to see some interviews with those who were closest to Twitters developments, and the behind-the-scenes moments that led to the creation of a trailblazing app.

Here's a preview of a new CNN documentary.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were a real mix of actual anarchists and people who were dreamers, like people who believed in a world that could be created through the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than half of the team knew how to juggle. Yes, we have a lot of jugglers. I think that this speaks to their counterculture kind of background.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you do a startup, the play is the work and the work is the play. These are the people I'm laughing with all day long. I'm working through problems, and it's really fun and challenging to solve the problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This chaotic, disruptive culture of people who stayed up until 3:00 in the morning at the office and wrote fantastic code. We were the most social people in the startup world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there someone who was -- who was skilled in the ways of the pinata? I think it was.

[14:55:02]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was lively. There were a lot of characters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to run, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I was maybe the boring one. We were writing ideas on whiteboards. Kind of typical small startup where you show up every day and you try to invent the future.

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SANCHEZ: Tune in to "TWITTER: BREAKING THE BIRD." It premieres Sunday, March 9th, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN. Coming up, a South Carolina death row inmate set to be executed

tonight by firing squad, a method that hasn't been used in the U.S. in almost 15 years. We have details from South Carolina in just moments. Stay with us.

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