The growing measles epidemic has landed at the headquarters of one major Silicon Valley company: Google.
Per BuzzFeed News, Google staff doctor David Kaye sent an email to some employees last week informing them that someone who had stepped foot in a building in the Mountain View headquarters in early May has recently been diagnosed with measles. (It is unclear whether or not the person works at Google.) In the precautionary email, he wrote, “We have been working with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and they would like us to share this measles advisory, which contains information on measles, exposure risks and actions to be taken.”
But not all employees were notified. Five workers who spoke to BuzzFeed News said they had not received Kaye’s email, which the anonymous employee who sent BuzzFeed News the document believes was only emailed to people who worked in the 1295 Charleston building. However, per the source, some workers who were on the email list forwarded it on to others who may have passed through the 1295 building, as well as posted it on internal Google groups.
Though measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, thanks to a successful vaccination program, major outbreaks have been occurring across the country at a dangerous rate this past year, which has seen 555 confirmed cases. Earlier this year, Washington state declared a public health emergency over 26 confirmed measles cases, which has since grown to 74, per the Washington State Department of Health. And, in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that unvaccinated individuals in certain Williamsburg zip codes — which has seen 228 confirmed measles cases in the majority-Orthodox Jewish community — would be required to receive the measles vaccine.
In Santa Clara County, in which Google’s HQ is located, public-health officials said there are four confirmed cases of measles. However, a spokesperson for the county’s public-health agency told BuzzFeed News that the cases are not related, and that there’s no ongoing public-health risk.