U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second unvaccinated school-aged little one died from a measles-related sickness.
Forward of a “Make America Healthy Again” tour throughout southwestern U.S., Kennedy mentioned in a social media put up that he was in Gaines County to consolation households who needed to bury two younger kids who’ve died. Seminole is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that began in late January and continues to swell, with almost 500 instances in Texas alone.
He mentioned he was additionally working with Texas well being officers to “control the measles outbreak.”
The kid didn’t have underlying well being situations, and died Thursday from “what the child’s doctors described as measles pulmonary failure,” the Texas State Division of State Well being Companies mentioned Sunday in a information launch. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Well being System in Lubbock, Texas, mentioned that the kid was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.”
That is the third identified measles-related dying tied to this outbreak. One was one other school-aged little one in Texas and the opposite was an grownup in New Mexico. Neither had been vaccinated.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate earlier than ascending to the position of nation’s high well being secretary earlier this 12 months, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations because the measles outbreak has worsened below his watch.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy mentioned in a prolonged assertion posted on X. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been used safely for greater than 60 years and is 97% efficient in opposition to measles after two doses.
U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention groups have been “redeployed,” Kennedy added, though the nation’s public well being company by no means relayed it had pulled again throughout the rising disaster. Neither the CDC nor the state well being division included the dying of their measles stories issued Friday, however added it to their counts Sunday.
Nationwide, the U.S. has greater than double the variety of measles instances it noticed in all of 2024.
Greater than two months in, the West Texas outbreak is believed to have unfold to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, sickening almost 570 individuals. The World Well being Group additionally reported instances associated to Texas in Mexico. The variety of instances in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 extra individuals had been hospitalized.
Republican U.S. Sen. Invoice Cassidy from Louisiana, a liver physician whose vote helped cinch Kennedy’s affirmation, known as Sunday for stronger messaging from well being officers in a put up on X.
“Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles,” he wrote. “Top health officials should say so unequivocally b/4 another child dies.”
A CDC spokesperson famous the efficacy of the measles vaccine Sunday however stopped in need of calling on individuals to get it.
Departing from long-standing public well being messaging round vaccination, the spokesperson known as the choice a “personal one” and mentioned individuals ought to speak to their physician and “should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.”
Misinformation about learn how to stop and deal with measles is hindering a sturdy public well being response, together with claims about vitamin A dietary supplements which were pushed by Kennedy and holistic drugs supporters regardless of medical doctors’ warnings that it needs to be given below a doctor’s orders and that an excessive amount of might be harmful.
Medical doctors at Covenant Youngsters’s Hospital in Lubbock, the place the primary measles dying occurred, say they’ve handled fewer than 10 kids for liver points from vitamin A toxicity, which they discovered when operating routine lab checks on undervaccinated kids who’ve measles. Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer, mentioned the sufferers reported utilizing vitamin A to deal with and forestall the virus.
Dr. Peter Marks, the Meals and Drug Administration’s former vaccine chief, mentioned duty for the dying rests with Kennedy and his employees. Marks was compelled out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine security.
“This is the epitome of an absolute needless death,” Marks advised The Related Press in an interview Sunday. “These kids should get vaccinated — that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”
Marks additionally mentioned he not too long ago warned U.S. senators that extra deaths would happen if the administration didn’t mount a extra aggressive response to the outbreak. Kennedy has been known as to testify earlier than the Senate well being committee on Thursday.
Specialists and native well being officers count on the outbreak to go on for a number of extra months if not a 12 months. In West Texas, the overwhelming majority of instances are in unvaccinated individuals and kids youthful than 17.
With a number of states going through outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable illness — and declining childhood vaccination charges nationwide — some fear that measles might value the U.S. its standing as having eradicated the illness.
Measles is a respiratory virus that may survive within the air for as much as two hours. As much as 9 out of 10 people who find themselves prone will get the virus if uncovered, in keeping with the CDC. The primary shot is beneficial for kids ages 12 to fifteen months, and the second for ages 4 to six years.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
