U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second unvaccinated school-aged baby died from a measles-related sickness.
Forward of a “Make America Wholesome Once more” tour throughout southwestern U.S., Kennedy mentioned in a social media submit 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 circumstances in Texas alone.
He mentioned he was additionally working with Texas well being officers to “management the measles outbreak.”
The kid didn’t have underlying well being circumstances, and died Thursday from “what the kid’s docs described as measles pulmonary failure,” the Texas State Division of State Well being Providers mentioned Sunday in a information launch. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Well being System in Lubbock, Texas, mentioned that the kid was “receiving therapy for issues of measles whereas hospitalized.”
That is the third identified measles-related loss of life tied to this outbreak. One was one other school-aged baby 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 function of nation’s prime well being secretary earlier this yr, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations because the measles outbreak has worsened below his watch.
“The simplest technique to forestall the unfold 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 towards 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 in the course of the rising disaster. Neither the CDC nor the state well being division included the loss of life of their measles experiences issued Friday, however added it to their counts Sunday.
Nationwide, the U.S. has greater than double the variety of measles circumstances 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 folks. The World Well being Group additionally reported circumstances associated to Texas in Mexico. The variety of circumstances in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 extra folks had been hospitalized.
Republican U.S. Sen. Invoice Cassidy from Louisiana, a liver physician whose vote helped cinch Kennedy’s affirmation, referred to as Sunday for stronger messaging from well being officers in a submit on X.
“Everybody ought to be vaccinated! There isn’t a therapy for measles. No profit to getting measles,” he wrote. “Prime well being officers ought to say so unequivocally b/4 one other baby dies.”
A CDC spokesperson famous the efficacy of the measles vaccine Sunday however stopped wanting calling on folks to get it.
Departing from long-standing public well being messaging round vaccination, the spokesperson referred to as the choice a “private one” and mentioned folks ought to discuss to their physician and “ought to be knowledgeable concerning the potential dangers and advantages related to vaccines.”
Misinformation about methods to forestall and deal with measles is hindering a sturdy public well being response, together with claims about vitamin A dietary supplements which have been pushed by Kennedy and holistic drugs supporters regardless of docs’ warnings that it ought to be given below a doctor’s orders and that an excessive amount of will be harmful.
Medical doctors at Covenant Kids’s Hospital in Lubbock, the place the primary measles loss of life occurred, say they’ve handled fewer than 10 kids for liver points from vitamin A toxicity, which they discovered when operating routine lab assessments on undervaccinated kids who’ve measles. Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer, mentioned the sufferers reported utilizing vitamin A to deal with and stop the virus.
Dr. Peter Marks, the Meals and Drug Administration’s former vaccine chief, mentioned accountability for the loss of life rests with Kennedy and his employees. Marks was compelled out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine security.
“That is the epitome of an absolute pointless loss of life,” Marks instructed The Related Press in an interview Sunday. “These youngsters ought to get vaccinated — that’s the way you forestall folks 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 referred to as to testify earlier than the Senate well being committee on Thursday.
Specialists and native well being officers anticipate the outbreak to go on for a number of extra months if not a yr. In West Texas, the overwhelming majority of circumstances are in unvaccinated folks and kids youthful than 17.
With a number of states dealing with outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable illness — and declining childhood vaccination charges nationwide — some fear that measles could price 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 vulnerable will get the virus if uncovered, in keeping with the CDC. The primary shot is advisable for kids ages 12 to fifteen months, and the second for ages 4 to six years.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
