U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second unvaccinated school-aged child died from a measles-related sickness.
Forward of a “Make America Wholesome Once more” tour throughout southwestern U.S., Kennedy stated in a social media submit that he was in Gaines County to consolation households who had 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 cases in Texas alone.
He stated he was additionally working with Texas well being officers to “management the measles outbreak.”
The child didn’t have underlying well being situations, and died Thursday from “what the child’s medical doctors described as measles pulmonary failure,” the Texas State Division of State Well being Companies stated Sunday in a information launch. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Well being System in Lubbock, Texas, stated that the child was “receiving remedy for problems of measles whereas hospitalized.”
That is the third identified measles-related demise tied to this outbreak. One was one other school-aged child in Texas and the opposite was an grownup in New Mexico. Neither have been vaccinated.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate earlier than ascending to the function of nation’s prime well being secretary earlier this 12 months, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations as the measles outbreak has worsened below his watch.
“The simplest manner to stop the unfold of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy stated 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 demise of their measles reviews issued Friday, however added it to their counts Sunday.
Nationwide, the U.S. has greater than double the variety of measles cases 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 cases associated to Texas in Mexico. The variety of cases in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 extra folks have 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 submit on X.
“Everybody needs to be vaccinated! There isn’t any remedy for measles. No profit to getting measles,” he wrote. “High well being officers ought to say so unequivocally b/4 one other child dies.”
A CDC spokesperson famous the efficacy of the measles vaccine Sunday however stopped in need of calling on folks to get it.
Departing from long-standing public well being messaging round vaccination, the spokesperson known as the choice a “private one” and stated folks ought to discuss to their physician and “needs to be knowledgeable in regards to the potential dangers and advantages related to vaccines.”
Misinformation about how to stop and deal with measles is hindering a strong public well being response, together with claims about vitamin A dietary supplements which have been 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 will be harmful.
Docs at Covenant Kids’s Hospital in Lubbock, where the primary measles demise 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, stated 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, stated duty for the demise rests with Kennedy and his workers. Marks was pressured out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine security.
“That is the epitome of an absolute unnecessary demise,” Marks informed The Related Press in an interview Sunday. “These youngsters ought to get vaccinated — that’s the way you stop folks from dying of measles.”
Marks additionally stated he just lately 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.
Consultants and native well being officers anticipate the outbreak to go on for a number of extra months if not a 12 months. In West Texas, the overwhelming majority of cases are in unvaccinated folks 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 could price the U.S. its standing as having eradicated the illness.
Measles is a respiratory virus that may survive within the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who find themselves vulnerable will get the virus if uncovered, in accordance to the CDC. The primary shot is really useful for kids ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
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