RFK Jr. heads west Texas. There, the second child died of measles-related causes due to the outbreak being close to 500 cases.
US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy, JR.. I traveledWest TexasOn Sunday, after the death of a second unvaccinated school-age childFrom measles-related illnesses.
Prior to his “Healthy Again in America” tour in the southwest of the United States, Kennedy said in a social media post he was in Gaines County to comfort his family who had to bury two young children who died. Seminole isThe epicenter of the measles outbreakIt began in late January and continued to swell, with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone.
He also said he will work with Texas health officials to “control the outbreak of measles.”
The child was in no fundamental health and died Thursday of what the child doctor described as a measles lung disorder,” the Texas Department of Health Department said on Sunday.In a news release. Aaron Davis, a spokesman for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said the child was “treated for measles complications while in hospital.”
This is the third most known measles-related death that has been linked to this outbreak. It was oneAnother school-age childThat’s what it was in TexasNew Mexico adults. Neither of them were vaccinated.
Kennedy was an anti-vaccine advocate before taking on the role of the nation’s top health secretary earlier this year, resisting urging widespread vaccinations as the outbreak of measles worsened under his watch.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy said in a long statement posted. x. Measles, mumps and rubella vaccines have been safely used for over 60 years and are 97% effective against measles after two doses.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Teams have been “relocated,” Kennedy added, but the country’s public health agencies have never been pulled back during the growing crisis. Neither the CDC nor the state health department included deaths in the measles report issued Friday, but added it on Sunday.
Nationally, the US has more than twice as manyMeasles caseIt was seen in all of 2024.
Over 2 months,West TexasThe outbreak is believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas.Nearly 570 people get sick. The World Health Organization also reported incidents related to Texas, Mexico. The number of cases in Texas rose 81 between March 28th and April 4th, with another 16 people hospitalised.
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy;Liver doctorThat vote helped confirm the Cinch Kennedy, called Sunday for stronger messaging from health officials.In a post of x.
“Everyone should get vaccinated! There is no measles treatment. There is no benefit in getting measles,” he wrote. “The best health authorities should say they should be clear enough to make another child die.”
A CDC spokesman looked at the effectiveness of the measles vaccine on Sunday, but stopped calling on people to get it.
Starting from a long-standing public health message on vaccination, the spokesman called the decision “personal” and said people should talk to doctors and “be informed of the potential risks and benefits associated with the vaccine.”
Misinformation about how to prevent and treat measles is a hampering robust public health response, including claims about vitamin A supplements pushed by Kennedy and advocates of holistic medicine, despite doctors’ warnings that it can put too much at risk, given under doctor’s orders.
Doctors at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, where the first measles occurred, say they dealt with less than 10 children due to liver problems caused by vitamin A toxicity. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lala Johnson said he reported that patients were using vitamin A to treat and prevent the virus.
Dr. Peter Marks, former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chiefthe responsibility for the death rests on Kennedy and his staff. After disagreement with Kennedy about vaccine safety, Mark was kicked out of the FDA.
“This is an absolutely unnecessary epitome of death,” Marks told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday. “These children should be vaccinated, and that’s how they prevent people from dying from measles.”
Marks also said he recently warned US senators that if the administration did not respond more positively to the outbreak, more deaths would occur. Kennedy was convened Thursday to testify before the Senate Health Committee.
Experts and local health officials hope the outbreak continuesA few more monthsIf it’s not a year. In West Texas, the majority of cases are in unvaccinated people and children under the age of 17.
There are concerns that several states are facing an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases, with declining childhood vaccination rates across the country — measles could potentially sacrifice the status of eliminating the disease in the United States.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to 2 hours. Of the 10 most susceptible people, up to nine will ingest the virus if exposed.According to the CDC. The first shot is recommended for children aged 12-15 months and for children aged 4-6 years for the second.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com