Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second elementary school-aged youngster who was not vaccinated died from a measles-related sickness.
Forward of a “Make America Wholesome Once more” tour throughout southwestern US, Kennedy stated in a social media put up that he was in Gaines County to consolation the households who’ve buried two younger kids.
Kennedy stated he was working with Texas well being officers to “management the measles outbreak.” Seminole is the epicenter of the outbreak, which began in late January and continues to swell — with practically 500 circumstances in Texas alone, plus circumstances from the outbreak believed to have unfold to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.
The second younger youngster died Thursday from “what the kid’s physician described as measles pulmonary failure,” and didn’t have underlying well being circumstances, 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, stated that the kid was “receiving remedy for problems of measles whereas hospitalized.”
That is the third recognized measles-related demise tied to this outbreak. One was one other elementary school-aged youngster in Texas and the opposite was an grownup in New Mexico; neither had been vaccinated.
It’s Kennedy’s first go to to the realm as well being secretary, the place he stated he met with households of each the 6- and 8-year-old kids who died. He stated he “developed bonds” with the Mennonite neighborhood in West Texas through which the virus is generally spreading.
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. On Sunday, nonetheless, he stated in a prolonged assertion posted on X that it was “the simplest approach to stop the unfold of measles.”
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.
Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention groups have been “redeployed,” Kennedy added Sunday, though the nation’s public well being company by no means relayed it had pulled again. Neither the CDC nor the state well being division included the demise of their measles reviews issued Friday, however the CDC acknowledged it when requested Sunday.
The variety of circumstances in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 extra folks had been hospitalized. Nationwide, the US has greater than double the variety of measles circumstances it noticed in all of 2024.
Republican 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.
“Everybody needs to be vaccinated! There isn’t a remedy for measles. No profit to getting measles,” he wrote. “Prime well being officers ought to say so unequivocally b/4 one other youngster dies.”
Cassidy has requested Kennedy to seem earlier than his well being committee Thursday, though Kennedy has not publicly confirmed whether or not he’ll attend.
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 known as the choice a “private one” and inspired folks to speak with their physician. Folks “needs to be knowledgeable concerning the potential dangers and advantages related to vaccines,” the spokesperson added.
Misinformation about easy methods 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 medication supporters regardless of medical doctors’ warnings that it needs to be given below a doctor’s orders and that an excessive amount of may be harmful.
Docs at Covenant Youngsters’s Hospital in Lubbock, the place 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 exams on kids who will not be absolutely vaccinated and have 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 accountability 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 pointless demise,” Marks advised The Related Press in an interview Sunday. “These children ought to get vaccinated — that’s the way you stop folks from dying of measles.”
Marks additionally stated he just lately warned US senators that extra deaths would happen if the administration didn’t mount a extra aggressive response to the outbreak.
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 youngsters 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 might value the US 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 accordance with the CDC. The primary shot is advisable for youngsters ages 12 to fifteen months, and the second for ages 4 to six years.
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