Overeducated Kennedy Moron Making Measles Outbreak Even Worse

In a sweeping interview, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments.  Kennedy offered conflicting public health messages as he tried to reconcile the government’s longstanding endorsement of vaccines with his own decades-long skepticism.

He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research. He also asserted that natural immunity to measles, gained through infection, somehow also protected against cancer and heart disease, a claim not supported by research.

The rapidly worsening measles outbreak, which has largely spread through a Mennonite community in Gaines County, Texas, has so far infected 223 people in Texas and 33 in New Mexico, and killed a child-- the first such death in the United States in 10 years.  Another suspected measles death has been reported in New Mexico, where cases have recently increased in a county that borders Gaines County.

Kennedy said he’d been told that a dozen Mennonite children had been injured by vaccines in Gaines County—a claim that has never been documented.  The MMR vaccine itself has been thoroughly studied and is safe. There is no link to autism, as the secretary has claimed in the past.  Kennedy added to his lies by saying (my comments added), “We don’t know what the risk profile is for these products (actually we do). We need to restore government trust (which has been eroded by anti-vaxx morons like RFK). And we’re going to do that by telling the truth, and by doing rigorous science to understand both safety and efficacy issues (which has already been done).”  The suggestion that vaccines cause autism hasbeen discredited by dozens of scientific studies.

Kennedy falsely claimed that it was “very difficult” for measles to kill a healthy person and also made the shocking claim that malnutrition played a role in the Texas outbreak.  RFK went on to claim that the measles was  rarely fatal (even before 1963) when the vaccine became available.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for every thousand people infected with measles in the United States, the virus kills one to three. One study estimated that without vaccination today there would be 400,000hospitalizations and 1,800 deaths annually. Death isn’t the only possible consequence. Measles can also cause permanent blindness, deafness and intellectual disability. Before the vaccine became available, about a thousandpeople every year had encephalitis because of the virus.  The suggestion that vaccines cause autism has been discredited by dozens of scientific studies. Scientists have pointed out that measles deaths are so upsetting because they are preventable with the MMR vaccination.

Cruelly, Kennedy went on to blame malnutrition in the case of the child who died of measles in Gaines County.  Texas health officials said the child had “no known underlying conditions.”  Dr. Wendell Parkey, a physician in Gaines County with many Mennonite patients, said the idea that the community was malnourished was mistaken.  Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the infectious disease committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that there is no credible evidence that poor eating habits and exercise routines make a child more prone to measles complications.

Kennedy said  HHS would conduct clinical trials on several unproven treatments for measles (steroids, antibiotics and cod liver oil).  There is no credible data to suggest that cod liver oil is “in any way conceivably safer” than traditionally administered vitamin A, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  While physicians sometimes administer high doses of vitamin A to care for children with severe measles, delivering it via a dietary supplement like cod liver oil makes it difficult to administer precise amounts.  Schaffner also said that antibiotics, which fight bacterial infections, are not effective treatments for measles, a virus. And he was unaware of any evidence that showed that steroids improved outcomes for children with measles.

Kennedy’s focus on unverified treatments has frustrated some doctors in Gaines County, who have been trying to explain to patients that there is no antiviral treatment for measles victims. “We already are dealing with people that think measles is not a big deal,” said Dr. Leila Myrick, a family medicine doctor in Seminole, Texas, who has been caring for patients with measles for several weeks. “Now they’re going to think they can get this miracle treatment and that they definitely don’t need to get vaccinated. It’s a 100 percent going to make it harder.”