Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vastly downplayed the continued measles outbreak in western Texas — at the same time as many kids are being hospitalized, with at the least one little one dying up to now.
As of Thursday, 124 people have been diagnosed with measles in the region, with one other 9 individuals recognized in jap New Mexico. Most who’ve examined constructive for the extremely contagious virus are kids, and none who’ve been hospitalized had been vaccinated.
Kennedy, a famous anti-vaxxer, stated HHS is “watching” the measles outbreak, however downplayed its severity, making an attempt to normalize the disaster.
“We now have measles outbreaks yearly,” Kennedy told the press earlier this week throughout a gathering of President Donald Trump’s cupboard. The HHS secretary famous that there have been 4 outbreaks already this yr, and 16 outbreaks final yr.
Nonetheless, there have been solely 4 outbreaks for all the calendar yr of 2023, and simply 20 years in the past, measles were considered eliminated in the U.S. due to how low the overall case numbers had been yr after yr. The dying this previous week is the primary from the virus within the U.S. since 2015, and the primary child-related dying from measles since 2003. The kid who died was school-aged and unvaccinated for measles.
Kennedy additionally claimed that 20 kids hospitalized in Lubbock, Texas, had been principally there for quarantine causes. In a separate press convention saying the kid’s passing, Lara Johnson, chief medical officer at Covenant Kids’s Hospital in Lubbock, stated that Kennedy’s assertion was unfaithful.
“We don’t hospitalize sufferers for quarantine functions,” Johnson said, elaborating that a number of of the kids who had been hospitalized required intensive care as a result of they had been struggling to breathe.
In Gaines County, Texas, the epicenter of the present outbreak, the vaccine exemption rate was virtually 18 % within the 2023 to 2024 college yr, based on health department data. However Kennedy — who has no professional background or schooling in well being care in any way — has persistently disregarded the details of the disaster on the bottom, despite overwhelming evidence that the realm’s low vaccination charges performed a job within the virus’s unfold.
Kennedy’s declare that measles outbreaks are widespread ignores the truth that rates of the virus were significantly lower only 20 years ago. From 2000 to 2009, there was a mean of simply 71.4 documented measles instances within the U.S. per yr. However since anti-vaxxers have gained prominence, that common has skyrocketed — from 2015 to 2024, there was a mean of 256.9 instances per yr.
Kennedy is infamous for pushing false, health-related speaking factors, together with the debunked lie that vaccines are chargeable for rising charges of autism.
Throughout Kennedy’s affirmation hearings, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) challenged him to undoubtedly state whether or not he agreed with proof displaying that vaccines don’t trigger autism.
“When you present me these research, I’ll completely [agree],” Kennedy stated.
Sanders chided Kennedy for that reply.
“That could be a very troubling response as a result of the research are there. Your job is to have checked out these research as an applicant for this job,” Sanders stated.
Kennedy can be tied to a catastrophic measles outbreak on the island nation of Samoa. Shortly after he traveled to the island in 2019 and peddled disinformation in regards to the security of vaccines, more than 80 people, mostly children, died from the virus. Kennedy denies any duty for his or her deaths.
On Thursday, the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) unexpectedly and with out rationalization canceled an annual assembly of its advisers to debate the subsequent season’s influenza vaccines, fueling issues that Kennedy is not going to take vaccine promotion severely as head of HHS.
In response to questions in regards to the transfer, a spokesperson for the FDA stated the company “will make public its suggestions to producers in time for up to date vaccines to be accessible for the 2025-2026 influenza season.” However members of the advisory board are nonetheless sounding the alarm.
“We’re all left making an attempt to know what’s going on. Why was this assembly canceled? It’s an necessary assembly. What’s the plan for flu vaccines this yr?” stated Paul Offit, a member of the FDA advisory committee and director of the Vaccine Schooling Heart at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia, speaking to CBS News about the matter.
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