A Texas physician who has been treating youngsters in a measles outbreak was proven on video with a measles rash on his face in a clinic every week earlier than Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met him and praised him as an “extraordinary” healer.
Dr. Ben Edwards appeared within the video posted March 31 by the anti-vaccine group Kennedy as soon as led, Children’s Health Defense. In it, Edwards seems sporting scrubs and speaking with dad and mom and youngsters in a makeshift clinic he arrange in Seminole, Texas, floor zero of the outbreak that has sickened tons of of individuals and killed three, together with two youngsters.
This picture from video posted on the Kids’s Well being Protection web site on March 31 reveals Dr. Ben Edwards with a measles rash on his face, whereas working in a makeshift clinic in Seminole, Texas. – AP
Edwards is requested whether or not he had measles, and he responded, “Sure,” then said his infection started the day before the video was recorded.
“Yesterday was fairly achy. Little gentle fever. Spots got here within the afternoon. At the moment, I awakened feeling good,” Edwards stated within the video.
Measles is most contagious for about 4 days earlier than and 4 days after the rash seems and is without doubt one of the world’s most contagious diseases, in keeping with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Medical doctors and public well being specialists stated Edwards’ determination to enter the clinic put youngsters, their dad and mom and their group in danger as a result of he may have unfold it to others. They stated there was no situation by which Edwards’ conduct could be affordable.
Kennedy met with Edwards a couple of week after the video was posted by Kids’s Well being Protection, the group Kennedy led for years till December. In an April 6 post on X, Kennedy stated he “visited with these two extraordinary healers,” together with Edwards and one other physician, and praised their use of two unproven therapies for measles.
At the same time as measles has exploded in Texas and unfold throughout the nation, Kennedy, the nation’s prime well being official, has declined to consistently and forcefully encourage individuals to vaccinate their youngsters and remind them that the vaccine is secure. Kennedy’s put up drawing consideration to Edwards is inappropriate however unsurprising given Kennedy’s file, stated Dr. Craig Spencer, a medical physician who can also be a professor on the Brown College Faculty of Public Well being.
“I feel is sadly completely on-brand for a way he thinks that drugs ought to be practiced,” Spencer stated. “And that’s what makes me remarkably uncomfortable and very involved and scared for the subsequent three-and-a-half years.”
It was unclear whether or not Kennedy knew that Edwards had gone into his clinic whereas contaminated with measles earlier than assembly him. A spokesperson for Kennedy stated he’s not anti-vaccine and that he’s “dedicated to bettering youngsters’s well being in America and has re-deployed sources to Texas to assist with the present outbreak.” He didn’t reply why the well being secretary selected to fulfill with and reward Edwards somewhat than any of the opposite docs in West Texas who’ve been treating youngsters within the outbreak.
Edwards informed The Related Press in an e mail that he “interacted with zero sufferers that weren’t already contaminated with measles” throughout the time he was infectious. “Subsequently, clearly, there have been no sufferers that have been put in peril of buying measles since they already had measles.”
However Jessica Steier, a public well being scientist, stated the video reveals Edwards within the room with individuals who don’t seem sick, together with dad and mom of sick youngsters and the individuals who visited the clinic from Kids’s Well being Protection. She additionally questioned what steps Edwards was taking to verify individuals have been sick with measles, somewhat than counting on guesswork.
Steier, who runs the Science Literacy Lab and co-wrote an article about Edwards’ conduct, stated whereas there could also be some extraordinary emergencies the place it could be applicable for a sick physician to work, this isn’t a type of conditions as a result of there is no such thing as a scarcity of suppliers who aren’t contaminated. She additionally identified that the video reveals Edwards was not sporting a masks.
“You might have the HHS secretary lifting him up,” she stated. “You already know, it’s so, so harmful. I actually really feel for the people who find themselves on the bottom.”
Kids’s Well being Protection has sued various information organizations, amongst them the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to establish misinformation, together with in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
Kennedy’s promotion of a physician who has touted unproven measles therapies is “wholly irresponsible” however is consistent with Kennedy’s lengthy public file of anti-vaccine views, stated Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He stated Kennedy has carried these views to his new job as the pinnacle of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies.
“He’s not the director of Kids’s Well being Protection anymore. He’s accountable for the well being and well-being of kids on this nation,” Offit stated. “It’s an emergency, however Kennedy shouldn’t be treating it that approach.”
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