Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s well being secretary, attended the funeral on Sunday of an 8-year-old lady who died of measles amid an outbreak that has burned via the area and known as into query his potential to deal with a public-health disaster.
The kid’s dying, at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, early Thursday morning, is the second confirmed fatality from measles in a decade in america.
The kid died of “measles pulmonary failure,” based on information obtained by The New York Occasions. The hospital, a part of UMC Well being System, confirmed the dying on Sunday, including that the lady was unvaccinated and had no underlying well being situations.
Mr. Kennedy conferred with the lady’s household however didn’t communicate on the funeral ceremony, based on individuals in attendance.
“My intention was to come back down right here quietly to console the households and to be with the group of their second of grief,” Mr. Kennedy mentioned in a message posted on X, previously Twitter.
“The best option to forestall the unfold of measles is the M.M.R. vaccine,” he added, referring to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
On the identical time, Mr. Kennedy has ordered up a re-examination of whether or not the vaccine causes autism, a declare way back debunked by analysis. And he has stopped wanting recommending common vaccination in communities the place the virus will not be spreading.
The primary dying within the West Texas outbreak was an unvaccinated little one who died in February. One other unvaccinated particular person died in New Mexico after testing optimistic for measles, although officers haven’t confirmed that measles was the reason for dying.
For the reason that outbreak started in late January, West Texas has reported 480 instances of measles and 56 hospitalizations. The outbreak has additionally unfold to bordering states, sickening 54 individuals in New Mexico and 10 in Oklahoma.
If the virus continues to unfold at this tempo, the nation dangers shedding its measles elimination standing, a hard-fought victory earned in 2000. Public well being officers in West Texas mentioned that the outbreak is prone to persist for a yr.
Shortly after the 8-year-old’s dying, a determine within the antivaccine group blamed the dying on the hospital, which he claimed had “improperly medically managed” the case.
Kids’s Well being Protection, an anti-vaccine group that Mr. Kennedy helped set up years earlier than he turned well being secretary, earlier claimed {that a} “medical error” at a distinct hospital in Lubbock had led to the state’s first measles dying.
These unfounded claims incensed consultants, who emphasised that the M.M.R. vaccine is extraordinarily efficient at stopping measles infections and their problems.
“These should not medical errors,” mentioned Dr. Michael Osterholm, who’s an epidemiologist on the College of Minnesota and a former official within the Division of Well being and Human Providers. “This sits squarely on the again of antivaccine voices which have continued to unfold disinformation.”
Mr. Kennedy has confronted robust criticism for his dealing with of the outbreak. A distinguished vaccine skeptic, he has provided muted assist for vaccination and has emphasised untested measles remedies, like cod liver oil.
In keeping with medical doctors in Texas, Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement of other remedies has contributed to sufferers’ delaying crucial care and ingesting poisonous ranges of vitamin A.
“It is a tragedy, a completely pointless dying,” mentioned Dr. Peter Marks, who was the nation’s high vaccine regulator till he resigned final week from the Meals and Drug Administration, partly due to Mr. Kennedy’s dealing with of the measles outbreak.
“Up to now, the federal response to the continuing measles outbreak has been inappropriately targeted on distracting and ineffective alternate options to the one really efficient prevention — measles vaccine,” he mentioned.
Specialists additionally worry that the Trump administration’s latest selections to dismantle worldwide public well being safeguards and to tug funding from native well being departments have made massive, multistate outbreaks extra probably.
On Sunday, Senator Invoice Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who’s a medical physician and forged a crucial vote to substantiate Mr. Kennedy, inspired the general public on social media to get vaccinated, including that “high well being officers ought to say so unequivocally b/4 one other little one dies.”
Measles is among the most contagious pathogens. The virus can linger within the air for as much as two hours after an contaminated particular person has left the room and spreads when a sick particular person breathes, coughs or sneezes.
Inside per week or two of being uncovered, those that are contaminated could develop a excessive fever, cough, runny nostril and purple, watery eyes. Inside just a few days, a telltale rash breaks out as flat, purple spots on the face after which spreads down the neck and torso to the remainder of the physique.
Generally, these signs resolve in just a few weeks. However in uncommon instances, the virus causes pneumonia, making it troublesome for sufferers, particularly kids, to get oxygen into their lungs.
Measles might also trigger mind swelling, which may depart lasting issues, like blindness, deafness and mental disabilities.
For each 1,000 kids who get measles, one or two will die, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The virus additionally harms the physique’s immune defenses, leaving it weak to different pathogens.
Christina Jewett contributed reporting.
