Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He made a muffled appeal in the affected communities, but said it was a personal choice. He believes that, contrary to extensive research, measles vaccine damage is more common than known.
He asserted that natural immunity gained through infection also protected cancer and heart disease in some way, an claim that was not supported by research.
He cheered for suspicious treatments such as cod liver oil and said local doctors have achieved “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recovery through steroids or antibiotics.
The worsening measles outbreak has largely spread through the Mennonite community in Gaines County, which has infected nearly 200 people and killed a child, the first death in the United States in 10 years.
Another suspicion in New Mexico is measles death, with cases recently increasing in a county bordering Gaines County.
The interview, which lasted 35 minutes, was posted online last week before Trump’s speech to Congress. The segment has been released, but the full version has received little attention.
Mr. Kennedy raised a contradictory public health message as he tried to reconcile the government's long-standing recognition of vaccines with his own decades of skepticism.
He said the Westexans “recommended” the vaccine, but the risk of immunity is underestimated.
Mr Kennedy acknowledged that the vaccine “does prevent infection” and said the federal government is helping to ensure people can use “good drugs, including those who want a vaccine, including those who want it.”
“In a highly uninoculated community like the Mennonites, this is what we recommend,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy described vaccination as a personal choice that must be respected and then continued to raise fearsome concerns about vaccine safety.
He said he was told that the Gaines County vaccine had injured more than a dozen Mennonite children. Kennedy said that people in the community want federal health workers who arrive in Texas to “look at our children who are injured by the vaccine and look in their eyes,” Kennedy said.
However, the MMR vaccine itself has been thoroughly studied and is safe. As the secretary claimed in the past, there is no connection to autism. Although all vaccines occasionally have adverse effects, health officials around the world have concluded far outweighing the small risks of vaccines.
“We don't know what the risk profile of these products is. We need to restore government trust. We will do this by telling the truth and doing rigorous science to understand safety and efficacy issues.”
In response to questions about Mr. Kennedy’s position on vaccination, a Health and Public Service spokesperson noted a recent comment article, he wrote that the footage prevented children from contracting measles and unable to get vaccinated.
“However, he believes that 'the decision to vaccinate is an individual',” the spokesperson said.
Mr. Kennedy claimed that measles killed healthy people “very difficult” and malnutrition played a role in the outbreak in Texas.
Early in the interview, Mr. Kennedy acknowledged the severity of measles infection and pointed out that it can cause death, brain swelling and pneumonia.
But he also described the disease as rarely fatal, and even before 1963, a vaccine was available. He said the infection rate of measles is very low. ”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for every thousand people in the United States who have measles, the virus kills one to three. One study estimates that without vaccination today, 400,000 hospitalizations and 1,800 deaths will be reported each year.
Death is not the only possible consequence. Measles can also lead to permanent blindness, deafness and intellectual disability. Before the vaccine became available, about a thousand people suffered from encephalitis each year due to the virus.
Mr Kennedy suggested in a later comment that severe symptoms mainly affect people who are unhealthy before measles.
“It is very, very difficult to kill a healthy person,” he said, adding later: “We see the correlation between people who are injured by measles and people who don’t have good nutrition or have good exercise programs.”
He added that West Texas is a “food desert.” For children who die in Gaines County, malnutrition is “possibly a problem.”
Texas health officials said the child had “no known potential conditions.”
Dr. Wendell Parkey, a doctor in Gaines County, has many Mennonite patients and says the idea of community malnutrition is wrong.
He noted that Mennonites often avoid processing food, raise their own livestock and make bread. From a very young age, many members of the community also contribute to farming and other physical demands work.
“They are the healthiest people here,” he said. “Nutritionally, I’ll fight them against anyone.”
Dr. Sean O'Leary, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases Committee, said data suggest that severely malnourished children in poor countries often suffer from poorer measles.
But there is no reliable evidence that poor eating and exercise habits can make children more susceptible to measles complications, he added.
Patsy Stinchfield, former president of the National Infectious Diseases Foundation, said there is also enough evidence that measles routinely kills healthy children before the MMR vaccine becomes available.
She said that before 1963, about 500 children, many of whom were healthy, died of the virus every year. The CDC said about 40% of the infected were hospitalized last year.
During the interview, Mr. Kennedy seemed frustrated because during the first few weeks as secretary, a preventable vaccine disease rather than a chronic disease attracted national attention.
“In this country, we have two deaths of measles – we have 100,000 autism diagnoses every year,” he said. “We need to focus on the ball. Chronic disease is our enemy.”
Dozens of scientific research suggestion that vaccines cause autism have been discredited. Scientists point out that measles death is so frustrating because it can be prevented by vaccination.
The secretary said that the “natural immunity” after infection can protect the body from various chronic diseases.
When asked if he objected to the so-called measles gathering (who parents intentionally spread measles from sick children to healthy children) – Mr. Kennedy said he would “never advise someone to get sick.”
But he also praised the benefits of natural immunity, gaining protection after contracting the virus, claiming it lasts longer than vaccine-induced immunity and may later prevent cancer and heart disease.
While measles infection does provide lifelong protection for the virus, the risk of getting sick far outweighs any immune benefits, Dr. O'Leary said.
Two doses of MMR vaccine can effectively prevent infection by 97%. Even if vaccinated people get a breakthrough infection, the disease is often mild.
Experts also say there is no reliable evidence to support the claim that measles infection can prevent other diseases.
Quite the contrary: Measles infection can cause “immune amnesia”, where the body “forgets” how to defend against already exposed diseases, making it more susceptible to future infections.
Mr. Kennedy spoke enthusiastically about unproven treatments about measles and said HHS would study them.
Mr Kennedy said the Department of Health and Human Services will conduct clinical trials on several unproven measles treatments including steroids, Budsoni; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said is “the safest application of vitamin A”.
Mr Kennedy said he heard the treatments from two local doctors that resulted in a “miraculous instant recovery.”
“We need to do a good job when talking to frontline doctors and seeing what works on the ground,” he said. “These institutions have really been ignored by the institutions for a long time.”
While doctors sometimes administer high doses of vitamin A to care for children with severe measles, diets with diet supplements such as cod liver oil make it difficult to do precise amounts, says Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
There are no reliable data to show that cod liver oil is He added, “In any way, it's safer than traditionally used vitamin A”.
Dr. Schaffner said antibiotics for antibacterial infections are not effective treatments for measles viruses. He was not aware of any evidence that steroids improved outcomes for children with measles.
On a practical level, it is difficult to conduct clinical trials on these treatments – there are not enough children with measles in the United States to conduct large trials. Such research can be morally annoying: To test these remedies, doctors may need to retain standard supportive care, such as vitamin A.
Mr. Kennedy’s focus on unverified treatment has frustrated some doctors in Gaines County, who have been trying to explain to patients that measles does not have antiviral drugs and has little control over severe symptoms in patients.
“We are already dealing with people who think measles doesn't matter,” said Dr. Leila Myrick, a family medicine physician in Seminole, Texas.
“Now they will think they can get this miracle therapy and absolutely no need to get vaccinated. That's 100% making it harder.”
