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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., looking at his first great health crisis as Health and Human Services Head, had a plan. After Texas experienced the first death of measles in the United States in a decade, Kennedy told Fox earlier this month that the Federal Government provided vitamin A, an unoffed treatment that Kennedy has promoted as an alternative to vaccines, to the communities affected by western texas “right now.” But a Texas official told me this week that there was no dose of vitamin A in the State Health Department, not because RFK Jr. He violated his promise, but because Texas doctors did not ask for them.
The doses are available “if we need them,” said Lara Anton, a senior press officer of the State Public Health Department. But his office, he said, has not requested any, “because healthcare providers have not requested it.” Anton did not have any records of any Vitamin A shipping, Bofesonide, Clarithromycin or Oil-Liver de Cod, all that Kennedy has said that he can help with measles, even that the state has received 1,760 additional vaccines for measles, federal government junk and rubella since February.
When I asked Anton if Texas officials thought that the treatment of vitamin A was useless, he referred to a state website, which reads: “ Vitamin A cannot prevent measles. Vitamin A can be useful as a supplementary treatment once someone has a measles infection, especially if they have a severe case of measles or low levels of vitamin A and are under a medicine. The local Gaines County Department of County, the epicenter of the mortal outburst, told me that it has not received any alternative treatments. (HHS did not respond to a comment request.)
In a few short weeks about work, Kennedy has broken down with decades of precedent public health to respond to measles. On March 2 for Fox, he acknowledged that vaccines “not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity”, only after emphasizing that “the vaccine decision is personal.” He has also approved vitamin A, which is not approved by the FDA to treat measles, as a way to substantially reduce deaths from the disease. Vitamin A can reduce the risk of death between children under 2 years old, according to a 2005 meta -analysis. However, it has not been shown to prevent the disease effectively, unlike Kennedy’s claim in its Fox interview.
It is not surprising that a Health Department would not want non -proved treatments. But Texas’s decision to deny a help offer from the highest federal health official during a fatal measles outbreak suggests that not everyone in the country’s public health apparatus is ready to take care of Kennedy’s infused claims. It apparently includes some staff at the disease control and prevention centers, which is under the Purview of Kennedy. On Tuesday, the CDC’s head of communications announced his resignation in a Kennedy Kennedy hug, alternative measles treatments. The public records I have collected from Texas show that CDC staff is helping at least one local health department to the dissemination of pro-vacuna messages in the local community. In a series of emails with Texas Health Workers, for example, CDC officials made various public service ads and helped translate them into German and Spanish casualties. “The best way to protect yourself against measles is with a vaccine against measles, screens and rubella (MMR),” read a steering wheel. And a letter from the executive director of the Local Health Department, Zachary Holbrooks, who was distributed to the parents of unvaccinated schoolchildren, stated: “I strongly encourage you to make your child vaccinated as soon as possible.” None of the materials I obtained made any mention of Vitamin A.
It is unclear whether these pro-vacunas messages convince local ones, particularly the population menonite in the center of the Esclat de Texas. The past school year, just under 82 percent of the Gaines County Gaints, were vaccinated against measles. State vaccine registration data suggests that immunization has increased by about 10 percent this year compared to the same period in 2024, although Texas has limited visibility on vaccine administration. Holbrooks recently said The Atlantic That three local menonite churches had rejected the district’s Health Department’s application to place a measles test on their property. Residents, meanwhile, are erasing vitamin A supplies of vitamin A and cod oil, and are shown to an impromptu clinic that is giving cod lip oil. This week, The New York Times He reported that some children in the area take such high doses of vitamin A showing signs of liver damage.
After issuing a key vote to confirm Kennedy as Secretary of Health, Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, a Republican, told his colleagues that Kennedy would help to “restore confidence in our public health institutions.” But Kennedy has already made this praiseworthy goal even less achievable. While the country’s maximum public health official is assuming miraculous care, West Texas families will be encouraged to believe that not vaccinating their children is a responsible choice. Public health leaders cannot solve this problem by themselves, even if they refuse to play along with Kennedy’s pseudoscientific routine.
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Image Source : www.theatlantic.com