With the death of a second child from measles and cases in the U.S. surging past 600, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, finally stated the obvious: Vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.
It’s a message that should have come sooner from the country’s top public health official. Kennedy’s response is both too late and too confusing to effectively contain the outbreak. He doesn’t seem to take seriously the real risk of the U.S. losing its measles elimination status, declared in 2000 after widespread vaccination stopped the spread of the virus.
The direct, brief acknowledgment of the value of the MMR vaccine — made in an X post — seemed significant, for a few hours at least. Kennedy, however, muddled the message with a second post praising “two extraordinary healers … who have treated and healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin.”
Those “healers,” however, have a troubled track record that includes disciplinary action by the Texas Medical Board for one of the doctors. Their “remedies,” a steroid and an antibiotic, aren’t cures for measles — there are no established cures for the disease.
Kennedy’s statements show a recognizable pattern: a lukewarm statement supporting medical facts sandwiched between unproven treatments and junk science. This waffling makes it impossible for the public to make well-informed decisions about their health.
The measles outbreak was already underway in West Texas when Kennedy was confirmed. Yet even after the first child died and an adult succumbed to what officials suspect was measles, he failed to advocate for vaccination. Instead, he spent his first weeks in office touting cod liver oil with vitamin A as a cure.
Kennedy, who has spent years pushing the thoroughly discredited link between the MMR vaccine and autism, seems to be looking for more ways to weaken public confidence in this routine childhood shot. He falsely claimed last month that the vaccine causes deaths, and he is now pushing health agencies to reexamine their safety data. In addition, Kennedy oversaw massive cuts at HHS, which included gutting staffing and resources at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks and guides the federal response to outbreaks.
The public needs accurate information from health leaders, not misinformation and half-truths about settled science.
The outbreak has shown no signs of slowing down. Since an initial cluster emerged in West Texas, more than 480 people have been infected in the state, and neighboring counties in New Mexico have reported another 54 cases. Infections have been reported in 21 states this year.
In a prescient episode of the medical drama “The Pitt,” a boy is brought into the emergency room with a rash on his legs that puzzles the residents treating him. The senior attending doctor in the ER remarks how the case shows his age: The boy has measles, something the younger physicians have never seen.
The scene captures how far we’ve come with measles — and all that we have to lose if public health leadership fails to offer a clear, authoritative message encouraging people to get vaccinated.
We’ve already needlessly lost three people to measles. There don’t have to be more heartbreaking deaths.
Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry.
