RFK Jr. Thinks a Gummy Vitamin Could Save Babies From Dying of Measles

The guy Republicans just made the U.S health secretary has suggested that a dose of vitamin A will stop the spread of measles.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued in an opinion piece that vitamin A and "good nutrition", instead of vaccines, will help stop the spread of measles. Because as we all know eating enough broccoli will stop any virus in its tracks!

This has led to actual experts like Dr. Sue Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, to give common sense statements like “relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk.”

Measles has highkey infectious, spreading to 18 people per infected person on average. The infection is known to kill one in three people for every 1,000 infected. It also causes severe brain swelling, in one in 1,000 cases. The disease also causes a plethora of other unpleasant symptoms such as rashes, fever, runny nose, and red and watery eyes.

Kennedy argued in his op-ed, entitled “Measles outbreak is call to action for all of us”, that vaccination is a “personal choice” and adding that vitamin A can “dramatically reduce measles mortality.”

I'd like to say that it is in fact NOT a personal choice. An unvaccinated person does not only put themselves at risk - they out the community at risk. The only reason this disease isn't tearing through schools and killing infants (who CAN'T be vaccinated until they're one years old) is because of herd immunity. If we're all vaccinated as much as possible, it cannot or at least has minimal spread to those who are more susceptible or UNABLE to be vaccinated, like infants or the immunocompromised.

Meanwhile, at least 146 people have been infected with the disease in Texas, primarily in unvaccinated communities. Over 20 people have been hospitalized. One child has died. But that's nothing for RFK, whose efforts in Samoa to deceive families about measles vaccines led to a deadly outbreak that killed more than 80 people, many of whom were young children.

Kennedy’s initial response, or rather non-response, to the outbreak while speaking during Trump’s first Cabinet meeting was that “it’s not unusual” to have outbreaks.

Recently, his top spokesperson at HHS, Thomas Corry, quit after only two weeks into his tenure over Kennedy’s management of the outbreak.