Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral of an 8-year-old girl who died of “measles pulmonary failure,” according to health records. The girl was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions.
Kennedy said in a social media post, “My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief.”
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the M.M.R. vaccine,” he added, referring to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
He said he “developed bonds” with the Mennonite community in West Texas where the virus is spreading. There have been nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, with others spreading to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.
And yet RFK Jr says he met with two doctors, whom he described as “extraordinary healers,” and said they had treated children using the steroid aerosolized budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin —which STAT News notes are “unorthodox, unproven” treatments for measles.
Mayo Clinic notes that budesonide may weaken the immune system and recommends avoiding people who are sick or who have the chickenpox or measles virus.
Shortly after the latest child’s death, an anti-vaxxer blamed the death on the hospital, which he claimed had “improperly medically managed” the case.
Texas doctors blame Kennedy’s endorsement of alternative treatments for the delay of critical care and the ingestion of toxic levels of Vitamin A.
A crowd dressed in black congregated at a church in Seminole as a white hearse waited to leave with the latest victim of disinformation about measles treatments.
“It’s not as bad as they show in the news,” said a woman in a nearby park, who did not wish to be identified. Children who are vaccinated are “not as healthy,” she added.
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