Lawmakers and health experts are sounding the alarm after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued in an opinion piece that vitamin A and nutrition, instead of vaccines, will help stop the spread of measles.
Kennedy penned the opinion piece for Fox News on March 2, almost a week after an unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas became the first U.S. measles death in nearly a decade.
In the piece, Kennedy spoke about the benefits of “good nutrition” and vitamin A in curbing the outbreak.
According to Dr. Sue Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “relying on vitamin A instead of the vaccine is not only dangerous and ineffective, but it puts children at serious risk,” the Washington Post reported.
The cause for concern stems from the highly infectious nature of measles. The infection is known to kill one in three people for every 1,000 infected individuals.
It also causes severe brain swelling, called encephalitis, in one in 1,000 cases. In general, 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.”
His piece went as far as it could without explicitly recommending the vitamin as an alternative.
“Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses,” he wrote. “Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet.”
It is true that vitamin A can effectively support treatment for children infected with measles. Studies suggesting that vitamin A can support treatment in infected children are often conducted in low and middle income countries, especially in Africa, where measles related deaths and malnutrition are common, The Guardian reported.
“It could lead to the impression of a false equivalency,” Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told WaPo. “To make the best decision for your children, you can either vaccinate or give Vitamin A… That would be highly misleading.”
Kennedy’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast in time of publication.
Meanwhile, at least 146 people have been infected with the disease in Texas, primarily in unvaccinated communities. Over 20 people have been hospitalized.
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.
