Video shows doctors and measles treating children. Small RFK. He was later called “Extraordinary” therapist
A Texas doctor who treats children during a measles outbreak shows measles rashes in a week’s clinic in video at Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dr. Ben Edwards appeared in a March 31 video by anti-vaccine group Kennedy, once a child health defense. In it, Edwards wore a scrub at his temporary clinic in Seminole, Texas, talking to parents and children, the outbreak of zero ground zero, sickened hundreds of people and killed three, including two children.
The image from a video posted on the Child Health Defense website on March 31 shows Dr. Ben Edwards has a measles rash on his face while working at a makeshift clinic in Seminole, Texas. – AP
Asked Edwards if he had measles, he replied, “Yes,” and then said his infection began the day before the video was recorded.
“Yesterday was painful. A mild fever. The attraction was in the afternoon. Today, I woke up and felt good.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles is most contagious about four days before the rash and is one of the most contagious diseases in the world. Edwards’ decision to enter the clinic puts children, parents and their communities at risk because he can spread it to others, doctors and public health experts say. They say it is reasonable that Edwards’ behavior is not done.
Kennedy met with Edwards about a week after posting the video on Child Health Defense, and Kennedy’s team led for years until December. Kennedy said in an article on X on April 6 that he “visited with these two extraordinary therapists,” including Edwards and another doctor, praising them for using two unproven measles treatments.
Even as measles exploded in Texas and spread across the country, top U.S. health official Kennedy refused to encourage people to vaccinate their children and reminded them that the vaccine is safe. It is inappropriate but no surprise that Kennedy drew attention to Edwards’ attention in Kennedy’s record.
“I think unfortunately he thinks how medicine should be practiced is the perfect brand,” Spencer said. “That’s what makes me very uncomfortable, very concerned and scared for the next three and a half years.”
It is not clear if Kennedy knew Edwards entered his clinic when he contracted measles before he met her. A Kennedy spokesman said he was not anti-vaccine and that he was “committed to improving children’s health in the United States and has redeployed resources to help the current outbreak.” He did not answer why the health secretary chose to meet with Edwards and praise Edwards, rather than any other doctor in West Texas who has been treating children during the outbreak.
Edwards told the Associated Press in an email that he “interacted with zero patients who have not yet been infected with measles,” when he was contagious. “So, obviously, since they already have measles, no patient is at risk of measles.”
But, public health scientist Jessica Steier said the video showed Edwards not sick in the room, including parents of sick children and those visiting the clinic from a child’s health defense. She also questioned the steps Edwards is taking to confirm that people are sick from measles, rather than relying on speculation.
Steier, who runs the scientific literacy lab and co-authored an article about Edwards’ behavior, said that while there may be some unusual emergencies in which sick doctors work appropriately for work, it is not one of these situations because there is no lack of uninfected providers. She also noted that the video showed Edwards not wearing a mask.
“You have the HHS secretary to lift him up,” she said. “You know, it’s so dangerous. I really feel about the people on the ground.”
Child Health Defense has sued a number of news organizations, including APs, accusing them of violating antitrust laws and taking action to identify false information, including the Covid-19-19 pandemic and vaccines.
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric hospital at the Pediatric Hospital in Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, said Kennedy’s doctor promoting an unconfirmed measles treatment is “totally irresponsible”, but is consistent with Kennedy’s long-standing public record of confronting Vaccincine’s views. Kennedy brought these views into a new job for the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he said.
“He is no longer the director of child health defense. He is responsible for the health and well-being of children in this country,” said Offitt. “It’s an emergency, but Kennedy didn’t treat it that way.”
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