A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Texas this week to help with the growing outbreak of measles, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There is a highly effective vaccine that prevents measles, but there is no specific antiviral treatment. Kennedy had previously promoted the use of vitamin A and in an interview with Fox News this week endorsed an unconventional treatment for measles, including steroids, antibiotics and COD liver oil, a therapy rich in vitamin A.
Kennedy praised two West Texas doctors in a fully released interview at Fox Nation, saying they are using the remedy on patients and seeing “almost miraculous instantaneous recovery.” He said the doctors “treated most patients” in the current outbreak, and now have reached 159 reports.
One of Kennedy’s doctors obviously drew trouble from history. He was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 because he “used unusual risks of using drugs.”
Kennedy said HHS will conduct clinical trials of the steroid Budsoni, antibiotic clarithromycin and cod liver oil therapy, saying: “We recommend that they consider vitamin A and its regimen. He also suggested that vitamin A might “as a prevention,” although doctors say it doesn’t stop measles.
But, Kennedy said measles vaccination prevents most cases, and it is a personal choice.
“At this point, we recommend that those [undervaccinated] The community gets the vaccine. We understand that many people don’t, and we will try to make sure they are cared for through the best therapeutic interventions we can provide or recommend for them. Kennedy said in an interview with Fox.
Doctors are subject to disciplinary punishment for treatment
One doctor Kennedy praised, Dr. Richard Bartlett, has a history of using unconventional treatment.
Bartlett faced disciplinary action from the Texas Medical Board more than two decades ago to prescribe antibiotics and steroids with “unusual” prescriptions, including two children. The patient has no measles. According to the Medical Committee’s investigation, they raised various complaints, including diabetes, back and neck pain, sinus pressure, inflamed tonsils and other cold symptoms, obesity and uncontrollable hunger.
After reviewing the patient’s medical records, the board found that Bartlett misdiagnosed their symptoms, failed to comply with their care, and ordered unnecessary examinations and treatments.
The board cited Bartlett’s improper use in its 2003 order, such as the use of powerful intravenous antibiotics and “multi-day doses” of long-acting steroids, “no record of weighing risks against the benefits of this care.”
Bartlett did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the medical board’s disciplinary action, or based on his request to use steroids and antibiotics to treat Westexas measles.
The final order from the board said: “The defendant insisted that he had given the patient proper treatment without adverse outcomes as he was providing care for relatively underserved areas with relatively low resources and medical support.”
After sticking to the board’s request, Bartlett was cleared in 2005 without supervision, such as completing additional medical education and having another doctor selected by the medical board monitor him for at least one year. He also pointed out that he will modify his approach accordingly.
Bartlett said during the pandemic that he treated Covid-19 patients with what he called a silver bullet: Budesonide’s experimental combination, which is a steroid. antibiotic clarithromycin; and aspirin. Bartlett often talks about treatments in podcasts and interviews, including treatments that are widely shared on social media. An independent fact-checking team found that his claims on treatment were not supported by scientific evidence.
Measles and Internet are both caused by viruses. Antibiotics that kill bacteria are powerless to prevent viral infection. Medical experts say antibiotics can sometimes help if viral infections cause secondary bacterial infections, such as ear infections or pneumonia. But in each case they are not suitable or helpless.
Trying steroids in patients with measles can cause swelling of the brain, but using them in mild cases can be harmful because they inhibit the body’s immune response when fighting the virus is needed.
A virus that has no real discrimination
There is no specific treatment for measles. In severe cases, a doctor may provide treatments such as supplementing oxygen and fluids to help the patient survive the most severe illness.
Covenant Health’s chief medical officer Dr. Lara Johnson said its Lubbock Hospital in Texas has treated more than 20 patients and the hospital doctors have followed the recommended treatment options.
The CDC recommends that in the case of severe measles, such as hospitalized patients, recommending two doses of physician-managed vitamin A. In these cases, infectious disease experts also recommend vitamin A, but they point out that vitamins are most useful in poor children with malnourished countries.
People who are sick in West Texas, including school-age children who died last week, may have been undernourished, the HHS secretary said.
“Measles kills a healthy person very, very difficult,” Kennedy said.
However, the state health department reported that there were no underlying conditions for the dead children and local doctors disagreed with the secretary’s assessment of the population.
“Our kids are actually well nurtured. [That’s] Another one about comments, because I think it will make people feel good about “well, my kids are well nourished so they won’t get this,” said Dr. Leslie Mossral, a pediatrician who broke out.
“Whether you are potentially medical or healthy, measles can be harmful. This virus does not really discriminate.”
Kennedy claimed in an interview with Fox that he had seen “the research indicated by the study [vitamin A] But medical experts say preventing measles is useless. High doses can even be toxic.
“There is no evidence that vitamin A has any preventive benefits,” said Dr. Peter Hotelz, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital. “The concern is that it is being weaponized by the health and wellness industry.”
According to experts, the only way to prevent measles is to get the measles-Girls-Netherlands (MMR) vaccine.
Kennedy is talking about the treatment of children with measles, the treatment of patients with measles that vaccines can prevent. “Vaccines actually stop people from measles, so you don’t have to treat them. ”
Vaccines can prevent measles, vitamin A won’t
Kennedy’s soft sales of measles vaccines during the outbreak shocked public health experts.
Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective in preventing measles. The immunity of shooting is also lasting. Measles has nowhere to spread when enough people in the community use the vaccine. It can be eliminated.
Experts say Kennedy’s emphasis on treatment has confused this information.
In an article published on X by Admiral Brett Giroir, a pediatrician during the first Trump administration, thanked Kennedy for “emphasizing the importance of measles vaccines.” “But please don’t rely on #Vitamina to save your children in the United States – in Africa there are helps, there are shortcomings. I both treat and bury children with measles,” he wrote.
In Kennedy’s interview with FOX, HHS secretary was also eager to talk about vaccine injuries and risks.
“In the past, the CDC did a great job in quantifying vaccine risks,” Kennedy said. “We are going to do this now so that people can make real, wise choices about them, the best choices for their families and their communities.”
Experts say it’s painful to hear this from top U.S. public health officials.
“He didn’t talk about the effectiveness and safety of the MMR vaccine and then revealed it to vitamin A and talk about how to improve hygiene improvements, which makes measles rates in the U.S. and all that other nonsense, and you just don’t do that in the middle of the pandemic,” Hotez said. “It’s frustrating to see that.”
Others responded to this view.
“I think it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was a sideline person, but it would be unbelievable to have the Secretary of Health and Human Services really take charge of the public’s health as a wrong treatment package to reduce the vaccine effect of measles and prevent measles,” Moss said. “It’s incredible.”
HHS said it will review a detailed list of CNN’s questions about Kennedy’s statements in an interview released by Fox Nation, but no answers were answered.
Understand infectious diseases
Kennedy made other misstatements in an interview with Fox, which also downplayed the infectious disease and its effects.
He suggested that bird flu has long been a threat, saying it has “had been around for 100 years,” despite the discovery of H5N1 in China in 1996. It is not clear whether Kennedy refers to other types of flu that birds can carry, which is the natural storage of the virus.
Kennedy further said that as we all know, about 70 people have bird flu, “almost all have participated in phase-out surgery.” In fact, more dairy workers attract the virus than those involved in bird phase-out or swallowing birds.
He said that during the ongoing outbreak, the bird flu strain B3.13, which was originally scattered in cattle, was “not very dangerous to humans” because the person who caught it was not seriously ill.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, who is the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the statement showed that Kennedy was not aware of the threat.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have luxury items that aren’t afraid of these viruses,” Osterholm said. “We have to take all of these as potential causes of the next flu pandemic.
He added: “As long as they cycle as before, this will only be every single one of the unlimited shots on the genetic roulette table.” In other words, the more people they infect, the more chances they have to change and become human pathogens.
Kennedy kept his message that he would solve chronic diseases and “get real bad things from food as soon as possible.” He questioned why Covid in the United States has “the highest mortality rate on Earth”: Is it an infection itself or is it actually an underlying disease in the entire population?
“Did they really kill them there? Or were they so sick that they hung on the cliff and Kuved just got on his nails?” he asked.
“If you are healthy, it’s almost impossible to kill a contagious disease,” Kennedy said.
Experts say this is a typical feature of Kennedy’s communication: he starts at the core of truth, but his conclusions on the problem are usually incorrect.
Kennedy is right that people with underlying health conditions are more likely to get sick when they are infectious. However, people who are healthy have nothing to do with the virus.
“He’s telling the truth, right? He’s telling the wrong thing, but there’s some truth to it.
Measles is an infection that can even make healthy children very ill.
“I really want to beg my mother to get the baby vaccinated,” Delrio said. “This is a very effective strategy. In this country, in 2025, we should not see measles.”
CNN’s Amanda Sealy, Meg Tirrell and Nadia Kounang contributed to the report.
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