‘Everybody has to die’: Fatal measles outbreak causing mayhem across America
A deadly outbreak is wreaking havoc across the US – and the competency of Donald Trump’s new health boss is being put to the test.
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US President Donald Trump’s new health supremo, Robert F Kennedy Jr, wants every American to catch measles.
“It used to be, when you and I were kids, that everybody got measles,” the 71-year-old said during an interview with Fox News.
“The measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes.”
But, for three out of every 1000 that contract the disease, their lifetime will be dramatically shorter because of it.
Just 30 days into his term of office, the competency of the new Health and Human Services Secretary is being put to the test.
He’s one of the United States’ most prominent critics of longstanding vaccination programs.
Now, his loud-spoken opinions are being confronted with reality.
An unvaccinated 6-year-old child in West Texas died late last month of measles. It was the first US death from the potentially fatal virus in a decade.
A week later, an unvaccinated adult was found dead in their New Mexico home. An autopsy revealed they had also been suffering from the virus.
As of March 13, the Centres for Disease Control reported 301 confirmed cases across 15 states, ranging from Alaska and California in the west to Florida and Rhode Island in the east.
“More cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly,” it added in a separate assessment.
Now, US voters are looking to Robert F Kennedy Jr (known as RFK) for answers.
‘Everybody has to die’
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness that can cause severe complications. A century of medical statistics reveals one in every five cases requires hospitalisation. About three in every 1000 cases end in death.
United States’ health agencies declared nationwide vaccination programs had all but eliminated the virus 25 years ago. But it has since re-entered the country. With a vengeance.
Ground zero appears to be Texas and New Mexico.
The six-year-old girl who was the first fatality was part of a fundamentalist Christian community in the small West Texas town of Seminole. Mennonite sect doctrine does not specifically bar modern medicines. But it does emphasise “natural” remedies over scientific intervention.
“The vaccination has stuff we don’t trust,” the girl’s father, identifying himself only as Peter, told The Atlantic.
“We don’t like the vaccinations, what they have these days. We heard too much, and we saw too much.”
Peter insisted measles was a “normal” part of life. Even though vaccination has made it an increasingly rare condition for more than half a century.
“Everybody has it. It’s not so new for us,” he added.
“Everybody has to die.”
It’s an attitude reflected by RFK.
“We have measles outbreaks every year,” he told US media.
That’s despite insisting in a 2021 book that measles outbreaks “have been fabricated to create fear”.
The Health Secretary also cast doubt on the diagnosis that measles had caused the girl’s death.
He declared West Texas “somewhat of a food desert”, adding that nutrition “may have been an issue” for her resilience.
“It’s exceedingly difficult for measles to kill a healthy individual,” Mr Kennedy added.
“There’s a connection between those who suffer from measles and individuals who lack proper nutrition or don’t engage in regular physical activity.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services said the girl had “no known underlying conditions”. And West Texas health professionals disagree with RFK’s “food desert” condemnation.
They point out that the Mennonite sect believes in manual labour and avoiding processed foods. They raise their own cattle, grow their own vegetables and bake their own bread.
Survival of the fittest?
“The best thing that Americans can do is to keep themselves healthy,” Mr Kennedy told a Fox Nation interview.
“It’s very, very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person.”
His words, however, were contrasted by his actions.
While sitting down with Sean Hannity’s Fox News program at a Steak’n’Shake fast food restaurant, he praised the outlet for considering his personal preferences – and urged others to follow suit.
“We are very thankful to them for RFK’ing their French fries,” he said of their switch to beef tallow from seed oil.
“They’ve turned my name into a verb.”
With the lack of vaccine-induced resistance in the US population, RFK says alternative treatments are needed.
“We need to look at those therapies and other therapies,” he said.
“We need to really do a good job of talking to the frontline doctors and see what is working on the ground because those therapeutics have really been ignored by the agency for a long, long time.”
In an editorial RFK submitted to Fox News earlier this month, he insisted nutrition and vitamin A were the “best defence against most chronic and infectious illnesses”.
RFK has also pointed to two specific doctors as leading the charge against measles.
Dr Richard Bartlett and Dr Ben Edwards have been advocating the use of steroids and antibiotics.
“They have treated most of the patients, actually, over 108 patients in the last 48 hours. And they’re getting very, very good results,” Mr Kennedy said on March 4.
“They report from budesonide, which is a steroid, it’s a 30-year-old steroid, and clarithromycin (an antibiotic) and also cod liver oil, which has high concentrations of vitamin A and vitamin D.”
However, decades of medical research show vitamin A is only an issue if the patient is deficient.
The steroid budesonide is an asthma treatment that only eases the breathing symptoms of measles.
And antibiotics treat bacteria, not viruses.
“(They are) seeing what they describe as almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery,” Mr Kennedy insisted.
“We haven’t done a clinical trial on those, and we should have, but we haven’t. And we’re going to.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as ‘Everybody has to die’: Fatal measles outbreak causing mayhem across America
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