WASHINGTON — Late Wednesday, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) tore into Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for downplaying a baby’s demise in a measles outbreak in Texas, saying she blames Kennedy for the tragedy due to his lengthy file of spreading disinformation about vaccines.
State well being officers confirmed Wednesday that an unvaccinated youngster in rural West Texas had died amid the outbreak, turning into the primary U.S. demise from measles since 2015. Measles is very contagious however preventable with vaccines. Requested later in the identical day concerning the unnamed youngster’s demise in the course of the first Cupboard assembly of President Donald Trump’s new administration, Kennedy stated solely that measles outbreaks are “not unusual” and that “we’ve measles outbreaks yearly.”
Schrier, who’s a pediatrician, stated she was surprised by Kennedy’s response.
“He’s filled with, you’ll be able to put 4 letters there,” she informed HuffPost. “Begins with an ‘S.’”
The truth that a baby has died from a vaccine-preventable illness is “devastating,” Schrier stated. “And by the best way, I do blame him and others like him who, for the previous 20 years, have been spreading lies about vaccines, that are protected and efficient. And that has been confirmed repeatedly. That is settled science.”
A spokesperson for the Division of Well being and Human Companies didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Invoice Clark by way of Getty Pictures
As of Tuesday, the Texas Division of State Well being Companies has reported 124 cases of measles since late January, the most important outbreak the state has seen in almost 30 years. The overwhelming majority of those circumstances are kids, and all however 5 of those circumstances are in people who find themselves unvaccinated or with an unknown vaccination standing.
Measles vaccines had been first developed in the 1960s after which mixed with vaccines for mumps and rubella within the Seventies. Measles was thought-about eradicated within the U.S. in 2000. However there have been outbreaks occasionally, and Schrier stated it’s due to folks like Kennedy, who has a excessive profile and has denigrated vaccines dozens of times.
He has repeatedly promoted the false declare that vaccines trigger autism, one thing he did as just lately as 2023 in a Fox News interview. In a podcast interview that same year, Kennedy stated, “There’s no vaccine that’s protected and efficient.” In 2021, he urged folks to “resist” guidelines issued by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention on when kids ought to get vaccinated.
Throughout a 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa that left 80 kids useless, Kennedy wrote to the nation’s prime minister, falsely claiming the measles vaccine was most likely inflicting the deaths.
“Folks like him maintain telling weak mother and father that there’s one thing unsuitable with vaccines,” Schrier stated. “They’re preying on these mother and father, and that has a direct line to the demise of this youngster.”
The Washington state congresswoman additionally took intention at senators who voted this month to verify Kennedy to his highly effective put up atop HHS, regardless of figuring out he spent a long time rejecting science and pushing conspiracies about childhood vaccines inflicting autism. Kennedy was confirmed on a party-line vote, aside from one Republican who voted no: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a childhood polio survivor.
Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who’s a doctor and chairs the Senate’s prime well being committee, briefly waffled on whether or not he would help Kennedy’s nomination. He particularly raised issues about Kennedy’s file of spreading lies about vaccine security. However in the long run, he supported him.
A Cassidy spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark about Kennedy downplaying the measles epidemic in Texas.
“Each Republican senator who voted to verify him as secretary of Well being and Human Companies knew that this was going to occur,” Schrier stated, referring to the kid who died from measles.
Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Scientists are already on edge about the opportunity of Kennedy utilizing his place to sow doubts about vaccines. On Wednesday, a panel of scientific consultants that advises the Meals and Drug Administration on vaccine coverage realized that its upcoming assembly to debate subsequent yr’s flu vaccines had been canceled. No purpose was given.
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Schrier stated measles is “probably the most contagious illnesses I’ve ever handled” as a pediatrician. The Texas outbreak is especially worrisome, she famous, because it has unfold into New Mexico and has well being officers on excessive alert in Louisiana ― Cassidy’s residence state.
“There have been outbreaks, however this can be a massive one,” she stated. “And [Kennedy] has contributed to it.”
