US Health Secretary Expresses Deep Concern Over Texas Measles Outbreak
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US’s leading health official and known skeptic of vaccines, has voiced support for the measles vaccine amid a fatal measles outbreak in Texas.
In a Fox News opinion piece on Sunday, Kennedy stated he is “deeply concerned” about the disease’s spread, despite previously suggesting it was not unusual.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles but also contribute to community immunity, safeguarding those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote, though he added vaccination is a “personal decision”.
Before introducing the MMR vaccine, “almost every child” in the US contracted measles, stated the secretary of health and human services.
For instance, in the US between 1953 and 1962, there were an average of 530,217 confirmed cases and 440 deaths annually, with a fatality rate of one in 1,205 cases.
US authorities recently reported the first measles death in the country in a decade after an unvaccinated school-aged child was hospitalized in northwest Texas.
Since late January, Texas has identified 146 cases, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Health officials mentioned that the cases concentrated among Mennonites, a Christian denomination that emerged from the Reformation in the 16th century.
Critics have raised concerns over Kennedy promoting discredited research linking vaccines to autism during a recent contentious US Senate hearing.
Measles can be highly dangerous for those who are not vaccinated, including young infants who are not typically eligible for immunization.
Approximately one in five unvaccinated US individuals with measles requires hospitalization, and one in 20 gets pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a Fox News opinion piece on Sunday, Kennedy stated he is “deeply concerned” about the disease’s spread, despite previously suggesting it was not unusual.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles but also contribute to community immunity, safeguarding those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote, though he added vaccination is a “personal decision”.
Before introducing the MMR vaccine, “almost every child” in the US contracted measles, stated the secretary of health and human services.
For instance, in the US between 1953 and 1962, there were an average of 530,217 confirmed cases and 440 deaths annually, with a fatality rate of one in 1,205 cases.
US authorities recently reported the first measles death in the country in a decade after an unvaccinated school-aged child was hospitalized in northwest Texas.
Since late January, Texas has identified 146 cases, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Health officials mentioned that the cases concentrated among Mennonites, a Christian denomination that emerged from the Reformation in the 16th century.
Critics have raised concerns over Kennedy promoting discredited research linking vaccines to autism during a recent contentious US Senate hearing.
Measles can be highly dangerous for those who are not vaccinated, including young infants who are not typically eligible for immunization.
Approximately one in five unvaccinated US individuals with measles requires hospitalization, and one in 20 gets pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
