Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Health Secretary, traveled to West Texas Sunday, after a second child of elementary school age who had not been vaccinated, died from measles.
Kennedy posted on social media that he had been in Gaines County to comfort families who had lost two children.
Kennedy said he worked with Texas officials to “control” the measles epidemic. Seminole, Texas, is at the epicenter of the outbreak that began in late January. Nearly 500 cases have been reported in Texas, with more cases believed to be in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Mexico.
The Texas State Department of State Health Services announced in a press release on Sunday that the second child died from measles-related pulmonary failure and had no underlying medical conditions. Aaron Davis, spokesperson for UMC Health System, Lubbock, said the child “received treatment for measles complications while hospitalized.”
This is the third death associated with this outbreak. The other two were adults in New Mexico and Texas, both of whom had not been vaccinated.
Kennedy said that this was his first trip to the region as Health Secretary, and he had met the families of the children aged 6 and 8. He claimed to have “developed bonds” in the Mennonite communities in West Texas, where the virus is most prevalent.
Kennedy has not urged widespread vaccinations, even though measles has become more prevalent under his leadership. In a long statement published on X, Kennedy said that vaccination was the “most effective way” to stop measles from spreading.
Measles is 97% effective after two doses of the measles vaccine.
Kennedy said Sunday that teams from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been “redeployed”. The CDC and the state health department did not include the death in the measles report they issued on Friday. However, the CDC confirmed it when asked about it Sunday.
Texas saw a spike in cases, with 81 from March 28 to April 4, and 16 new patients were admitted. The number of cases of measles in the U.S. is more than twice what it was for the entire year of 2024.
In a Sunday post on X, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a liver specialist whose vote was crucial to Kennedy’s confirmation as president, called for stronger messages from health officials.
Everyone should be immunized! Measles is not treatable. “There is no benefit in getting the measles,” wrote he. “Top health officials must say it unequivocally before another child dies.”
Cassidy asked Kennedy to appear Thursday before his Health Committee, but Kennedy hasn’t publicly confirmed if he would attend.
A CDC spokesperson on Sunday noted the effectiveness of the measles vaccination but did not urge people to get the vaccine. The spokesperson departed from the long-standing public messaging on vaccination and called it a personal decision. She encouraged people to speak with their doctors. The spokesperson said that people “should be aware of the risks and benefits related to vaccines”.
Kennedy and supporters of holistic medicine have pushed claims about vitamin A supplements despite doctors’ warnings. They say that the supplement should only be taken on a doctor’s order and that taking too much could be dangerous.
Doctors at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, where the first death from measles occurred, report that they have treated less than 10 children with liver problems caused by vitamin A toxicity. They discovered this when they ran routine lab tests on measles-infected children who were not fully immunized. Dr. Lara Johnson said that the patients had used vitamin A as a treatment and prevention of the virus.
Marks, who was the former director of vaccines at the Food and Drug Administration, believes that Kennedy and his team are responsible for the death. Marks left the FDA following disagreements with Kennedy about vaccine safety.
Marks stated in an interview with The Sunday Times that “this is the epitome a needless death.” “These children should be vaccinated – that’s the only way to prevent measles deaths.”
Marks said that he warned U.S. Senators recently that more deaths could occur if the government didn’t take a more aggressive approach to the outbreak.
Local health officials and experts expect this outbreak to continue for at least several months, if not even a full year. In West Texas, the majority of cases occur in children and unvaccinated adults younger than 17 years old.
Some worry that the United States may lose its status of being a country free from measles due to the outbreaks in several states and the declining vaccination rates for children across the nation.
The measles virus is a respiratory disease that can live in the air for up to two hours. According to the CDC, up to nine out of ten people susceptible to measles will contract the virus if they are exposed. First, children aged 12 to 15 months should receive the first dose. The second shot is for those aged 4 to 6 years.