(Adnkronos) – ”The best way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine”. This is how Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. backtracked from his previous no-vax stance after the second measles death in the United States. Two deaths both occurred in Texas, the state with the highest number of reported measles cases. As Kennedy himself wrote on ‘X’, 499 of the 642 confirmed cases were in Texas. And it is here, in Gaines County, that the Health Secretary went in the past few hours to bring ”comfort” to the two families mourning the loss of two children due to measles. The last is a little girl, Daisy Hildebrand, 8 years old, whose funeral was held yesterday, attended by Kennedy himself. Before her, in February, Kayley Fehr, 6, died of measles. The victims belonged to the Mennonites, an Anabaptist Christian community that is inspired by the Bible as the sole authority.
Kennedy recounted on ‘X’ that he also met two doctors in Texas, whom he described as “extraordinary healers who have treated about 300 Mennonite children with measles using nebulized budesonide and clarithromycin.” However, Stat News points out that these are ”unorthodox and unproven” treatments for measles. Kennedy nevertheless highlighted, among other measures he has taken, the use of a CDC team “to bolster local and state response capacity in several regions of Texas, provide Texas-run pharmacies and clinics with needed MMR vaccines and other medicines and medical supplies”.
