RFK Jr. visits West Texas as a second child is buried after dying from a measles-related illness
Health Secretary Robert F.Kennedy, Jr.
traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second elementary school-aged child who was not vaccinated died from a measles-related illness.Ahead of a “Make America Healthy Again” tour across southwestern US, Kennedy said in a social media post that he was in Gaines County to comfort the families who have buried two young children.Kennedy said he was working with Texas health officials to “control the measles outbreak.” Seminole is the epicenter of the outbreak, which started in late January and continues to swell — with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, plus cases from the outbreak believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.The second young child died Thursday from “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure,” and did not have underlying health conditions, the Texas State Department of State Health Services said Sunday in a news release.Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.”This is the third known measles-related death tied to this outbreak.
One was another elementary school-aged child in Texas and the other was an adult in New Mexico; neither were vaccinated.It’s Kennedy’s first visit to the area as health secretary, where he said he met with families of both the 6- and 8-year-old children who died.He said he “developed bonds” with the Mennonite community in West Texas in which the virus is mostly spreading.Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate before ascending to the role of nation’s top health secretary earlier this year, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations as the measles outbreak has worsened under his watch.
On Sunday, however, he said in a lengthy statement posted on X that it was “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.”The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been used safely for more than 60 ...