Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
After the health secretary promoted vitamin A as a cure, parents in West Texas began giving their children high doses, sometimes to prevent infection.
A nurse practitioner administering a measles vaccine to a 3-year-old patient at Seminole Memorial Hospital in West Texas last month, amid the measles outbreak there. Desiree Rios for The New York Times
By Teddy Rosenbluth
March 25, 2025
Doctors in West Texas are seeing measles patients whose illnesses have been complicated by an alternative therapy endorsed by vaccine skeptics including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary.
Parents in Gaines County, Texas, the center of a raging measles outbreak, have increasingly turned to supplements and unproven treatments to protect their children, many of whom are unvaccinated, against the virus.
One of those supplements is cod liver oil containing vitamin A, which Mr. Kennedy has promoted as a near miraculous cure for measles. Physicians at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they’ve now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage.
Some of them had received unsafe doses of cod liver oil and other vitamin A supplements for several weeks in an attempt to prevent a measles infection, said Dr. Summer Davies, who cares for acutely ill children at the hospital.
{snip}
Teddy Rosenbluth is a health reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Teddy Rosenbluth
A version of this article appears in print on March 26, 2025, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Doctors Treat Measles Patients Who Followed Kennedy’s Remedy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
After the health secretary promoted vitamin A as a cure, parents in West Texas began giving their children high doses, sometimes to prevent infection.
A nurse practitioner administering a measles vaccine to a 3-year-old patient at Seminole Memorial Hospital in West Texas last month, amid the measles outbreak there. Desiree Rios for The New York Times
By Teddy Rosenbluth
March 25, 2025
Doctors in West Texas are seeing measles patients whose illnesses have been complicated by an alternative therapy endorsed by vaccine skeptics including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary.
Parents in Gaines County, Texas, the center of a raging measles outbreak, have increasingly turned to supplements and unproven treatments to protect their children, many of whom are unvaccinated, against the virus.
One of those supplements is cod liver oil containing vitamin A, which Mr. Kennedy has promoted as a near miraculous cure for measles. Physicians at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they’ve now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage.
Some of them had received unsafe doses of cod liver oil and other vitamin A supplements for several weeks in an attempt to prevent a measles infection, said Dr. Summer Davies, who cares for acutely ill children at the hospital.
{snip}
Teddy Rosenbluth is a health reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Teddy Rosenbluth
A version of this article appears in print on March 26, 2025, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Doctors Treat Measles Patients Who Followed Kennedy’s Remedy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
