Health secretary earlier said outbreak was ‘not unusual’ but with first US measles death in decade steps up response

Two days after initially downplaying the outbreak as “not unusual,” the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, on Friday said he recognizes the serious impact of the ongoing measles epidemic in Texas – in which a child died recently – and said the government is providing resources, including protective vaccines.

“Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team,” Kennedy – an avowed anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who for years has sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines – said in a post on X.

Kennedy said his federal Department of Health and Human Services would send Texas 2,000 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine – typically meant to be given to children in a series of two shots at 12 to 15 months old as well as between the ages of four and six years old – through its immunization program.

  • @givesomefucksEnglish
    43•2 days ago

    would send Texas 2,000 doses

    Yeah, that actually sounds reasonable for a small localized outbreak when most are already vaccinated…

    A total of 164 measles cases were reported as of 27 February across Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas, information from the CDC showed. About 95% of those infected were unvaccinated people, including children whose parents did not follow CDC recommendations to get them immunized with safe, effective vaccines providing protection against measles as well as other easily preventable diseases. Another 3% were from people who received only one of the two required shots for immunity, CDC data showed on Friday.

    These cases were reported in nine jurisdictions, including Kentucky, marking a near 80% jump from 93 cases reported a week ago.

    Too bad it’s fucking everywhere and spreading insanely quickly…

    • @Redditsux
      23•2 days ago

      2000 is laughable. And they’re having “measles” parties? lol gl!

      • @Eatspancakes84
        12•2 days ago

        You don’t need measles parties. The virus is so contagious you more or less can get it by looking at an infected person if you are not already immune.

      • @[email protected]
        8•2 days ago

        remember back in elementary school and you thought $100 was a lot of money but when you got older you realized that $100 wasn’t a whole lot? I see the same thing here, except that those people who think that’s a lot of doses for this situation probably have a 7th or 8th grade understanding of, well, everything but they’re older than 50.

        there needs to be at a minimum 500,000 doses for west texas.

    • aramis87
      8•2 days ago

      Unfortunately, I suspect we’re in the incubation phase of a likely superspreader event (the contagious kid who spent time in crowded college areas, two weeks before (a) symptoms appear and (b) one of those colleges goes on spring break).

      I’m betting that, of the hundreds of people exposed and the couple dozen people who probably caught it, at least some of them will go on spring break, and infect other spring breakers who will then bring it home to their colleges. It’ll have a couple months to spread there, then some of them will bring it home for the summer.

      It sure would’ve been nice if we’d had politicians who were actually both sane and foresightful … :(

      • @Treczoks
        3•2 days ago

        Wait until one of those Texan cow wranglers manages to crossbreed the measles he got from his “f-ck vaccines” support group with the avian flu he got from kissing his cows.