RFK Jr. Promotes Vitamin A, Vaccine ‘Freedom of Choice’ amid ‘Rapidly’ Expanding Measles Outbreak

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressed the deadly measles outbreak in the Southwest, which the CDC said “continues to expand rapidly,” adding that “more cases are expected”
• Kennedy spoke to Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying while his department does “encourage” people to vaccinate,” he’s a “freedom-of-choice person”
• He also promoted vitamin A, which experts say may help someone who has has the disease but not prevent it

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said “I’m a freedom-of-choice person” when it comes to vaccines — amid a fatal outbreak of measles that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said will “continue to expand rapidly.”

In a March 11 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Kennedy, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressed the worsening outbreak, saying “Anybody who wants a vaccine can get one, and we will make sure of that, and they can get it for free.”

However, he emphasized, “I’m a freedom-of-choice person, yeah. We should have transparency. We should have informed choice, and if people don’t want it, the government shouldn’t force them to do it.”

“What we need to do is give them the best information, encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy went on to claim that the vaccine causes encephalitis (brain swelling); in fact, that’s a symptom of severe cases of measles. “Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella,” the CDC says.

Along with vaccines, Kennedy said, “we’re providing vitamin A” to outbreak-impacted areas, telling Hannity that studies show it can “help against serious disease and death.”  Vitamin A supplements, the Mayo Clinic explains, “are recommended for children with measles who are at an increased risk of vitamin A deficiency. Research suggests that supplementation might reduce death due to measles.”

Experts are quick to point out a key fact: “If someone is infected with measles, then vitamin A can help mitigate some of the longer-term sequelae but it does not prevent measles in an unvaccinated person,” University of Texas Health infectious disease epidemiologist Catherine Troisi told Houston Public Media. “Moderate doses of vitamin A can be useful in treatment, but the better choice is to prevent measles from happening in the first place through vaccination.”

It’s unknown if those who died from measles in this current outbreak had a vitamin A deficiency, which the Mayo Clinic says is uncommon in the U.S.

Kennedy also claimed that historically, when it came to measles, “the people who tended to die were people with comorbidities and they were malnourished. Which is less of a problem because the vaccine came around in 1963, and the WIC program which fed all these hungry kids in our country came in in ‘64.” [Per its website, WIC — Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — began in 1972.]

The comments about the importance of nutrition come amid the U.S. Department of Agriculture cutting two programs that funded food banks and school lunches, the Guardian reports. As the School Nutrition Association says, these cuts “severely limit student access to healthy meals.” 

Two people have died in Texas — including an unvaccinated child — and one in New Mexico amid worsening outbreak. Most recent data shows 223 confirmed cases in Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services said March 11.

The department also said that the child who died from measles “had no known underlying conditions.”

The CDC issued an official health advisory on the deadly measles spread, calling vaccination “the most important tool for preventing measles” as “more cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly.”