A school-aged child, who was not vaccinated, died in Texas from measles. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it's "not unusual."
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases in the world, even more contagious than COVID-19 or Ebola. It can last in the air or on surfaces up to 2 hours after an infected person leaves a room. It can cause things like pneumonia, encephalitis, deafness, blindness, or death within weeks of initial infection and a progressive fatal brain disease (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) up to a decade after initial infection. Measles is one of the leading causes of childhood death worldwide.
In Lubbock, Texas, the death of a school-age child last week was the first measles death in this country since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The unvaccinated child was part of an outbreak where at least 124 people have been infected.
In 1963 a safe, effective vaccine was developed. A vaccine the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has staunchly opposed, both through his previous nonprofit, the Children's Health Defense, and in his involvement in the 2019 Samoan measles outbreak.
Kennedy, a man who has spent his career dismantling the science behind vaccines for his own personal gain, is now in charge of our nation's health. The secretary himself is a public health threat: Measles is just the beginning.
Today's public health crisis feels like onset of COVID-19
Five years ago, the world felt like it was spiraling. The novel coronavirus was unleashed globally, and healthcare became its battle zone. Healthcare providers were at the frontlines, severely underprepared, but there. There because we took an oath: An oath of beneficence (to use treatment to help the sick to the best of one's ability and judgment) and to do no harm.
We, alongside the scientists and epidemiologists who helped us emerge from the pandemic, were revered for a brief moment in time, and there was a powerful feeling of unity in the fight to protect all humans. A deep regard, from most, for science.
And then things went back to "normal," like they tend to do. Skepticism around science began to resurface. The sacrifices we made, sacrifices in time, loss of loved ones and patients, mental wellness, distance from family, and even impact on our own physical health, had to be quickly pushed aside. Life marched on, and I remember reflecting at the time, "I never want to experience something like this again."
But then the election of November occurred. In February, the U.S. Senate confirmed Kennedy. With this came an overwhelming feeling of doom and Deja Vu: The health and safety of humans again threatened, this time by the direct actions of highly unqualified men. Men who do not realize or care about the devastating long-term effects of their actions.
Physicians, epidemiologists, and scientists are thrust right back into the frontlines, and we're not energetically recovered and ready to be here. Misinformation is the new pandemic we're up against. And with that misinformation comes the direct threat of resurgent and new epidemics, mental health crises, dissolution of reproductive healthcare, and the threat to the health and safety of our nation's most vulnerable.
The battle against disinformation, the fight for truth and science
Physicians have been battling misinformation for decades. But now we're fighting against misinformation on a scale beyond which we could rationally comprehend. It has become comparable to a David vs Goliath battle. Physicians and the entire science and healthcare community have proven themselves capable of such a fight. But as a plea from a very tired and beaten down pediatrician: Help us fight.
Help us fight for science. Help us fight for vaccines. Help us fight for mental health, reproductive rights, and gender affirming healthcare. Help us fight against misinformation. Help us take down the Goliath that is RFK Jr. Help us ensure the future for our children is one we're proud of and one that will secure their health and wellbeing. Physicians, and the healthcare community at large, are stepping back up to the frontlines poised to fight, many still bearing the scars left behind from COVID, recognizing once again our duty to uphold our oath to beneficence and to do no harm. We're ready, but we cannot do it alone.
One of the numerous public health threats close to my heart is the future of vaccines and the emerging measles epidemic. Having safe, effective, extensively studied vaccines to prevent disease is a cornerstone to a healthy community. Yet misinformation and people hoping to profit from the miseducation and vulnerability of others have usurped science.
Even before the appointment of Kennedy came the misinformation surrounding measles. It has been a long fought battle for the pediatrician thanks to the disinformation surrounding a very flawed, debunked, and now retracted study claiming a link between autism and the measles vaccine. As a result, what was once an almost eradicated disease has resurfaced and is becoming an increasing (inter)national health threat.
Misinformation is trumping reason. Trust the science. Trust the scientists and physicians who have nothing to gain but peace of mind that they are doing what they aspired to do: Protect others from horrible, preventable diseases. Please do not trust a man who has no appreciable, formal biological science or epidemiological training, claims a worm ate part of his brain, and is actively making money from anti-vaccine lawsuits. There is so much at stake these next four years, but let's fight to ensure our children's and our own health and wellness are protected.