Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist serving because the secretary of Health and Human Companies, made some wild claims concerning the hyperlink between measles, weight loss program and train in an interview final week.
The interview aired on Fox Nation, Fox Information Channel’s paid subscription service, the identical day President Donald Trump delivered his speech to a joint session of Congress. The dialog between Kennedy and Fox Information senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel largely flew beneath the radar till The New York Instances reported on it Monday.
“We see a correlation between people who get hurt by measles and people who are ― who don’t have good nutrition or who don’t have a good exercise regimen,” Kennedy advised Siegel at one level throughout the 35-minute sit-down.
Win McNamee by way of Getty Photographs
His feedback had been anchored to the present measles outbreak in West Texas, the place there have been practically 200 confirmed infections, 23 hospitalizations, and one dying of an unvaccinated baby ― the primary such fatality within the U.S. in a decade ― who was a part of a Mennonite congregation in Gaines County.
With out offering proof, Kennedy pointed to malnutrition and lack of entry to contemporary meals within the space as elements that “may have been an issue in her death.”
He did concede that in “in highly unvaccinated communities like Mennonites, [vaccines are] something that we recommend,” however then went on to say that Mennonite leaders in Gaines County have advised him “there’s a number of vaccine injured kids, about a dozen, in that community.”
“They said, we want [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers] to look at our vaccine-injured kids, and look them in the eye,” he went on. The CDC, he claimed, “has not done a good job at quantifying the risk of vaccines.”
The CDC has in depth details about the protection and efficacy of vaccines, together with their uncommon uncomfortable side effects, freely out there on its web site.
Kennedy additionally pushed unproven remedies for measles, saying two medical doctors treating sufferers within the space have advised him they’re seeing “almost miraculous, instantaneous recovery” in measles sufferers once they’re given cod oil, steroids, antibiotics or excessive doses of nutritional vitamins A and D.
“We need to really do a good job talking to the frontline doctors and see what is working on the ground,” Kennedy stated. “Because those, you know, therapeutics have really been ignored by the [CDC] for a long, long time.”
Kennedy additionally claimed there have been “a lot of studies” exhibiting that pure immunity derived from catching measles and different vaccine-preventable illnesses may help the immune system combat most cancers, cardiac illness and allergy circumstances. Nevertheless, analysis doesn’t extensively assist that declare.
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Kennedy ― whose remarks come regardless of his insistence all through his Senate affirmation hearings that he’s not anti-vaccine ― additionally shared that as a child, he went to so-called “measles parties” ― gatherings the place dad and mom of unvaccinated youngsters let measles unfold from baby to baby in hopes they gained pure immunity.
