The New York Times Mocks RFK Jr for Vitamin A Guidance to Combat Texas Measles Outbreak
A great deal of research shows Vitamin A can be of benefit to those infected by measles.
The last time I reported on the Texas measles outbreak, a school-age child had died and the mainstream media was asserting that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak; yet, there was little such drama over the many measles cases during the Biden term.
Since then, the Texas State Department of Health Services (TSDHS) has reported 13 more measles cases, raising the total number of cases.
So far, 22 patients have been hospitalized, and the number of deaths remains at 1. The number of affected counties, located in the state’s South Plains area in the west, remains at nine, with most reported from Gaines County, which has been the outbreak epicenter.
Of the 159 cases, 80 are unvaccinated and 74 have an unknown vaccination status. Five patients had received at least one dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has now issued a call to action for this outbreak. He emphasized the importance of vaccines and urged parents to consider vaccinating their children14. Kennedy stated that the outbreak is a “top priority”.
Key points of Kennedy’s call to action include encouraging parents to consult with healthcare providers about getting the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and emphasizing that vaccines protect individual children and contribute to community immunity.
However, he supplemented the traditional vaccine-oriented approach with a recommendation to treat those infected using Vitamin A.
It is also our responsibility to provide up-to-date guidance on available therapeutic medications. While there is no approved antiviral for those who may be infected, CDC has recently updated their recommendation supporting administration of vitamin A under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection.
Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.
In fact, there is a great deal of research showing that Vitamin A can benefit those infected with measles.
- A meta-analysis of eight studies involving 2,574 participants found that vitamin A megadoses (200,000 international units on each day for two days) lowered the number of deaths from measles in hospitalized children under two years old.
- Multiple studies in populations with prevalent vitamin A deficiency have shown that vitamin A supplementation can dramatically reduce the risk of serious complications and death from measles, with minimal detectable adverse effects.
- A study published in 1986 showed a 34 percent reduction in mortality among children aged 1-5 years who received vitamin A supplementation every six months in Aceh, Indonesia.
The above was only some of the material from reputable science and medical publications on the subject. One statement in the journal Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice caught my eye.
Vitamin A deficiency in the United States is rare. It is much more common in low- and middle-income countries because individuals often have limited access to foods containing vitamin A from animal-based food sources and/or do not commonly consume fresh fruits and vegetables.
In the post on the death of the child in Texas, I noted that malnutrition was a significant risk factor for severe illness or death with measles infections. There is little information about the infected, but if they are the children of illegal immigrants or Americans who can’t afford sky-high prices for fresh fruit and vegetables, that Vitamin A supplementation may be critical.
Yet, The New York Times decided to mock Kennedy’s vitamin recommendation by referencing “cod liver oil” and finding a medical hack to support its inane take on the subject.
Texas doctors had seen “very, very good results,” Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.
While physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is “by no means” an evidence-based treatment, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Hopefully, thanks to new media and Kennedy’s willingness to lay out all the options, parents can make fully informed decisions about vaccines and other options that could be helpful during a measles infection.
RFK Jr. on the Texas measles outbreak: “What we’re trying to do is restore our faith in government.”
“We’re delivering Vitamin A … Budesonide, Clarithromycin, and cod liver oil, which has high concentrations of Vitamin A and Vitamin D.” pic.twitter.com/ONGZjvdw5x
— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) March 4, 2025
Perhaps with healthier Americans and fewer illegal immigrants, we can return to a time when measles is “eradicated”. However, that won’t be due to elite media’s sick reporting.
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Rich irony from NYT. No one is more mock-worthy than they.
Remember: they thought Paul Krugman was an economic genius instead of a flop.
Never forget his doleful prediction in 2016 that the US was going to go into a depression over the Trump election.
In the late 90s, Krugman said the internet would be no more impactful than the fax machine. 😀
To be fair, the guy who was once the CEO of IBM said which the same thing about computers.
The reflexive disdain of the establishment/elite for anything that disrupts their own parochial viewpoint and orthodox beliefs is really something to behold. They refuse to recognize how narrow minded and intolerant they have become. Though considering that much of their income and power is derived from their gate keeping maybe it isn’t so surprising.
Thanks Dementia Joe! You’re a real gem. /s
Measles is a virus, so very little can be done once infected, beyond bedrest and a healthy diet. It can help to drink copious amounts of water, as is true for all viruses.
5000 iu Vit D + 50 mg zinc + quercetin are effective against viruses, as is ivermectin.
Ivermectin? bUt iT’z h0RsE pASte!1!!!
(Sorry, figured I’d get that out of the way before JR or some other Democrat toolbag troll showed up and started screeching it.)
What is all this panic over measles? I am 80; when I was a child everyone got measles. I never hear of anyone being seriously ill, much less dying. My vague memory of the measles was not going to school for a few days.
Yes, measles was a real killer 100+ years ago. Malnutrition, bad water, terrible living conditions in the big cities resulted in high child mortality, period. A child suffering from malnutrition dies easily, from most anything.
The death rate from measles by the time I had it was near zero–and there were no vaccines.
You just didn’t hear about the ones who died. Children die of chicken pox too. I know someone whose daughter died of it. But people don’t remember those cases. Especially with things like allergies that attack babies, so that by the time you got to school anyone who was going to die of them had already died.
Continue that trend for 60 years, and you end up with a generation who is mortally threatened by critical speech.
Question: No one has commented on the measles strain. My guess–it is the vaccine strain.
“Wild” polio is allegedly extinct. Yet, in Africa, there is polio. It is the vaccine strain.
Questions not asked invite the conclusion that they don’t want to hear the answer.
Yes Kennedy should be telling the truth about this
There is already an MD claiming there was a measles vaccination campaign going on the the area before the outbreak.
Measles was eradicated because of vaccines, not nutrition or immigration enforcement, and it came back because of the MMR panic and parents deciding not to vaccinate, not because of poor nutrition or illegal immigrants. Many/most outbreaks in the last 25 years have resulted from legal travelers, and from residents returning from travel.
And why do you think that distrust existed? Because people weren’t allowed to question the Orthodoxy and they were just shut up and censored. We have a name for settled science that can’t be questioned, that’s called Dogma. There should never be any problem with questioning science and there should never be a problem with re-examining evidence. My children did not get the MMR vaccine. They got separate injections for measles, mumps and rubella instead of one shot because their pediatrician thought that would be easier on their immune systems. Not stress them out too much but spread it out over time still get the same immunities. I thought it was the better plan even though it cost more. We should probably be doing this for all children, but apparently big Pharma makes more of the MMR shot than it does off the three separate ones.
I looked up vaccine schedule and tried to find a separate vaccine for mmr and they said it wasn’t available. You had to take the combo?
It’s not on the schedule, you really do have to ask for it.
Not to mention there are no studies about the effects all the childhood vaccines have on each other, which are given in a very compressed time frame. Good, bad, or neutral. Probably because big pharma is afraid of the answers.
Measles in the US was eradicated because of both better nutrition and vaccines. The illegal aliens dumped on cities and towns all over the US and forced into schools do not have vaccinations and are not required to have them. That is why we are seeing an uptick in measles as well as other diseases.
When I was a kid you got separate immunizations for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella, the scare about the effects of the vaccine didn’t happen until after the mid 1970s when the MMR vaccine came out. I am no expert but it is my understanding a lot of the issues with the MMR was because of the solvent or preservatives that was in the vaccine. I remember something about a mercury derivative or something, they really should go back to individual shots.
I believe you’re thinking of thimerisol which was commonly used as an adjuvant . It’s main ingredient is methyl mercury, which should never have been allowed into anything taken internally.
Notice, he didn’t suggest people not take the vaccine. He in fact suggested that the parents should get their kids vaccinated. They’re mocking him why, because he suggesting a treatment that may well help people that the vaccine won’t help because they’re already infected. Idiocy
One would think medical authorities would have learned their lesson, and that their denial of the efficacy of a handful of COVID treatments cost them credibility enough. But here they go again. If they wanted to claw back some of the trust they tossed by the side of the road, they should be supporting Kennedy. But they insist on besmirching themselves. The pay must be lucrative.
I don’t see anyone commenting on the fact that at least some of the kids infected were already vaxxed against measles.
Very few. 5 out of 159. That’s not surprising. The vaccination is not 100% effective. No one ever claimed it was 100% effective; very few if any vaccines are. The Measles vaccine is more effective than many — 90% to 95%.
And that’s one more reason why it’s important for everyone who can be vaccinated to be so, because not only those who can’t be vaccinated rely on herd immunity, but so do those for whom it doesn’t work.