Anti-vaccine activists are disputing the cause of measles deaths in the US, with Robert F Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, publicly questioning the rising death toll. This follows eight measles deaths in the US in less than two years.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an anti-vaccine group previously led by Kennedy, claims to have initiated malpractice investigations into doctors who treated two unvaccinated girls who died from measles during an outbreak in west Texas last year. Brian Hooker, CHD’s chief scientific officer, stated that medical boards are reviewing complaints alleging inappropriate antibiotics led to the girls' deaths.
Katherine Wells, Lubbock Public Health’s director, and Paul Offit, a vaccine expert, suggest these claims are a tactic by anti-vaccine activists to question vaccine safety and distract from the ongoing measles outbreaks and their severe consequences. Measles can lead to hospitalisation for about one in five unvaccinated patients, erase immunity to other illnesses, and in some cases, cause fatal complications years later.