Kennedy Orders Search for New Measles Treatments Instead of Urging Vaccination
Decades of research have turned up no miracle treatment for measles, but studies show the M.M.R. shot is 97 percent effective in preventing the disease.
Decades of research have turned up no miracle treatment for measles, but studies show the M.M.R. shot is 97 percent effective in preventing the disease.
www.nytimes.com
“With the United States facing its
largest single measles outbreak in 25 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will direct federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for the disease, including vitamins, according to an H.H.S. spokesman. The decision is the latest in a
series of actions by the nation’s top health official that experts fear will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.
… Scientists have already thoroughly studied various vitamins and medications as potential treatments for measles, said Michael Osterholm an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.
Decades of research have turned up no miracle treatment for the measles virus, which can cause pneumonia, making it difficult for patients to get oxygen into their lungs, and
brain swelling, which can cause blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities.
“It’s not that there’s been a lack of studies,” he said. …”