As a measles case hits the Washington, D.C., space, public well being businesses led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr. are ignoring it and as an alternative losing assets on testing vaccines for a false and long-debunked affiliation with autism.
A measles outbreak in West Texas started in January, however on Sunday, a case was confirmed in Maryland, with the potential of additional publicity to individuals at Dulles Worldwide Airport and the Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Heart. (The 2 outbreaks are usually not believed to be related.) And officers are nonetheless attempting to determine who has been uncovered, in keeping with The Washington Publish.
Nonetheless, it’s clear we’re not within the most secure of arms, no less than federally. Throughout President Donald Trump’s Cupboard assembly on Feb. 26, Kennedy claimed the outbreak in Texas and New Mexico was “not unusual”—regardless of that it has led to the primary two deaths from the preventable illness in a decade. Moreover, there have been greater than 200 reported circumstances and 23 hospitalizations resulting from largely unvaccinated populations, as of March 7.
“There’ve been four measles outbreaks this year. In this country last year, there were 16,” Kennedy mentioned, pushing a false narrative of public well being normalcy. “So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.”
As a substitute of specializing in the rising outbreak, Kennedy, a rabid anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist, is utilizing taxpayer {dollars} to direct the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to conduct unnecessary trials on a disproven hyperlink between vaccines and autism. To the chagrin of “crunchy” pseudoscience advocates, quite a few research discovered no hyperlink between vaccines resulting in autism.
That hasn’t stopped Trump’s public well being goons from persevering with to parrot junk-science speaking factors.
It’s unclear how the examine could be carried out, who would participate in it, and the way it could be totally different from quite a few earlier research of the identical matter.
Public well being consultants are denouncing the choice. Others are afraid of the impression Kennedy is already having on waning public well being belief.
An indication is seen exterior of Seminole Hospital District providing measles testing on Feb. 21, 2025, in Seminole, Texas.
“The announcement that CDC will look at potential links between vaccines and autism means that significant federal resources will be diverted from crucial areas of study, including research into the unknown causes of autism, at a time when research funding is already facing deep cuts,” mentioned Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Illness Society of America.
“[Kennedy’s] misleading and often conspiratorial claims have already weakened confidence in public health, a legacy that could have far-reaching and deadly consequences both domestically and globally,” Y. Tony Yang, an affiliate dean of well being coverage at George Washington College Faculty of Nursing, wrote in The Lancet. “It is not just the poorest and most vulnerable who will suffer; unvaccinated infants, immunocompromised individuals, and entire communities are at risk.”
Kennedy has already axed the multimillion-dollar effort to review an oral COVID-19 vaccine, and had the Meals and Drug Administration cancel a gathering to plan for subsequent season’s flu shot. When he isn’t gutting public well being businesses or providing employees $25,000 to resign, he’s having the division whiplash his staff by begging them to come back again.
As measles spreads, the Trump administration is losing assets on debunked conspiracies as an alternative of defending public well being—a harmful gamble with actual penalties.
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