RFK Jr. touts vitamin A and cod liver oil for measles. Here's what the science says.
Here are four recent statements Kennedy made about measles and what infectious disease experts had to say about his handling of the crisis so far.
'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one.'
In an opinion piece published by
Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, said it was problematic for the country's top public health official to not more aggressively endorse vaccination amid the current outbreak.
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'Some vaccines could be a personal choice. For example, even the CDC leaves some leeway on certain vaccines,' said Doron, including one for
Measles, best known for the signature red rash it causes, infects 9 out of every 10 unvaccinated people exposed to it. But it is also highly preventable. Two doses of the MMR vaccine — the first typically given when children are between the ages of 12 and 15 months and the second given between the ages of 4 and 6 years old— are 97 percent effective at preventing infection and provide lifelong immunity for most people.
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Herd immunity for measles requires a 95 percent vaccination rate, yet in the Texas county where measles has been spreading,
'Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality.'
While it's true that the World Health Organization
'We've never done a trial in the U.S., so I can't tell you for certain whether it's beneficial or it's not,' said Dr. Alfred Sommer, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a contributor to a 2020 report by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases that
The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that 'many US experts concur with administering vitamin A to all children in the United States with measles, regardless of hospitalization status' and adds that
However, vitamin A, unlike vaccination, cannot prevent measles. It's also important for parents to consult doctors before giving children vitamin A, because it's possible to overdose.
In a recent Fox News interview, Kennedy also claimed that children with measles in Texas were being given cod liver oil, which is naturally high in vitamin A.
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Doron expressed confusion over Kennedy's claims.
'You would not administer vitamin A that way,' she said. 'It doesn't have even close to what you would give if you were administering medical-grade vitamin A.'
Vitamin A — along with vitamin supplementation in general — has long been promoted by anti-vaccine activists as an alternative to vaccination for disease prevention, including by the anti-vaccine organization Children's Health Defense, which Kennedy
'If you are healthy it's almost impossible for you to be killed by an infectious disease in modern times.'
Kennedy made this claim in an
'Of course, a balanced diet is very important for health, but a nutrition rich diet alone will not stop the most contagious disease in the world from infecting an unvaccinated child,' said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota last week on his
Doron echoed his comments.
'People should absolutely pay attention to their underlying health, including exercise, a healthy diet, stress management, smoking cessation, and optimizing chronic diseases like diabetes with medications,' she said. 'Doing so will boost the immune system and reduce the risk of complications. However, even healthy people contract infectious diseases, have complications, and die.'
'By 1960 — before the vaccine's introduction — improvements in sanitation and nutrition had
Doron criticized Kennedy's historical framing of measles mortality. 'It's not percentages that we should care about, it's absolute numbers,' she said. 'We were seeing 400 to 500 deaths a year [prior to the introduction of vaccination], on top of that permanent disability in children due to measles.' Long-term effects of measles can include deafness, lung scarring, and sometimes fatal brain damage, Doron added.
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'MMR vaccines and other vaccines are safe,' said Dr. Vandana Madhavan, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Mass General for Children. 'Unfortunately, that does not get the same amount of media attention as anti-vaccine misinformation, which has led to a greater rate of vaccine hesitancy,'
'If vaccine skepticism continues to spread, we're going to see more outbreaks of diseases that had become rare in the U.S.,' Madhavan added.
Nathan Metcalf can be reached at
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