Health secretary earlier said outbreak was ‘not unusual’ but with first US measles death in decade steps up response
Two days after initially downplaying the outbreak as “not unusual,” the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, on Friday said he recognizes the serious impact of the ongoing measles epidemic in Texas – in which a child died recently – and said the government is providing resources, including protective vaccines.
“Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team,” Kennedy – an avowed anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who for years has sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines – said in a post on X.
Kennedy said his federal Department of Health and Human Services would send Texas 2,000 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine – typically meant to be given to children in a series of two shots at 12 to 15 months old as well as between the ages of four and six years old – through its immunization program.
New emergency number: dial 711, and the homeopath-helicopter will be dispatched to your location to administer emergency foot zone therapy and essential oils.
The government will be awarding a contract to Elon Musk to provide subsidized for-profit healing crystals to those with mandatory healing-crystal insurance.
There is big heat on Kennedy because a Mennonite no vax child died of measles. There hasn't been a death in 20 years so its a big deal because kids shouldnt be dying of Measles in 2025. Vax up people or its going to be diseasey soon. Keep the herd healthy because we are all in this world closely together.
If you think the type of arms you can get your hands on will help one iota you are gravely mistaken
Should the people ever need to fight the government of the US there are only two things that will matter:
How much of the military joins which side
Which nations supply each side with arms
Either the people get some of the military on their side (along with the planes, tanks, drones, etc they bring along) and are propped up by foreign interests, or the military steamrolls any resistance.
This has been true in every major conflict in the last several decades. You either have the support of military assets and foreign governments or you lose.
Yes, he has a consistent record of voting in line with the arms manufacturers' lobby interests. He does not believe gun violence should even be researched.
and the cultists will say "SEE HE'S DOING SOMETHING HE SUPPORTS VACCINES!!!!!eleven!!!!", the media will praise the administration for this action, and the smart ones will point out that 2000 vaccine doses for a measles outbreak is a pathetically small number that might stem the tide a bit at best. this entire response has been an absolute clusterfuck and our spineless media won't call it out for fear of retaliation.
2000 doses is enough to vaccinate 1000 individuals. He's sending enough to vaccinate a single neighborhood. This is almost medically meaningless. It's only for show and does not cover the situation or care for any individuals at length.
It does however expose that he does believe in vaccines to some degree and that jfk jr doesn't actually believe his own bullshit in an emergency.
Yeah, that actually sounds reasonable for a small localized outbreak when most are already vaccinated...
A total of 164 measles cases were reported as of 27 February across Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island and Texas, information from the CDC showed. About 95% of those infected were unvaccinated people, including children whose parents did not follow CDC recommendations to get them immunized with safe, effective vaccines providing protection against measles as well as other easily preventable diseases. Another 3% were from people who received only one of the two required shots for immunity, CDC data showed on Friday.
These cases were reported in nine jurisdictions, including Kentucky, marking a near 80% jump from 93 cases reported a week ago.
Too bad it's fucking everywhere and spreading insanely quickly...
remember back in elementary school and you thought $100 was a lot of money but when you got older you realized that $100 wasn't a whole lot? I see the same thing here, except that those people who think that's a lot of doses for this situation probably have a 7th or 8th grade understanding of, well, everything but they're older than 50.
there needs to be at a minimum 500,000 doses for west texas.
Unfortunately, I suspect we're in the incubation phase of a likely superspreader event (the contagious kid who spent time in crowded college areas, two weeks before (a) symptoms appear and (b) one of those colleges goes on spring break).
I'm betting that, of the hundreds of people exposed and the couple dozen people who probably caught it, at least some of them will go on spring break, and infect other spring breakers who will then bring it home to their colleges. It'll have a couple months to spread there, then some of them will bring it home for the summer.
It sure would've been nice if we'd had politicians who were actually both sane and foresightful .... :(
Wait until one of those Texan cow wranglers manages to crossbreed the measles he got from his "f-ck vaccines" support group with the avian flu he got from kissing his cows.
The immunity rate if fully vaccinated is 97%, but that still means 3% of people that did the right thing could die because of shithead conspiracy theorists like RFK Jr. Heard immunity only works if everyone that can does the right thing. We learned with COVID that many people would rather turn to conspiracy theories then science if it means they get a feeling of belonging to a group, even if that group is a cult.
They were considering that, because they figured it would hurt blue states more.
“Kushner's coronavirus team shied away from a national strategy, believing that the virus was hitting Democratic states hardest and that they could blame governors, report says”
“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…" Alexander added.
A good predictor of when they'll walk something back is if whatever it is is stupid/evil enough to also screw over the very wealthy. Measles well and truly coming back would fit the bill.
I think you’re overly optimistic here. Samoa was only 6 years ago.
Remember this anytime you see this fuck say anything about “it’s for the children”. His group encouraged them not to vaccinate, and then:
“Months after Kennedy’s visit, the question of what would happen to Samoa’s unvaccinated babies was answered. A measles outbreak swept the country, sickening thousands and killing 83, mostly small children. As measles raged, Kennedy stayed connected to the island, writing to the prime minister to raise concerns about the vaccine and providing medical guidance to a local anti-vaccine activist who posted false claims about the vaccination campaign and promoted unproven alternative cures.”