Director of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has arrived in Western Texas after a school-aged student sadly passed away at the local hospital where they were receiving treatment for measles and also marking the second death of another child in the state linked to the continuing epidemic. Kennedy posted a tweet on Sunday on X and said, “My purpose was to come down here quietly to sympathize with the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief.”
For the tragic loss, they planned to schedule a funeral on Sunday afternoon, which was confirmed by an obituary. HSS will be partnering with
the Texas Health Officials to better counter the measles epidemic in the state and will station teams from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the area, added Kennedy.
Last week on Friday, Texas reported 481 outbreak-associated cases, which were confirmed by the Texas Department of Health.
Vice President of UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, Aaron Davis, told CNN they are deeply saddened to report that a school-aged minor who was recently diagnosed with a bad case of measles has sadly passed away at such a young age. The child has received
treatment for the complications of the disease while being hospitalized.
He went on to say that it is important to note that the child was not vaccinated against measles and had no underlying health conditions. According to RFK Jr, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is the most effective way to ward off the outbreak of measles. The officials from the Trump administration have told The New York Times that the child’s cause of death is still being investigated.
CNN didn’t receive any information or immediately hear back from the inquiries that were sent to the Texas Department of Health and HHS.
The first measles death in Texas has been linked to the ongoing epidemic and was an unvaccinated school-aged minor in February, and a tragic death in New Mexico still remains to be investigated.
The epidemic is right now spanning New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and possibly Kansas. It reached at least 569 cases last week on Friday, which was confirmed on the data from the State Health Departments. Deep in the heart of Texas, nearly all outbreak-associated cases were in people who were unvaccinated, and they were among 70% of children and teenagers, as shown in the health department data. Many of those cases were an outbreak in Western Texas, also involving Gaines County, which accounted for nearly 66% of cases.
Lubbock County in Texas also accounts for nearly 7% of the official measles cases in the state, according to UMC Health, which generously started offering a drive-up measles transmit for both 24/7 urgent care centers. In the
meantime, New Mexico has surprisingly reported 54 more cases, and so far, Oklahoma reported 10 cases, actually 8 were confirmed, and 2 more are still to be confirmed as of last week on Friday. As some cases are going on in Kansas, the state health department has said it may draw a connection between the cases. On Wednesday, it reached 24 outbreaks. Many of those cases are among those who are unvaccinated, and some professionals say that most likely the numbers are uncountable because many cases were unpublished. Some of the experts are very worried about the hospitalizations increasing, especially for young children, who are at a very high risk of difficulty.
Pediatric emergency physician at PM Pediatrics in Annapolis, Maryland, Dr Christina Johns, says the more children
who get this disease means the greater the chance of an increase as more children get sick from measles.
Bill Cassidy, US Senator and also a physician, called for the top health experts on Sunday to address the epidemic. Cassidy wrote on X, “Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No satisfaction in getting the disease. The top health professionals should say so utterly before another child leads to death.”
RFK Jr said, “The disease has returned because a critical percentage of parents have refused to vaccinate their children”, in a large part because of how there is misinformation by people like Kennedy himself.
