The US health secretary issued an opinion article on the outbreak and vaccines on the evening of March 2.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an opinion article published on March 2 that vaccination is a personal decision. He also advocated for immunizations amid a measles outbreak in several communities in West Texas in recent weeks that included one confirmed death.
“All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy wrote in his article published on Fox News on Sunday evening, reacting to the measles outbreak.
“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” the secretary continued. “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
He added that health care providers and local community leaders have a responsibility to “protect public health” and that includes making sure that there is “accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy.”
“We must engage with communities to understand their concerns, provide culturally competent education, and make vaccines readily accessible for all those who want them,” Kennedy said.
State health officials in Texas confirmed 146 measles cases this past week, including the death of a child who was not vaccinated for measles. The vaccination status of the confirmed cases includes 79 who were not vaccinated, 62 who are unknown, and five who were immunized with at least a single dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
The child who died on Feb. 25 is the first U.S. death with the virus since 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility said the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.
The virus has largely spread among rural, oil rig-dotted towns in West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton said last week.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said this past week that the governor regularly confers with the state health department and epidemiologists and that vaccination teams are in the “affected area.”
“The state will deploy all necessary resources to ensure the safety and health of Texans,” said spokesman Andrew Mahaleris, calling the child’s death a tragedy.
This past week, Kennedy wrote on social media platform X that the outbreak in Texas is one of the top priorities for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and that the agency is sending Texas 2,000 doses of MMR vaccine through its immunization program.
He added that HHS will provide “lab support to better track the virus causing the outbreak,” will communicate “with public health officials every day in all affected areas to support their response and ensure they have the resources they need,” and provide communications to local communities in Low German—the language used by Mennonites.
“We will continue to fund Texas’ immunization program. Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority for me and my extraordinary team at HHS,” Kennedy continued.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.