Kennedy touts unconventional therapies for measles linked to disciplined Texas doctor

A team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Texas this week to aid in the response to a growing measles outbreak, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that they would talk to “front-line doctors and see what is working on the ground” and learn about therapeutics “ignored” by the agency.

A team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Texas this week to aid in the response to a growing measles outbreak, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that they would talk to “front-line doctors and see what is working on the ground” and learn about therapeutics “ignored” by the agency. There is a highly effective vaccine that prevents measles but no specific antiviral to treat it. Kennedy has previously pushed the use of vitamin A, and in an interview with Fox News this week, he endorsed an unconventional treatment regimen for measles including a steroid, an antibiotic and cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin A. In the interview, which was posted in full on Fox Nation, Kennedy praised two West Texas doctors who he said were using this remedy on their patients and had seen “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery.” He said these doctors had “treated most of the patients” in the current outbreak, which has now reached 159 reported cases. One of the doctors Kennedy is apparently taking cues from has troubled history. He was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 for “unusual use of risk-filled medications.” Kennedy said HHS would do a clinical trial on the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin and cod liver oil therapies and said “we recommend to local physicians that they consider vitamin A and their protocols. He also suggested that vitamin A may work “as a prophylaxis,” although doctors say it does not prevent measles. However, Kennedy says measles vaccination, which can prevent most cases, is a personal choice.