The mother and father of an unvaccinated Texas little one who died from measles appeared in a video formulated by an anti-vaccine advocacy group the place they railed in opposition to vaccines, even saying the illness “wasn’t that unhealthy.’
A 6-year-old Texan died after contracting measles final month, marking the primary dying of a kid within the U.S. attributable to the extremely contagious sickness in practically a decade.
Following her dying, the anti-vaccine advocacy group Youngsters’s Well being Protection met with the kid’s mother and father, whose 4 different kids additionally suffered from milder circumstances of the identical sickness, as reported by Mom Jones.
Through the interview, the younger couple doubled down on their choice to not vaccinate their little one even after her dying. Hailing from the Mennonite group, they argued that if measles sufferers had entry to untested remedies, the MMR vaccines could be completely pointless.
“We spent the morning at Dr. Ben Edwards’ clinic, and the mother and father are all nonetheless sitting there saying they’d reasonably have this than the MMR vaccination as a result of they’ve seen a lot harm, which we now have as nicely,” journalist Polly Tommey stated whereas interviewing the couple. “Do you continue to really feel the identical approach concerning the MMR vaccine versus measles and the right therapy with Dr. Ben Edwards?”
“Completely [do] not take the MMR [vaccine],” stated the mom. “The measles wasn’t that unhealthy. [The other children] bought over it fairly shortly. And Dr. Edwards was there for us.”
The mother and father described the signs of the sickness their little one exhibited, starting with a fever, respiratory signs and the infamous rash that usually accompanies it. Nonetheless, days after contracting the sickness, the kid’s fever continued and respiratory signs worsened as she started struggling to breathe.
The woman’s mother and father took her to a hospital emergency room the place she was admitted and identified with pneumonia. After being positioned on a ventilator within the Intensive Care Unit, the kid handed away.
The measles outbreak in Texas has spurred many public and political figures to take to their platforms and encourage residents to get vaccinated and vaccinate their kids. This consists of Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who beforehand promoted anti-vaccine views.
RFK Jr. printed an op-ed in Fox Digital earlier this month acknowledging that the choice to vaccinate is a “private one”, however encouraging individuals to vaccinate to mitigate the unfold of the illness regardless.
“Vaccines not solely defend particular person kids from measles, but in addition contribute to group immunity, defending those that are unable to be vaccinated as a result of medical causes,” he wrote earlier this month.
Initially printed by Latin Instances.
