Parents of Texas child who died of measles stand by decision to not vaccinate

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The Texas parents of an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl who died from measles Feb. 26 told the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense in a video released Monday that the experience did not convince them that vaccination against measles was necessary.

“She says they would still say ‘Don’t do the shots,’” an unidentified translator for the parents said. “They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be.”

The West Texas measles outbreak, the biggest in the state in 30 years, has infected more than 270 people and hospitalizing dozens of them. Public health officials have repeatedly told Texans that studies have time and time again shown that the safest and most effective way to avoid contracting the very infectious, life-threatening disease is to vaccinate with the measles-mumps-rubella shot.

The couple, members of a Mennonite community in Gaines County with traditionally low vaccination rates, spoke on camera in both English and Low German to CHD Executive Director Polly Tommey and CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker.

“It was her time on Earth,” the translator said the parents told her. “They believe she’s better off where she is now.”

“We would absolutely not take the MMR,” the mother said in English, referring to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination children typically receive before attending school. She said her stance on vaccination has not changed after her daughter’s death.

“The measles wasn’t that bad. They got over it pretty quickly,” the mother said of her other four surviving children who were treated with castor oil and inhaled steroids and recovered.

The couple told CHD that their daughter had measles for days when she became tired and the girl’s labored breathing prompted the couple to take her to Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock. There, the girl was intubated and died a few days later. The other children came down with measles after their sister died.

The parents’ interview was recorded Saturday and later posted on the website of Children’s Health Defense, an organization founded in 2007 by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now secretary for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Kennedy stepped down from the organization to run for president in 2023.

The deceased girl’s father insisted that measles helps build up a person’s immune system. “Also the measles are good for the body for the people,” the father said, explaining “You get an infection out.”

Infectious disease experts have urged the public to avoid attempting to achieve immunity through measles exposures. Measles carries too high of risks, including lifelong complications and death, compared to the generally mild side-effects from the vaccine.

The Mennonite community located in remote Gaines County, about 400 miles west of Dallas, has been the center of a West Texas measles outbreak. As of Tuesday, measles has spread to 279 patients in Gaines and nearby counties.

Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, which cared for the couple’s daughter, released a prepared statement on Thursday. They said the interview circulating online contains “misleading and inaccurate claims regarding care provided at Covenant Children’s” and that the hospital could not directly speak about the girl’s case because of patient confidentiality laws.

“What we can say is that our physicians and care teams follow evidence-based protocols and make clinical decisions based on a patient’s evolving condition, diagnostic findings and the best available medical knowledge,” the statement said.

Covenant Children’s reiterated that measles is a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening disease that often creates serious, well-known complications like pneumonia and encephalitis.

The hospital urged anyone with questions about measles to contact their health provider.

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