According to a spokesman for HHS, as the United States faces the largest single measles outbreak in 25 years, the decision is the latest in a series of actions by the country's finest health officials, with experts fearing that they will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.
The announcement comes as Kennedy faces a fierce backlash in handling the outbreak. It wiped out a wide area in the southwest, where vaccination rates are low, infecting hundreds of people and killing two young girls. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 930 cases nationwide, most of which are linked to outbreaks in the southwestern region.
Critics say Kennedy has focused too much on untested treatments such as cod liver oil supplements, and only provided support for the measles vaccine, which studies its 97% effectiveness in preventing infections.
The decision to put more resources into potential treatment rather than encourage vaccinations can have significant consequences at the heart of the outbreak.
“We've seen a lot of people living in the schools of public health,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University's Faculty of Public Health.
Scientists have already thoroughly studied a variety of vitamins and drug therapies as potential treatments Measles said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.
No treatment for the miracle of the measles virus has occurred, which can cause pneumonia, making it difficult for patients to obtain oxygen in their lungs, and swelling in the brain can lead to blindness, hearing loss and intellectual disability.
“It's not that there's a lack of research,” he said.
Measles patients are usually provided with “supportive care” to make the virus more comfortable while running the course to reduce fever, supplementary oxygen, and IV fluid.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the decision to look for a new treatment is aimed at helping people who have chosen not to get vaccinated. He added that the CDC still recommends filming measles, mumps and rubella as the most effective way to prevent measles.
However, he said, “Our commitment is to support all families by reducing the risk of hospitalization, serious complications and death from measles, regardless of the status of the vaccination.”
As an example of such a community, Kennedy pointed to Mennonites in western Texas. Mennonites in western Texas have experienced incidents and hospitalizations during the current outbreak.
Nixon said the CDC will work with the university to test new treatments for “many illnesses” that include existing drug and vitamin combinations. News of the initiative was first reported by CBS News.
Public health experts were baffled by Kennedy's decision to hunt for a new treatment rather than backing the shot, which has decades of safety and efficacy data. They said this appears to contradict a long-standing focus on disease prevention instead of treatment.
“This is similar to saying, 'Please go ahead and do something, don't exercise, don't smoke like a chimney. We're going to invest all our resources in heart transplants,'' said Dr. Jonathan Temte, former chairman of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee.
During the current measles outbreak, Kennedy provided an inconsistent, sometimes inconsistent message about MMR shots. At one point he described the vaccine as “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.”
He also questioned its safety. “We don't know about the risks of many of these products, as they are not safety testing,” he said in an interview with CBS News last month.
Doctors in western Texas say Kennedy is already making work difficult as he focuses on treatment rather than vaccines.
Early in the outbreak, he told Fox News that he had heard of “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery” with treatments like cod liver oil.
Doctors may manage severe measles by administering high doses of vitamin A in hospitals, but experts do not recommend taking it without supervision from a doctor.
Shortly afterwards, doctors said they encountered a measles patient who delayed critical care in favor of staying home and treating himself with some of the supplements Kennedy promoted. Some children with measles received toxic levels of vitamin A, they said.
Dr. Osterholm said Kennedy's plan assumed that people's beliefs about the vaccine were fixed.
Despite Kennedy's claim that Mennonite has “religious objections” to Shot because it contains “fetal fragments,” community research historians say there is no religious doctrine to ban vaccines, and vaccine experts say there is no fetal tissue in MMR shots.
Instead, local doctors pointed to false information about the safety of the shot (perpetuated by Kennedy) as the main reason Mennonite patients are driving their children out of vaccination.
