A second child has died in Texas, reportedly due to measles.
The US health and human services department confirmed the death to NBC late Saturday, though the agency insisted exactly why the child died remained under investigation. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that the eight-year-old girl had died from “measles pulmonary failure” early Thursday at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, citing records obtained by the outlet.
It marked the second time a child with measles – which is easily preventable through vaccination – had died since 26 February. The first was a six-year-old girl – also hospitalized in Lubbock – whose parents had not had her vaccinated.
NBC and Axios reported that the Trump administration health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, was expected to attend the funeral of the second child, with the service scheduled for Sunday.
If the cause of death is still under investigation by the department of HHS, the department run by antivaxxer RFK Jr. , why is he going to the funeral? To urge people to vaccinate their children? That seems unlikely given his past. What it suggests that he and the HHS know that she did die of measles and that he is trying to shield himself from the fallout of yet another needless death caused by his promotion of anti-vaccine propaganda.
I hope the mourners give him a piece of their mind, though if the parents of the dead child are vaccine deniers, they may not want to acknowledge their complicity in this senseless tragedy. The family belongs to the same Mennonite religious community to which the first child belonged. The parents of the first child stand by their decision not to vaccinate.
There is no convincing people when their beliefs are a combination of religious dogmatism and anti-science ignorance, even when it leads to a horrendous personal tragedy. When that dangerous combination is supported by high government officials like RFK Jr., then we are in real trouble.
It is actually the third death from measles in the current outbreak.
An adult in New Mexico also died from measles.
Ironically, most Mennonites aren’t antivaxxers.
There are a lot of different sects under the term Mennonite, around 40. and they differ a lot among themselves.
It is mostly this group and maybe, being in…Texas that is determining.
I grew up Mennonite and got all the childhood vaccines as have my nieces and nephews and their kids. That said, my oldest sister became anti-mRNA vaccine during COVID and has morphed into a general anti-vaxxer. But it’s not because of her religious beliefs, it’s because she is a science ignoramus. She was actually happy that RFKJr was becoming Health Secretary. Ugh.
“why is he going to the funeral?”
To show the country that he really stands behind his “vulgar morality.”
“why is he going to the funeral?”
Victory lap ?
It is appropriate for a vulture to circle a funeral.
Of course RFK is indulging in his usual wormbrained hypocrisy now. He’s saying the best way to avoid measles is the vaccine. Well, duh. Of course it is. It always was. But of course he has not actually changed his anti-vax anti-science stance. He can still say out of the other side of his mouth that the vaccines are risky and secretly dangerous and that the established facts are false. Being a loathsome morally bankrupt bullshitter allows him to say everything all at once and take responsibility for none of it.
Being a gentle, pacific soul, the sort who catches wasps and puts them outside instead of swatting them, I mourn the worm. I am very sorry it died before it finished its work.
(Crossposted from Pharyngula to get some karmic balance, with *real* servants of health!)
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Prime editing/ the Breakthrough prize
“The scientist rewriting DNA, and the future of medicine”
.https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scientist-rewriting-dna-future-medicine.html