On Sunday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with the families of two girls who died of measles in western Texas, raising doubts about the vaccine’s safety. “He said, ‘You don’t know what the vaccine is about anymore,'” Peter Hildebrand told me that the funeral for his 8-year-old daughter Daisy was being held several hours ago. “I actually asked him about it.”
The Secretary of Health and Human Services traveled to a small, far-flung Seminole city. There, 1,000 mourners for Daisy filled the wooden feet of the unmarked Mennonite Church. After service, coffee and homemade bread Faspa. Kennedy was there, he I wrote it That afternoon, to “consolate my family and be with my community in moments of sadness.”
A slow crisis with over 600 people infected with measles Three people have died– America’s first illness in 10 years put Kennedy in a troublesome position. For many years, he was the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine activist. Americans have been “distracted by allies of the pharmaceutical industry and captured government agencies to believe that measles is a fatal disease and that the measles vaccine is needed, safe and effective,” he wrote in the foreword. 2021 Book. However, since taking office, he moderated his tone, sometimes Supports the importance of shots to public health. In a public post from the Seminoles, Kennedy did so again, explaining his department’s efforts to provide “necessary MMR vaccines” to Texas pharmacies and clinics.
However, there is good reason to believe that Kennedy hasn’t really changed his views. “I’ve worked with Bobby for many years, and I can confidently say he has a heart that cannot be compromised,” said Kennedy, director of communications for the Independent Presidential Election. I said X to reassure some Angry and confused supporters. “He’s at the poker table where the most snake snakes in the world,” he added. “We shouldn’t ask him to show him his cards.” (Big Tree too Called Despite being “one of the most effective ways to cause autism,” MMR vaccines are Post-research research I disprove the link. ) Certainly, when I spoke to Hildebrand on the phone on Monday, I learned that Kennedy was questioning the vaccine behind the scenes, even in the midst of Pathetic Dol’s trip to Texas.
“He didn’t say anything about the vaccine being helpful,” Hildebrand told me. He didn’t want to go into more detail about his conversation with Kennedy. However, he appeared to confirm the secretary’s statement that the MMR vaccine was unreliable. Despite his daughter’s death, he claimed that the children of another member of his family who was vaccinated were still sick from the recent outbreak than his two children who recovered from getting measles. “That’s why vaccines aren’t shit,” he said. A spokesman for Health and Human Services did not confirm what Kennedy said to Hildebrand. “Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine, he is professionally safe,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “He’s consistently made that clear.”
Among vaccine skeptics, like the previous death of six-year-old Kaylee Faire, Daisy Hildebrand’s death has been reconstructed as a result of tragic and terrible medical errors. Children’s Health Defense, founded by Kennedy, an anti-vaccine nonprofit, promotes the theory that Fehr was not given the correct antibiotics due to pneumonia immediately enough to save her life, and clearly builds on records provided to the organization in medical records. The contracted children’s hospital where Fehr was treated, calling such claims “misleading and inaccurate,” points out that the patient’s confidence law law prevents hospitals from elaborating on the treatment of girls. Robert Malone, a physician and former researcher, is known for sharing concerns and misinformation. Posted Regarding his substance, Daisy’s death was “the case of a child suffering from a misdiagnosed preexisting condition.” (The Texas Health Bureau states that the girl “is “No fundamental conditions reported. ”)
Hildebrand also blames doctors for the death. “I want to do anything, and anything else has to go through with the hospitals to start taking the ‘right’ actions within them,” he said. “They murdered quite a bit.” In the case of his daughter, he believes the hospital should give her budesonide. Kennedy advertises To treat measles. “They didn’t give her the budesonide respiratory treatment we wanted,” Hildebrand said. “They said the IV steroids they were giving her were better,” a spokesman for the University Medical Center in Lubbock did not respond to a request for comment.
Budesonide is not the first line treatment for measles, according to Michael Mina, a physician and measles researcher. “The use of budesonide to treat measles is not simply biologically or mechanically,” Mina told me. “The potentially reasonable is to treat co-infections that occur in conjunction with measles, but that’s far from measles therapy. This is not something to treat measles,” added Mina, “it’s much better to prevent initial measles through vaccination.”
Hildebrand said his family had been given advice on her care by two West Texas doctors, whom they praised by Kennedy before they took Daisy to the hospital, among other things, by Ben Edwards and Richard Bartlett.An extraordinary healer“Treatment of a patient with measles in the Seminole. Edwards and Bartlett are depicted in a photo that Kennedy posted from a meeting with two families that occurred after the funeral at a steak dinner at the West Texas Living Heritage Museum in the Seminole. Like Kennedy, Edwards was a man who was not a man. raised questions Regarding the safety of the MMR vaccine, we instead promoted treatments such as high cod liver oil with vitamins A and D. Ad hoc clinic next to the coffee shop.
Hildebrand said his family was in contact with Bartlett and Edwards. Daisy was given Vitamin A. “It all seemed to be going well,” he told me. “When she started to need oxygen badly, we didn’t have equipment at home and they didn’t have all the equipment in their clinic, so obviously we had to ask for more help in the hospital.” In an email, Edwards denied that Daisy Hildebrand was one of his patients. “No, I didn’t treat her, but I’ll be getting my medical records and reviewing them to see if standard care is followed,” he wrote. “You know, standard care antibiotics were not given to the first girl who died. [sic] Directly to her death. “Bartlett could not be contacted for comment.
Funeral Director Dean Boyer, who handled services for both girls, attended the dinner where Kennedy met Hildebrand and Faire. He said he overheard the secretary’s conversation with both his parents’ sets. “He never asked any pointed questions: Are you a vaccinated? is not it? Boyer told me. “He even sat down to meet just the kids. ‘Paw Paw’s portion’ was what I called it,” Boyer praised Kennedy for trying to envelop his visit.
It is true that Kennedy largely avoided reporters, but of course his trip was no secret. After dinner he posted a A long message In X about “warmth and love,” he felt from the community and about how he “connected with many of these resilient, hardworking, witty, and God-loving people.” He also shared some photos of himself embracing his family. One has a boy on his lap and the other has an arm around Hildebrand. Meanwhile, some of Kennedy’s previous comments about the outbreak seemed ruthless.It’s not unusualFor example, or suggestions without evidence that Kayley Faire might have become malnourished, these conveyed the image of the government officials who cared for them.
When I spoke to Hildebrand, he said he had no idea that the secretary had posted a photo of his family or that Kennedy had given Daisy full name. He said he “don’t want this on the internet from the start,” but he didn’t blame Kennedy. Instead, he turned his anger towards the reporter. “Everyone is fake media and I don’t need to report my daughter’s name crap,” he told me. “I don’t need to talk negatively about my daughter. She’s on the ground.”
