Josh Rosenau
12 March 2025
Texas is currently experiencing an historic measles outbreak, including the first measles death in the US in a decade. The virus is remarkably effective at surviving in the air and on surfaces, and at infecting unprotected people.
For years, skeptics and public health experts have warned about the risks of declining vaccination rates, worrying about the likelihood of outbreaks just like this. Measles vaccination in particular depends on the presence of extremely high rates of vaccination in the public. The virus spreads so easily between unvaccinated people that suppressing an outbreak requires populations to have vaccination rates of at least 95%. That’s why the vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) is a standard requirement for starting kindergarten.
The current outbreak comes just as longtime vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes charge at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in the direct chain of command over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). He has spent over a decade litigating against those and other health agencies, attempting to suppress vaccination and remove proven vaccines from the market.
As the measles outbreak spreads, RFK has acknowledged some role for vaccines, but at every turn has tried to divert public attention to ineffective and potentially risky alternatives to medicine. In a recent interview with Fox News, JFK’s nephew claimed that doctors in Texas had seen “very, very good results” from treating measles with cod liver oil, a nutritional supplement that includes high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.
It does not contain a treatment for measles.
In a moment when the most senior positions in our nation’s public health infrastructure have been taken over by proponents of dangerous woo, skeptics have more of a duty than ever to speak out on behalf of evidence-based medicine. Vitamin A supplements have been used as a part of measles treatment in other countries, but only in settings where malnutrition was hampering patients’ recovery. Vitamin A overdoses can cause serious problems, and supplementation with cod liver oil can lead to vitamin A toxicity.
We can be encouraged that the CDC is dispatching its famed EIS teams of disease investigators to Texas. Those crack teams of epidemiologists were nearly laid off in the frenzy of firings directed by Elon Musk, but were restored to government service thanks to public outcry. In Texas, they will help trace the path measles has taken through the population and identify public health strategies to prevent further spread. Central to that strategy will be identifying un-vaccinated or under-vaccinated people in high risk communities. The MMR vaccine takes two doses to be effective in children, or one shot in adults, and some people who received an earlier version of that vaccine (in the 1960s) may need to ask their doctor to check whether they have sufficient protection. We just need vaccines, not cod liver oil or any other sort of snake oil.