Dear Commons Community,

More and more people are becoming infected in the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas, New Mexico and other states, as more than 300 people have tested positive for the illness. The disease has killed one unvaccinated child in Texas and is suspected in the death of an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico.  As reported by The Huffington Post.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently said in a Fox News interview that the government is “delivering vitamin A” to West Texas to battle the outbreak, and “they’re getting very, very good results from budesonide, which is a steroid … and clarithromycin [an antibiotic], and also cod liver oil, which has high concentrations of vitamin A and vitamin D.”

He also promoted the use of vitamin A for measles treatment in a recent Fox News opinion piece.

While his statements refer to the treatment of measles in a medical setting, medical experts told HuffPost that they worry Kennedy’s focus on vitamin A and cod liver oil could encourage parents of unvaccinated children, or unvaccinated people themselves, to try supplementation as prevention or treatment at home — which is exactly what’s now happening in West Texas.

At a Texas children’s hospital, unvaccinated kids with severe cases of measles are also being treated for vitamin A toxicity, which suggests that the children were given the vitamin before hospitalization. There’s also increased demand for cod liver oil at local stores, according to Texas Public Radio. 

Medical professionals are concerned that this vitamin A misinformation could continue to spread and result in people not understanding what’s actually best for measles treatment and prevention.

Here’s what medical experts want everyone to know:

Vitamin A is not an at-home treatment or prevention tool for measles, but RFK Jr.’s vitamin A thoughts do come from somewhere.

“Like much of what RFK says, there’s always a kernel of truth, which he sort of manipulates to legitimize the things he’s saying, which I know is a strong statement, but at this point I think it’s very important to say strong statements about it because if we are not clear in our responses, they easily get manipulated,” said Dr. Anita Patel, a pediatric critical care doctor in Washington, D.C.

This is evident in Kennedy’s claims about vitamin A, according to Patel.

“The kernel of truth is that he’s right. Vitamin A at very high doses — high doses that you would never administer by yourself at home — but high-dose vitamin A administered in the hospital has shown to reduce both mortality and duration and severity of [measles] illness,” Patel said.

“The lack of truth in the statement he made is that giving vitamin A in the form of cod liver oil as like a panacea for all the people in Texas … is unequivocally wrong,” Patel added.

Cod liver oil as a measles treatment has not been studied, said Joel Bervell, a recent medical graduate and medical myth-buster on social media.

“It’s not the same as vitamin A supplementation,” Bervell explained. “I think the reason why he was talking about cod oil in the first place was it has high levels of vitamin A, but the amount of vitamin A that’s in cod oil can vary widely, and relying on that instead of vaccines can be risky.”

Supplementation for children just generally can also be an issue.

“As a blanket statement, I would never give my kids cod liver oil because we know the supplement industry is not very well regulated,” Patel explained. “I don’t like giving my kids any supplements, because the truth is, you have no idea what’s in them.”

More, taking too much of any vitamin, including vitamin A, can lead to complications and toxicity, Bervell said. “It can cause … liver damage to fatigue to hair loss and headaches.” According to Texas Public Radio, the hospitalized children who are now being treated for vitamin A toxicity have abnormal liver function.

Vitamin A also can interact with other medications, which can lead to more problems, Patel said.

Bottom line: Vitamin A isn’t going to prevent someone from getting the measles, and it’s also not proven to help with symptoms for patients who aren’t hospitalized, according to Patel. Ingesting high amounts of vitamin A or cod liver oil can lead to real health issues.

“I hope RFK knows that what he says is what parents are going to do,” Bervell said. “If they’re believing that either vitamin A or cod oil is a replacement for vaccines, that’s going to do their children, and the rest of communities in these areas, more harm than good.”

We have a maniac running the Department of Health and Human Services!

Tony