Keeping with Kennedy’s advice, US measles patients turn to unproven treatments

Hospitals and officials issued a notice stressing the importance of timely treatment. PHOTO: REUTERS

Teddy Rosenbluth

UPDATED Mar 17, 2025, 06:40 AM

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WASHINGTON - Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and postponing doctor’s visits until the illness has worsened.

Hospitals and officials sounded an alarm this past week, issuing a notice explaining which measles symptoms warranted immediate medical attention and stressing the importance of timely treatment.

“I’m worried we have kids and parents that are taking all of these other medications and then delaying care,” said Ms Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, where many of the sickest children in this outbreak have been hospitalised.

Some seriously ill children had been given alternative remedies such as cod liver oil, she added. “If they’re so, so sick and have low oxygen levels, they should have been in the hospital a day or two earlier,” she said.