PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Texas physician who has been treating youngsters in a measles outbreak was proven on video with a measles rash on his face in a clinic every week earlier than Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met him and praised him as an “extraordinary” healer.
Dr. Ben Edwards appeared within the video posted March 31 by the anti-vaccine group Kennedy as soon as led, Youngsters’s Well being Protection. In it, Edwards seems sporting scrubs and speaking with dad and mom and kids in a makeshift clinic he arrange in Seminole, Texas, floor zero of the outbreak that has sickened a whole bunch of individuals and killed three, together with two youngsters.
Edwards is requested whether or not he had measles, and he responded, “Yes,” then mentioned his an infection began the day earlier than the video was recorded.
“Yesterday was pretty achy. Little mild fever. Spots came in the afternoon. Today, I woke up feeling good,” Edwards mentioned within the video.
Measles is most contagious for about 4 days earlier than and 4 days after the rash seems and is among the world’s most contagious illnesses, based on the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Medical doctors and public well being specialists mentioned Edwards’ resolution to enter the clinic put youngsters, their dad and mom and their neighborhood in danger as a result of he might have unfold it to others. They mentioned there was no state of affairs wherein Edwards’ conduct could be cheap.
Kennedy met with Edwards a few week after the video was posted by Youngsters’s Well being Protection, the group Kennedy led for years till December. In an April 6 submit on X, Kennedy mentioned he “visited with these two extraordinary healers,” together with Edwards and one other physician, and praised their use of two unproven therapies for measles.
At the same time as measles has exploded in Texas and unfold throughout the nation, Kennedy, the nation’s high well being official, has declined to constantly and forcefully encourage individuals to vaccinate their youngsters and remind them that the vaccine is secure. Kennedy’s submit drawing consideration to Edwards is inappropriate however unsurprising given Kennedy’s file, mentioned Dr. Craig Spencer, a medical physician who can also be a professor on the Brown College College of Public Well being.
“I think is unfortunately perfectly on-brand for how he thinks that medicine should be practiced,” Spencer mentioned. “And that is what makes me remarkably uncomfortable and extremely concerned and scared for the next three-and-a-half years.”
It was unclear whether or not Kennedy knew that Edwards had gone into his clinic whereas contaminated with measles earlier than assembly him. A spokesperson for Kennedy mentioned he’s not anti-vaccine and that he’s “committed to improving children’s health in America and has re-deployed resources to Texas to help with the current outbreak.” He didn’t reply why the well being secretary selected to satisfy with and reward Edwards quite than any of the opposite docs in West Texas who’ve been treating youngsters within the outbreak.
However Jessica Steier, a public well being scientist, mentioned the video exhibits Edwards within the room with individuals who don’t seem sick, together with dad and mom of sick youngsters and the individuals who visited the clinic from Youngsters’s Well being Protection. She additionally questioned what steps Edwards was taking to substantiate individuals had been sick with measles, quite than counting on guesswork.
Steier, who runs the Science Literacy Lab and co-wrote an article about Edwards’ conduct, mentioned whereas there could also be some extraordinary emergencies the place it might be applicable for a sick physician to work, this isn’t a kind of conditions as a result of there isn’t a scarcity of suppliers who should not contaminated. She additionally identified that the video exhibits Edwards was not sporting a masks.
“You have the HHS secretary lifting him up,” she mentioned. “You know, it’s so, so dangerous. I really feel for the people who are on the ground.”
Kennedy’s promotion of a physician who has touted unproven measles therapies is “wholly irresponsible” however is consistent with Kennedy’s lengthy public file of anti-vaccine views, mentioned Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He mentioned Kennedy has carried these views to his new job as the pinnacle of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers.
“He’s not the director of Children’s Health Defense anymore. He’s responsible for the health and well-being of children in this country,” Offit mentioned. “It’s an emergency, but Kennedy is not treating it that way.”
