Hey, real quick: since our Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a known anti-vaxxer who has a long history of holding some fairly insane beliefs about health and how the world works, maybe don’t listen to anything he has to say for the next four years.
You run the risk of harming yourself and your loved ones when you listen to people who have no idea what the hell they’re talking about. I know this because it’s already happened.
West Texas has been hit hard by a measles outbreak fueled by anti-vaxxer parents who refused to get their children vaccinated against a preventable illness. Instead, a lot of these anti-vaxxers turned to the advice of wackos, like random dipshits on social media or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom have the same level of credibility when it comes to public health and safety.
Kennedy, one of the aforementioned dipshits, heartily recommended alternative remedies for fighting off measles, like cod liver oil, which contains high levels of vitamin A, citing two West Texas doctors who were advocating for cod liver oil as a treatment.
Why Are People Taking Cod Liver Oil for Measles?
Some parents did exactly that, and now their children are in the hospital suffering from vitamin A overdoses. These children are now suffering from liver damage, and their skin has turned yellow, on top of the fact that some of them have measles. It feels like someone should be arrested. Like, this is definitely child endangerment, maybe even abuse, right?
In an interview with Fox Nation, RFK Jr. said that using cod liver oil to fight measles had led to an “almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery.” He said this because he’s a stupid maniac who is in no way qualified for the job. He belongs on a conspiracy theory forum, not dictating our nation’s health policies.
As CNN points out, one of the doctors Kennedy cited as a shining example of medical contrarianism “has a troubled history” in which he was “disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 for ‘unusual use of risk-filled medications.’”
If there were a restaurant in town where the chef had a “troubled history” that saw him getting disciplined for feeding people “unusual risk-filled ingredients,” you would not take your family to that restaurant, and you would hope someone would shut it down before someone got hurt.
Doctors at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, have reported severe complications in children who took excessive doses of Vitamin A, with liver damage and yellowed skin being the top concerns. Killing your children to own the libs. Good job, everyone. We’re a good, sane, healthy nation.
Vitamin A in any form is not a chore or a preventative measure against measles. You know what is? The MMR vaccine has a 97 percent efficacy rate after two doses have been administered. Do you know what doesn’t have a 97 percent efficacy rate after two doses? High doses of vitamin A.
Rather than cure whatever ails you, a whole lot of vitamin A can and will almost most certainly lead to toxicity that can damage your kid’s liver, make you lose your hair, and in extreme cases, cause seizures.
Just…just get your kids vaccinated. It’s incredibly safe, it has decades of rigorous testing behind it, and it won’t obliterate your child’s liver and turn their skin yellow like you’re trying to morph them into Bart Simpson.
The post RFK Jr Said Cod Liver Oil Could Treat Measles. Now, Kids Are Turning Yellow. appeared first on VICE.
