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Kiera Butler
Senior Editor/Reporter
Mother Jones illustration; Eren Abdullahogullar/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Late last week, two Children’s Health Defense staffers, chief scientific officer Brian Hooker and Polly Tommey, the group’s director of programming for its video division, traveled to the west Texas region where the outbreak is most widespread. There, they filmed a conversation with the parents of the unvaccinated six-year-old child who had died of the highly contagious viral disease a few weeks earlier. The young couple, members of the Mennonite community, attributed their other four children’s mild cases of measles to treatments they received from Veritas Wellness.
This week, Children’s Health Defense aired the video of Hooker and Tommey’s conversation with the parents. The harrowing interview could reasonably be interpreted as a strong case in favor of measles vaccination—had she received the MMR immunization, the child would likely still be alive. But stunningly, the anti-vaccine activists see in the parents’ story a very different message: that shots are unnecessary as long as measles patients have access to untested treatments.
Speaking in a dialect of German through a translator, the parents said, at first their child seemed to be suffering from a typical case of measles, with the hallmark rash accompanied by fever and mild respiratory symptoms. A few days into the illness, though, the girl’s fever persisted, and her breathing was becoming more labored. They took her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. After being transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, the child was placed on a ventilator, before she died.
After the girl’s funeral, the couple said, their other four children, who range in age from two to seven, also contracted the disease and were treated by Veritas Wellness’ Dr. Ben Edwards. “Dr. Ben came helping us, and he gave them treatments, or like medicine,” the children’s mother said. “And they had a really good, quick, recovery.”
At one point, Children Health Defense’s Tommey observed, “We spent the morning at Dr. Ben Edwards’ clinic, and the parents are all still sitting there saying they would rather have this than the MMR vaccination because they’ve seen so much injury, which we have as well. Do you still feel the same way about the MMR vaccine versus measles and the proper treatment with Dr Ben Edwards?”
“Absolutely not take the MMR [vaccine]. The measles wasn’t that bad. [The other children] got over it pretty quickly. And Dr. Edwards was there for us.”
The mother did not hesitate. “Absolutely not take the MMR [vaccine],” she said. “The measles wasn’t that bad. [The other children] got over it pretty quickly. And Dr. Edwards was there for us.”
It’s statistically likely, however, that the siblings of the child who died would have had mild cases—whether or not they received the treatment. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five unvaccinated children with measles end up hospitalized. Dr. Pedro Piedra, a pediatric infections disease specialist at Baylor University College of Medicine in Texas, notes that about one in 20 develop pneumonia, and 1-3 out of every 1,000 children with measles will die from complications of the disease.
For children who do survive measles, Piedra notes, long-term complications, ranging from lung problems resulting from pneumonia to a rare fatal neurological syndrome, can occur years after recovery.
Piedra emphasized that the treatments that the deceased child’s siblings received are not backed by robust scientific evidence. But they do reflect statements made recently by Kennedy from his position as head of HHS. In a Fox News interview earlier this month, Kennedy claimed, without citing research, that treating measles with steroids, antibiotics, and cod liver oil yielded “very, very good results.” Cod liver oil contains Vitamin A, which is often used in much higher concentrations to prevent severe complications from the disease. There is no credible evidence that cod liver oil itself can treat or prevent measles. If these treatments are “so efficient as an antiviral,” Baylor’s Piedra asks, “Why do we still have almost one in 20 children being hospitalized for pneumonia or some other complications due to measles?”
During their interview, the couple repeated several other unfounded claims about measles. The father added through the translator that he believed that measles strengthened the immune system overall, for instance, and that their children would then be protected from other diseases like cancer in the future. That’s not true—although the measles virus is being studied as a potential therapy for some types of cancer, research has found that it is more effective for vaccinated patients.
Children Health Defense’s Hooker is also listed as the creator of the online fundraising campaign to help Dr. Edwards distribute measles remedies. The $16,000 it has reportedly collected so far will be “used to defray the cost of essential vitamins, supplements, and medicines necessary to treat children enduring complications from the measles virus and other illnesses,” its website states.
In response to a query from Mother Jones about the clinic’s promotion of unproven measles remedies, a CDC spokesperson provided a link to a February 27th statement on the outbreak. “Vaccination remains the best defense against measles infection,” it said. “Supportive care, including vitamin A administration under the direction of a physician, may be appropriate.”
On Wednesday, Children’s Health Defense aired a follow-up video in which Hooker and Tommey claimed that they had obtained the deceased child’s hospital records and had come to the conclusion that she had not died of measles but rather as a result of the hospital using the wrong treatment protocol. The doctor who reviewed the medical records was Pierre Kory, a pulmonologist who gained notoriety during the Covid pandemic for his promotion of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin as a treatment for the disease, despite abundant evidence that it wasn’t effective. The American Board of Internal Medicine has since revoked Kory’s certification.
