This is so concerning as a Mother, Grandmother of one with one on the way and a caring citizen of the world.... How dare kennedy and trump risk the lives of my soon to be born grandson who can't be vaccinated for several months after he is born and all of the other newborns who face the same predicament! The entire administration is completely incompetent and diabolical!!
I worry about my son, in his thirties, who just had a second kidney transplant. He was vaccinated as a child, but I remember him being told after the first transplant to be very careful. Fortunately his own children are vaccinated, but there are just too many anti vaxxers around.
It's been reported that Kennedy will visit the West Texas area. It should be noted that he can visit the area safely, despite the measles outbreak, because I suspect he has been vaccinated against measles, as I suspect many vaccine skeptics have been too. As a result, though they do, none of them can accurately speak to the "advantages" of native infection because their parents, whose generation knew the disaster of native infection, protected them!
Currently the CDC says children up to twelve can get the two doses in order to get lifetime immunity for it. Now it was first available in 1963 when he was nine, so I can’t picture the Kennedy not getting their children vaccinated.
I was 11 in 1963 but I and most those my age got measles around 5-7 years old. I got measles, German measles, chicken pox and mumps by the time I was 9.
Unless his parents were opposed to vaccinations, he would be at 71 years old vaccinated. He didn’t as a young child get a choice in whether he was getting the MMR vaccine. Being raised in the Kennedy family, I doubt they were opposed to vaccinations.
Caitlin, I've had similar thoughts before about the language we use when it comes to vaccine skepticism versus those who intentionally peddle misinformation or disinformation about vaccines, but specifically regarding RFK Jr, I'm wondering: do you think it's fair to label him a "longtime vaccine skeptic"? In my mind, vaccine skeptics are those who may have very real hesitations or uncertainties regarding vaccines, but I believe RFK Jr knows better and at this point, he just deals in misinformation and/or outright lies because he has access to data that the average person (say, an expectant mother who isn't sure what she wants to do for her newborn, for example) may not understand or have access to. I think the language we use in situation like this is important, so I'm just wondering what your take is. Maybe this discussion or explanation could be turned into its own Substack post?
The second young child died Thursday from “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure,” and did not have underlying health conditions, the Texas State Department of State Health Services said Sunday in a news release. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.” #AP News
I’d settle for reasoning, period. That’s what’s lacking here. They don’t get a vaccination will keep their children from potentially dying. The community I live in now, and I missed it, being here just three and a half years, which is housed in a large apartment building that is intended for seniors and those such conditions as being neurologically challenged (me after severe head trauma) had people die during the first several years of the Pandemic because they simply didn’t believe it exist. A vaccination would have saved them but they wouldn’t have it.
We had several years back by way of the referendum process an attempt by the anti-vaccination groups who overlap to large degree with the conservative Christian groups here an attempt to repeal the mandate by the State that children going to public and private schools to be vaccinated. (Home schooled are obviously not covered.) It lost when some 73% of us voted against it.
Is presence of IgG against measles adequate immunity? A recent titre test showed IgG presence. I’m 77, nearly out of high school when MMR developed, never had measles as far as known (had mumps) , no vac till one in about 1983. May not have been MMR, no Rubella IgG. Live in Texas. Hard to decode this.
The 2025 measles outbreaks are entirely preventable. It’s maddening to think of the lack of scientific reasoning that’s going on.
This is so concerning as a Mother, Grandmother of one with one on the way and a caring citizen of the world.... How dare kennedy and trump risk the lives of my soon to be born grandson who can't be vaccinated for several months after he is born and all of the other newborns who face the same predicament! The entire administration is completely incompetent and diabolical!!
I worry about my son, in his thirties, who just had a second kidney transplant. He was vaccinated as a child, but I remember him being told after the first transplant to be very careful. Fortunately his own children are vaccinated, but there are just too many anti vaxxers around.
It's been reported that Kennedy will visit the West Texas area. It should be noted that he can visit the area safely, despite the measles outbreak, because I suspect he has been vaccinated against measles, as I suspect many vaccine skeptics have been too. As a result, though they do, none of them can accurately speak to the "advantages" of native infection because their parents, whose generation knew the disaster of native infection, protected them!
Because of his age, it is far more likely that Bobby Brainworm had measles as a kid and that's why he still has immunity.
(At 71, he would have predated the measles vaccine.)
That doesn't say that he isn't regularly vaccinated because my bet is that he is. He is a grifter.
Excellent point! Thanks for pointing out the different paths of variously aged folks
Currently the CDC says children up to twelve can get the two doses in order to get lifetime immunity for it. Now it was first available in 1963 when he was nine, so I can’t picture the Kennedy not getting their children vaccinated.
I was 11 in 1963 but I and most those my age got measles around 5-7 years old. I got measles, German measles, chicken pox and mumps by the time I was 9.
Possibly.
But my guess is given the number of Kennedy cousins, he had already had the measles.
I certainly caught it before I was seven and my sister caught it from me.
Unless his parents were opposed to vaccinations, he would be at 71 years old vaccinated. He didn’t as a young child get a choice in whether he was getting the MMR vaccine. Being raised in the Kennedy family, I doubt they were opposed to vaccinations.
It has been publicly reported that Kennedy had his own children secretly vaccinated.
Of course he did. Anyone surprised.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rfk-jr-children-vaccinated/
The very fact that none of them developed autism nor had any adverse affects from the vaccine makes this statement atrocious. They a
Spot on. Thank you
Caitlin, I've had similar thoughts before about the language we use when it comes to vaccine skepticism versus those who intentionally peddle misinformation or disinformation about vaccines, but specifically regarding RFK Jr, I'm wondering: do you think it's fair to label him a "longtime vaccine skeptic"? In my mind, vaccine skeptics are those who may have very real hesitations or uncertainties regarding vaccines, but I believe RFK Jr knows better and at this point, he just deals in misinformation and/or outright lies because he has access to data that the average person (say, an expectant mother who isn't sure what she wants to do for her newborn, for example) may not understand or have access to. I think the language we use in situation like this is important, so I'm just wondering what your take is. Maybe this discussion or explanation could be turned into its own Substack post?
The second young child died Thursday from “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure,” and did not have underlying health conditions, the Texas State Department of State Health Services said Sunday in a news release. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.” #AP News
https://apnews.com/article/measles-texas-rfk-death-vaccine-4e28b0edf5cab47980b40b2d47f0ec50
Measles vaccination routinely starts at 15 months, as I recall.
Well done. Thank you
I’d settle for reasoning, period. That’s what’s lacking here. They don’t get a vaccination will keep their children from potentially dying. The community I live in now, and I missed it, being here just three and a half years, which is housed in a large apartment building that is intended for seniors and those such conditions as being neurologically challenged (me after severe head trauma) had people die during the first several years of the Pandemic because they simply didn’t believe it exist. A vaccination would have saved them but they wouldn’t have it.
We had several years back by way of the referendum process an attempt by the anti-vaccination groups who overlap to large degree with the conservative Christian groups here an attempt to repeal the mandate by the State that children going to public and private schools to be vaccinated. (Home schooled are obviously not covered.) It lost when some 73% of us voted against it.
The way deaths are presented could lead anti-vaccers to say “it’s only a few deaths”.
Are there other health issues that occur/have occurred from these recent infections that should be better publicized?
And do any of those infected now wish they had been infected? Each one should, ideally, be interviewed.
Bad news should be constantly repeated
Is presence of IgG against measles adequate immunity? A recent titre test showed IgG presence. I’m 77, nearly out of high school when MMR developed, never had measles as far as known (had mumps) , no vac till one in about 1983. May not have been MMR, no Rubella IgG. Live in Texas. Hard to decode this.