The parents of a 6-year-old unvaccinated child who died from measles in Texas said they still would not recommend that others get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine despite their loss.
The Children’s Health Defense recently posted an interview with the parents. It’s an organization known for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation and was once led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now serves as the Health and Human Services secretary.
RELATED STORY | RFK Jr. calls measles outbreak a 'call to action,' urges people get vaccinated
The young couple are members of the Mennonite community and spoke partly in English and partly in German throughout the interview posted to the organization’s website.
“They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be,” a translator stated on the couple's behalf. “They think she was too good for this Earth.”
The father went on to express that he believes measles are “good for the body,” later clarifying via the translator that he thinks it’s good for the immune system.
“There’s doctors that can help with measles,” the mother said through the translator. She also said the measles "weren't that bad."
The couple said their other four children — aged two to seven — had a "quick recovery" from the disease, but their daughter who died was the first to contract it.
RELATED STORY | CDC deploys 'rapid response' officers to Texas to address the measles outbreak
The mother said their daughter’s fever kept getting higher and her breathing wasn’t normal, so they decided to go to the emergency room. While at the hospital, doctors reportedly told the parents their child had pneumonia in her left lung.
The mother said a nurse told her breathing treatments wouldn’t help her daughter, but they eventually put the child on a ventilator. The hospital got the parents a hotel room, likely because the hospital room was too small, the mother said.
The last thing the mother said she remembers speaking with her daughter about was how she was thirsty and she wanted to give her daughter water.
It's unclear how many days the young girl was in intensive care before she died. The parents said they sought other treatment for their remaining children when they became sick with the virus.
The mother said she became sick with measles herself on the day of her daughter's funeral, but she's unsure if she was vaccinated as a child.
The parents said they have not received a death certificate for their daughter yet with a cause of death.
RELATED STORY | New Mexico adult dies with measles, though cause of death isn't yet confirmed
Health officials say the best way to keep from getting sick is to be immunized with two doses of the MMR vaccine.
In the ongoing Texas outbreak, officials said very few of the patients have been vaccinated as it has largely spread throughout the Mennonite community.
Symptoms of measles include high fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes and a rash. The CDC said these symptoms appear within a week or two after coming in contact with the virus.
Kennedy has since changed his tune on the MMR vaccine, calling the recent measles outbreak a "call to action for all of us" and said getting vaccinated is "crucial" to combat the potentially deadly disease in an op-ed published by Fox News.
