Have you or someone you love been confused by the push to 'Make America Healthy Again'? Then you, my friend, are in dire need of our new series: The Road to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). For the next few weeks, we're delving into some of the origins, conspiracy theories, and power grabs that have led us to this moment, and what it could mean for our health.After visiting the families of measles victims in Texas, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated on X, "The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine." But his history promoting the anti-vaccination cause alongside questionable alternative medicines has public health officials, parents, and even the MAHA constituency on edge.For the second episode in our Road to MAHA series, NPR's senior science and health editor Maria Godoy and NBC News senior reporter, Brandy Zadrozny, walk us through how anti-vaccine rhetoric has led to this moment in public health.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Who are the key voices discussing vaccine hesitancy in this episode?
And at one point, the German translator said that the parents would still advise against getting the vaccine. They also said measles are not as bad as they're making it out to be.
I was also kind of gutted to see those parents. Let's just be clear. The video that you saw where these parents were offering that explanation was taken by employees of Children's Health Defense. They blame the vaccine on whatever heartbreaking story they have.
And what has to be understood here is that those parents are victims of the anti-vaccine movement who has flooded their area with misinformation and disinformation. I deeply, deeply understand the motivation of a parent to want to protect their child at all costs, for it to be unfathomable to believe that the things you did trying to protect your child could actually have hurt them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and, you know, to your point, like, that is, you know, for so many parents, protecting their child is like their number one motivation. Yeah. What is so sticky about these kinds of stories or narratives for people who believe anti-vaccination rhetoric or for people who are vaccine hesitant? What's so sticky about them?
One of the things with disinformation is that sometimes there's a kernel of truth there that gets twisted, right? And like Brandy's saying, you lose the nuance. So for instance, I'm thinking of vitamin A, right? We've heard RFK Jr. promote vitamin A as a treatment for measles. And it's not completely out of left field, but that role is very specific and it cannot prevent measles, right?
And it's not really a treatment. What it does is there are studies from low and middle income countries that show when you have kids who are malnourished and vitamin A deficient, Giving them vitamin A supplementation can help reduce the risk of dying and of complications. And even in the absence of malnutrition, there is some evidence that the measles virus seems to deplete your vitamin A stores.
And so there are recommendations from the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics to give kids with measles two doses, but just two doses of vitamin A to help prevent some complications like blindness, right? Mm-hmm. But that does not make it a treatment.
And that's, you know, some of the disinformation that's been out there for years, really, that vitamin A can prevent measles, which it can absolutely cannot. And so what you have is parents giving kids vitamin A, you know, repeatedly long term under the false belief that it can prevent measles. And that can actually be really, really harmful.
Vitamin A builds up in the body and it can be toxic to the liver. And you're seeing that now in West Texas. There have been children who have measles hospitalized for vitamin A toxicity.
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