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As of March 20, there have been 378 confirmed cases of the measles in the United States. The latest outbreak began in West Texas and quickly spread into New Mexico. There are now measles cases in 18 different states, including Alaska. Sadly, two people have already died from their illness, including a six-year-old child. Both people who died were not vaccinated against measles and were the first to die from it in the US since 2015.

Last week, the parents of the child who passed away gave an interview to RFK Jr’s anti-vax group. They believe their daughter, who ended up developing pneumonia, died because “it was her time” and that she was “too good for this earth.” They also basically said that the measles were “not that bad” and that they would “absolutely not” get the MMR vaccine because their four other children got better thanks to “alternative” treatments. Yeah. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about the measles, the MMR vaccine, and ways to treat it, so People released an interview with pediatrician Dr. Adam Ratner, who is also an infectious disease specialist.

Vaccines protect everyone: “In a lot of cases, we don’t know why one particular child will get sicker than another. There’s not usually a good way of predicting that, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s so important for everyone to get vaccinated, because if you protect everybody, then you don’t have to worry about that,” Dr. Ratner explained. While “the vast majority” of kids are sick for about a week, he says, “some kids, including this six-year-old who died, can develop pneumonia or other adverse events, and they can end up needing to be hospitalized and can be sick for much longer — or, as she did, can go on to die.”

Regarding claims that measles are “good” and offer protection from cancer: “None of that is true. Measles are not good for people in any way. They put children in grave danger as they did for that family’s daughter. They put children at risk of other infections for a couple of years after measles. And there is no evidence that measles has any effect on risk for cancer or risk for anything else later on.”

It can cause issues later: “We now know that there are also some later onset issues that can come up with measles. There’s a degenerative neurological condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis or SSPE,” which he explained can begin as early as seven years after a measles infection. “That is a very serious disease that leads to death in almost all cases.”

Secondary infections: “You can get pneumonia from measles or kids with measles can develop a super infection, meaning bacterial pneumonia on top of measles,” Dr. Ratner tells PEOPLE, explaining that they could also get influenza or COVID. “It’s because they have the original viral infection. That sets them up to have a bacterial infection on top of it. This is a very typical story. Kids with measles can seem like they’re getting better and then can develop pneumonia later. Pneumonia can be from measles alone or measles plus a bacterial infection. But in either case, this whole course is preventable by vaccination.”

On breathing treatments: “There’s no evidence for either inhaled steroids, which is what budesonide is, or inhaled beta agonists like albuterol in measles. There’s simply no evidence that they do anything.” As for the other children, whom the parents said benefitted from treatments, Dr. Ratner said “it sounds like the other children had a more benign course so I think they were simply not as sick.”

A ‘kernel of truth’ about Vitamin A: “The vitamin A thing is a little complicated because there’s a kernel of truth in there. Children who are malnourished are at higher risk of severe courses and death from measles, and we know from studies from decades ago that vitamin A supplementation for people who have measles can decrease — but not eliminate— the risk of death and severe disease.”

Too much Vitamin A is bad: Dr. Ratner explained that if you’re treating a patient with measles, “it is reasonable to give two doses of vitamin A — just 2 doses, and under the supervision of a doctor — and that can help decrease the risk of severe disease and death from measles. It doesn’t prevent either of those things, and it certainly does not prevent people from getting measles. There is also the risk of taking too much vitamin A. It accumulates in the body. It can cause liver damage. It can cause central nervous system damage. It can cause issues with skin — it is not a benign treatment.”

No evidence that cod liver oil is helpful: And as for cod liver oil, while it “does, in fact, contain some vitamin A” Dr. Ratner explained, there is “no evidence that that helps in any way and giving a supplement that has an unknown amount of things in it is unlikely to be helpful.”

Why the child’s mom had symptoms despite being vaccinated: “Especially for someone who got a single dose of vaccine, there is some chance that, if they are exposed to measles, they can develop measles,” said Dr. Ratner, who explained that one dose of the MMR vaccine is “about 93% effective,” and the two-dose regimen is “about 97% effective. Often those people have milder disease than people who haven’t been vaccinated,” he said, “and it sounds like her course was pretty mild.”

Don’t want to get the measles? Vaccinate!: “The only way to prevent measles is by vaccination. The vaccine is safe and it is highly effective, and we have been using it for 60 years at this point. There is a lot of misinformation out there and what happens when you have that level of misinformation, is that vaccine rates drop, you end up with large outbreaks like you have in West Texas now. We’ve lost a child already in this outbreak and an adult has died in New Mexico. Both of those deaths were preventable. Measles is not supposed to be causing deaths in people in the U.S. in 2025, and so this is all preventable.”

[From People]

Like I said earlier, there is so much misinformation going around right now. I also cannot believe that this family is out there claiming that the disease that killed their child is “not that bad” and good for the body because it prevents cancer somewhere down the timeline. The misinformation is scary and it’s going to get more people killed. I think knowing why Vitamin A can be helpful on the margins is good, because having that knowledge equips you to engage with someone who is out there touting it. But, it’s even more important to stress that there is no viable alternative to getting vaccinated.

This reminds me of the arguments against the chickenpox vaccine, where people think that getting them isn’t a big deal because we all got them as kids and turned out just fine. No one stops to think, “Hey, maybe we can keep generations of kids from getting the shingles when they’re older.” It’s wild and it boggles the mind. Remember, you can always ask for a measles booster if you’re worried about your exposure.

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