Bad diets and cancer cure: All of the wild theories RFK Jr. has been spreading about the measles outbreak

From cancer cure to good nutrition prevention, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has shared some confusing theories and assessments related to the nation’s recent and deadly measles outbreak.

The vaccine skeptic, who has faced criticism over his response to the spread of the highly contagious infectious disease, had raised concerns after promoting vitamin A as a way to manage measles.

The outbreak has sickened nearly 200 people in West Texas and led to the potential deaths of two unvaccinated people in the Lone Star State and neighboring New Mexico. One of those deaths is under investigation. Cases have also been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s what to know about the Health and Human Services Secretary’s comments on the issue:

He’s said it’s ‘almost impossible’ for an infectious disease to kill a healthy person

“We need to understand the relationship between good health and chronic disease,” Kennedy told Fox News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Marc Siegel in a sit-down interview over the weekend.

“If you are healthy, it’s almost impossible for you to be killed by an infectious disease in modern times because we have nutrition, we have access to medicines,” he claimed. “What we need is good science on all of these things. So, that people can make rational choices.”

Kennedy’s comment was disproven during the Covid pandemic. While people with preexisting health conditions were generally at a higher risk of severe illness from the disease, young and healthy people also succumbed to the virus.

Without treatment, similarly preventable tuberculosis infections can kill, although people with weakened immune systems are at a high risk of developing the disease.

For every thousand people infected with measles in the U.S., the virus kills one to three, according to the CDC. In the most recent measles outbreak, two people have died.

He’s linked measles to bad diets

Kennedy also told Siegel that there’s a “correlation between people who get hurt by measles and people who don’t have good nutrition or who don’t have a good exercise regimen.”

He suggested that malnutrition “may have been an issue” for the child who died of measles in Gaines County, noting that West Texas is “kind of a food desert.”

But, health authorities in the state have said the child had “no known underlying conditions.”

While there is data to show that severely malnourished children in poor countries suffer worse outcomes from measles, Dr. Sean O’Leary, the chair of the infectious disease committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The New York Times Monday that there is no credible evidence that poor eating and exercise make a child more prone to complications from the virus.

Kennedy’s endorsement of the measles vaccine has been lukewarm

The vaccine skeptic has said the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which helped to effectively eliminate the virus by 2000, offers protection.

“Measles vaccine protects the community. And, there are people who should not be vaccinated in the community, because they have autoimmune disease or other immune problems. And, if you do get vaccinated, you’re protecting those people from a possible spread,” Kennedy told Fox News.

In a February Fox News Digital op-ed, the secretary said that vaccines contribute to community immunity. However, he also suggested that measles deaths had been virtually eliminated three years before the vaccine’s introduction due to “improvements in sanitation and nutrition.”

Patsy Stinchfield, immediate past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told The Times that roughly 500 children, many of whom were previously healthy, died from the virus each year before 1963.

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy had previously suggested vaccine advisers had conflicts of interests.

He’s promoted other remedies

Kennedy said his agency would conduct clinical trials on unproven treatments for measles, including cod liver oil, an antibiotic and a steroid.

He told Fox News that he was shipping doses of vitamin A to the epicenter of the measles outbreak.

“Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses. Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet,” he said.

Doctors worry that a focus on vitamin A and these treatments could be detrimental to physicians’ public message: the vaccine is the only way to prevent infection.

“Vitamin A, at any dose, does not protect you from measles,” Dr. James D. Campbell, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, said. “No one should take, and no parent should give to their child, vitamin A in hopes of preventing measles. It will not do that.”

He said ‘natural immunity’ after infection could protect people

While Kennedy said he would “never advise someone to get sick,” he also praised the benefit of protection after becoming infected with a virus.

He claimed that it somehow protected against cancer and heart disease, despite having no credible evidence.

While a measles infection may offer lifelong protection against the virus, the risks of getting sick outweigh the immunity benefits.

“Kids die from measles. We’ve seen that in Texas. So before people go and have a measles party, I think they should educate themselves about what are the terrible complications of measles. It’s not just.. death is obviously the worst, but some kids get really bad encephalopathy or brain swelling,” Aaron Milstone, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, told WUSA9.

“Measles is also known to wipe out immunity so if you get a measles infection, it kills a lot of cells in your body that protect you from other infections, making you more susceptible to other infections after. Measles is a deadly virus.”