After the Texas Division of State Well being Providers introduced a second measles demise on Sunday, Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flew to the outbreak’s epicenter in Gaines County and attended the kid’s funeral.
“I came to Gaines County, Texas, today to comfort the Hildebrand family after the loss of their 8-year-old daughter Daisy,” Kennedy wrote on X. “My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief.”
The 8-year-old woman died Thursday of “measles pulmonary failure,” the well being division mentioned in a press release. The primary youngster died in February, the primary measles demise since 2015. RFK Jr. had beforehand appeared to downplay the severity of the outbreak, saying, “we have measles outbreaks every year.”
Neither the 2 youngsters, nor a New Mexico man who examined constructive for the viral, rash-inducing respiratory sickness after his demise in March, have been vaccinated.
The outbreak began in January in Seminole, in west Texas, and has since unfold to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico, with practically 500 instances in Texas alone.
