Target: Robert Kennedy, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
Goal: Allow free flow of measles data from health professionals and support guidance provided by these professionals.
A third person has died in Pennsylvania from reported measles-related complications. A county coroner confirmed the death of the 40-year-old female. The state’s measles outbreak – which has encompassed over 600 individuals with 100-plus hospitalizations – gained headlines after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed mention of the then-two deaths from official records. The highly unusual move was apparently spurred by Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic. Despite confirmations from healthcare professionals, Kennedy cast doubt on whether the deaths resulted from measles and even at one point appeared to suggest the deaths themselves were fabricated.
This behavior from the head of the nation’s top health agency has serious, lasting repercussions. Vaccine rates for a number of illnesses have dropped dramatically in the past few years. In another troubling sign of healthcare skepticism amongst the public, Vitamin K refusal by parents for their newborns has shot up by 77 percent. The vitamin shot is critical for clotting and for preventing internal bleeding in babies, who cannot otherwise naturally ingest sufficient quantities of the nutrient.
Florida is accounting for most of the recent measles surge, but cases are spiking across the country and overwhelmingly afflicting unvaccinated individuals. Sign the petition below to demand the health secretary keep his hands off longstanding public health policy and data disclosures.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Kennedy,
A mother sickened with a 102-degree fever and unable to even drink water, two severely dehydrated children, and a stillborn baby: this tragedy is the story of just one family impacted and forever changed by an ongoing measles outbreak. It won’t be the last. Measles, as verified by a coroner who examined the deceased, has claimed another life in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, cases are on a rapid rise in Florida and are threatening communities across the nation.
You have a responsibility to act in good faith with local healthcare providers: the very people on the front lines of this once-eradicated disease and with the knowledge and expertise to identify it. Stop interfering with the public’s access to crucial health information and start supporting the long-held and time-tested policies that have kept American’s safe from the country’s most unforgiving illnesses for decades. You owe it to the millions of Americans in years past who died without a choice and all the future young Americans who have no choice in decisions that could end their lives before they even begin.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Jim Goodson, MPH
