DALLAS — The parents of a six-year-old girl who died of measles in late February told an anti-vaccine activist organization they remain opposed to vaccinations.
“We would absolutely not take the MMR,” the mother told representatives from Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit that conducted the interview and posted it online.
The MMR is the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine which researchers have proven to be safe and highly effective at preventing measles.
The parents’ names are not revealed in the interview, and they switched between English and German with the use of a translator at various points.
The family is part of the Mennonite community in West Texas identified by the state as the center of a measles outbreak that began in January and has since infected more than 300 people.
The mother and father said their daughter was the first of their five children to become infected. She developed a rash before her fever spiked and her breathing became abnormal, the mother said. They took the child to a hospital in Lubbock where she ended up in ICU and on a ventilator.
Pneumonia is a complication that can develop from measles infections.
The girl was unvaccinated.
Children’s Health Defense was founded by Robert F. Kennedy, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.
It promotes an anti-vaccine agenda.
The Children’s Health Defense representatives never appear on camera during the interview, but their voices are heard asking about the treatment the girl received and whether they have changed their stance on vaccinations.
The mother wiped her eyes and cried as she described saying goodbye to her daughter, but according to the translator the mother also said in German, “Don’t do the shots. There are doctors who can help with measles. They’re not as bad as they’re making it out to be.”
The mother said she too contracted the virus and was infected on the day of her daughter’s funeral.
Their four surviving children developed rashes, fevers, and coughs, but they recovered after being treated by a doctor in their community, she said.
“The measles wasn’t that bad, and they got over it pretty quickly,” she said of the other children’s cases.
Dr. Erin Carlson, a clinical professor and director of graduate public health studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, said the erosion of trust in the “unequivocally safe and effective” MMR vaccine is dangerous.
“Misinformation and disinformation cost us lives,” Carlson said. “And not only does it cost us lives, but it also costs us the quality of life. Maybe you survive a disease but that doesn’t mean you survive it well.”
An uptick in vaccinations is the only way to stop an outbreak, public health experts agree.
“There are devastating complications from measles, but we don’t see these types of devastating complications or side effects from the vaccine,” she said.
Measles had been considered eliminated in the US, but it is one of the most contagious viral diseases known to man.
And it now poses a growing threat, particularly in under-vaccinated communities like the one in West Texas experiencing an outbreak.
But the father of the girl who died told the translator, “God does no wrong.”
He said, “It was her time on earth. She’s better off now where she is,” according to the translator.
“They think she was too good for this earth,” the translator said.