The parents of an unvaccinated child who died after being infected with measles maintain their anti-vaccine stance and are warning other families about taking the shot for their kids.
In a video interview posted on Mar. 17, 2025, by the Children's Health Defense, a couple identified as the parents of a young girl who died of measles at the end of February. The advocacy group, previously known as the World Mercury Project, is widely known as a source of online vaccine misinformation.
Girl Dies From Measles
One of the group's misinformation is about the debunked allegation that vaccines can cause autism. For many years, the Children's Health Defense had Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as its chair before he became the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The video posted did not identify the names of the West Texas couple whose child died of measles. The couple spoke with interviewers in different languages, partially in English and other parts via an interpreter, according to The Dallas Morning News.
At the start of the interview, the host asked the couple how many children they had, and the parents answered that there were four. The child who died was a six-year-old girl who developed pneumonia at the end of her measles infection.
The girl was recorded as the first measles death in the United States in the past decade, and since then, there was also an adult in New Mexico who died amid the outbreak. The ongoing health crisis is said to have started in Gaines County, Texas, near the New Mexico border.
The Dangers of Anti-Vaccine MisinformationThe name of Kaylee identified the young child, and her parents figured that it was measles that was responsible for her getting sick in the first place. Two days later, she developed a rash and was taken to see a doctor, who prescribed a cough remedy and fever-reducing medication, the New York Post reported.
When the girl's measles started to fade, she suddenly developed complications, such as a fever that kept rising. The mother said that she noticed her daughter was saying she was exhausted and that her breathing was not expected.
The situation comes as Texas is experiencing the state's worst measles outbreak in the last three decades. Officials have reported 279 confirmed cases as of Mar. 18, 2025, of which 36 were sent to the hospital, and two have been fatal.
There have been other cases reported in different states across the U.S., and some experts believe that the outbreak will spread further. This is primarily due to the "proliferation of anti-vax disinformation" among the people, as per Newsweek.
