Summary

Texas hospitals are treating children with vitamin A poisoning linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promotion of the supplement as a measles treatment.

At Covenant Children’s hospital in Lubbock, patients with measles showed abnormal liver function due to excessive vitamin A intake.

Kennedy, the U.S. health secretary, claimed vitamin A dramatically reduces measles mortality. Experts warn his messaging confuses parents and downplays the proven protection of the MMR vaccine.

The U.S. faces its worst measles outbreak in decades, with nearly 500 cases across 21 states and two confirmed deaths.

    • sfu@lemm.ee
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      21 hours ago

      People need the right to choose what medications they take. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be forced to take something you didn’t want to take.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Sure sure, but should parent be allowed to forego low-risk, high-efficacy medical advice to the long term detriment of their child’s and other children’s health? Children, who are unable to legally advocate for themselves…

        • sfu@lemm.ee
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          2 hours ago

          If I was a parent, I would not want someone else forcing my child to take a drug that I believed was going to harm them. Only a bad parent would be okay with that.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            If you were a good parent, you’d read up on what the risks were for vaccinations vs catching the disease and realize that even the worst performing vaccines are 300+ times less dangerous than an infection, instead of relying on Jenny McCarthy’s fucking Facebook posts as a source of medical information.

      • VanillaFrosty@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        People don’t get the right to endanger our most vulnerable because they are stupid and religious.

        I guess I should say stupid or religious but I have a feeling the initial statement is correct.

        I agree with your other comment on not trusting insurance agencies though.

        • sfu@lemm.ee
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          8 hours ago

          Well, when the gov, and medical companies have been known in the past to lie about medical treatments, then every person should have the right to decide for themselves if they want to take a drug / vaccine / treatment / etc. I personally would rather trust my own judgement. If the gov, or a doctor, or drug company really thinks I need to take something, then they need to do their job better to convince me it’s safe.

          • Andonyx@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            This statement is the poster child for why letting individuals use their own judgement on scientific data is such a crap idea.

            *Changed medical matters to scientific data.

          • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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            7 hours ago

            Drug companies shouldn’t be in the equation of telling you what is best for you and your family medically.

            That should be left up to doctors.

          • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            It’s not up to the experts to bend over backwards to convince you that a medication is safe and beneficial to yourself and to society. If they’ve convinced most of the population, but haven’t convinced you, then maybe you’re the problem. It’s your job to learn to distinguish between trained experts and quacks with an agenda, and listen to the experts, not the quacks.

            • sfu@lemm.ee
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              2 hours ago

              If a scientist wanted to take a syringe with purple fluid in it, and inject it in your arm, and he said “trust me, its good for you”, would you just take it without asking what it is?

              If there were other people around you who took it without asking questions, based on the logic in your comment, it doesn’t even matter what the purple fluid is, you should just take because everyone else is, and a scientist said to do so.

      • amateurcrastinator@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Why go to the doctors then? Just take whatever pink medicine your best friend/shaman/faith healer recommends and accept your fate. Why after choosing your medication and you and yours get fucked up, you rush to the hospital?

      • rockhard@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        This would still respect choice while cutting back on the utilization of emergency services covered by insurance companies. It could lead to reduced costs and people who pay into insurance shouldn’t be forced to pay for the negative health outcomes of people who willingly flout preventative health measures. It drives up costs for everyone.

        • sfu@lemm.ee
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          13 hours ago

          Yeah I get what you are saying, but insurance companies already make decisions for patients regardless of what the patient’s doctor says they need. Insurance companies are not to be trusted with healthcare choices.

          • rockhard@lemm.ee
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            12 hours ago

            You don’t get what I’m saying. Insurance companies aren’t making the choice for consumers. Consumers refuse to take preventative health measures, that is the choice they make. Insurance in turn, refuses to provide coverage to them because they willingly cost them more in the long run. Medicare and Medicaid, what will be left of them, should also refuse to cover them. Let these consumers cover their own healthcare costs.

            • sfu@lemm.ee
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              2 hours ago

              Yes I do get what you’re saying. But what you are saying would mean that everyone is required to do what the insurance company tells them to do.

              What should be happening, is that the insurance companies should have to go by what the patients doctor says they do or do not need. Doctors shouldn’t be basing their care on what the insurance company tells them to do.

      • sfu@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        So to everyone who down voted my comment… I take it you would like to be forced to take something you didn’t want to take?

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Yes. I would 100% enjoy mandatory vaccinations when those vaccines are standardized, well regulated, and proven to save countless lives. I want to be forced to take the shot, I want the person to my right to be forced, I want the person to my left to be forced.

          I want to save people from horrible death and lifelong disability. I want to eradicate diseases.

          • sfu@lemm.ee
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            2 hours ago

            You know there have been bad vaccines in the past that were given to people right? You know the drug companies sometimes lie about studies right? For instance, did you know that when people were being tested with the covid-19 vaccine, and they died during the trial, Pfizer removed them from the results? Don’t you think that should have been included?

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              There have been and there will be. And there have been reports of adverse side effects. We study these cases in depth. You’re worse off without the vaccine by a massive margin. Society is worse off.

        • ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca
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          7 hours ago

          If the thing has been proven time and time again to be a benefit for the entire society?

          Yes.

          Only someone clearly deranged and selfish would choose otherwise.

      • HamsterKiller666@lemm.ee
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        18 hours ago

        Well if the people that tell you what to take are the ones that you go to when you are Ill because you didn’t want to listen to them, they should be able to refuse you.