Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the Secretary of Health and Services appointed by Trump has noticed the significance of Mennonite to the measles outbreak in the US. He like many Mennonites has given a lot of attention to unconventional possible cures while neglecting to make it clear to people that there is a solution to this problem of measles—vaccines.  As Teddy Rosenbluth of the New York Times, said this:

“Critics have said Mr. Kennedy has focused too much on untested treatments — such as cod liver oil supplements — and offered only muted support for the measles vaccine, which studies show is 97 percent effective in preventing infection. The decision to put more resources into potential treatments, rather than urging vaccination, could have consequences at the center of the outbreak.””

 

And that puts Mennonites at the centre of the outbreak.

As Jennifer Nuzzo an epidemiologist at Brown University pointed out, such actions send the wrong signal. There is a solution—vaccines. Looking for other “cures” is not helpful. At least not to the exclusion of using those vaccines.

Michael Osterholm an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, has also said scientists have already thoroughly studied various vitamins and medication.. We should always be alert to the possibility of better approaches, but we should not ignore  that 97% of measles cases can be avoided by taking vaccines and nothing should be done to turn people away from them.

Of course, some Mennonites have been rather creative in their approaches to health.  In the US Kennedy has gone out of his way to support Mennonites. As Rosenbluth the New York Times reporter said,

But, he said, “Our commitment is to support all families, regardless of their vaccination status, in reducing the risk of hospitalization, serious complications and death from measles.”

As an example of such a community, Mr. Kennedy pointed to the Mennonites in West Texas, who have experienced the brunt of the cases and hospitalizations in the current outbreak.

Perhaps by accommodating Mennonites stranfe views Kennedy has been making things worse. Mennonites seem attracted to Kennedy and others with views that are either hostile to vaccines, or at least indifferent to them. As Rosenbluth reported,

“Dr. Osterholm said Mr. Kennedy’s plan also assumed that people’s beliefs about vaccines were fixed, when in reality, clear information about their purpose and safety had encouraged thousands of vaccinations in past outbreaks.

Despite Mr. Kennedy’s claims that Mennonites have “religious objections” to shots because they contain “fetus debris,” historians who study the community say it has no religious doctrine that bans vaccination, and vaccine experts say there is no fetal tissue in the M.M.R. shot.

Local doctors have instead pointed to misinformation about the safety of the shot — which Mr. Kennedy has helped perpetuate — as the primary reason their Mennonite patients opt their children out of vaccination.

 

So why are Mennonites so attracted to scientifically heretical ideas? Where does all this misinformation come from? I will look for answers at Ontario in my next post.