Vitamin A? Cod liver oil? Experts say there’s no replacement for measles vaccination

Texas health experts are warning that vitamin A — found in food and in supplements such as cod liver oil — is not an alternative to measles vaccination.

They’re urging Texans to vaccinate themselves and their children, as the West Texas measles outbreak continues to grow and after an unvaccinated child died from the illness.

Their concerns come after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote about vitamin A in a Fox News column responding to the Texas measles outbreak. (Kennedy has also falsely stated in the past that vaccines cause autism.)

Kennedy’s comments in the column — that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend vitamin A for people hospitalized with measles, and that studies have found vitamin A can help prevent measles deaths — are not inaccurate.

But they lack important context, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine. Hotez worries the missing context might mean people put their faith in vitamin A over vaccination — a decision that could cost lives.

“The thing that I worry about is by (Kennedy) playing this up and others playing this up, it sends a false equivalency message, that somehow treating with vitamin A is equivalent to getting vaccinated, which is clearly not the case,” Hotez said...

Vitamin A? Cod liver oil? Experts say there’s no replacement for measles vaccination