When U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently wrote that vitamin A “can dramatically reduce measles mortality,” he was remarking on what happens after someone gets infected,

Known for his anti-vaccination stance, the new US Secretary of Health is facing his first challenge: Curbing the mainly Texas-based measles epidemic which has been encouraged by low vaccination coverage.

Kennedy has touted the benefits of an unconventional measles treatment including the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin and cod liver oil, which has high concentrations of vitamin A.

In the 18 days since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, his department has postponed or canceled two major vaccine advisory committee meetings,

In an interview, the H.H.S. secretary claimed that unconventional treatments were helping patients but described vaccination as a personal choice.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s cousin Jack Schlossberg ridiculed the Secretary of Health and Human Resources' wife, Cheryl Hines, over the death of a child who died from measles in Texas. Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of the late John F.