Peter Hildebrand, whose 8-year-old daughter Daisy died of measles in April after refusing the MMR vaccine, says he has no regrets about not vaccinating his child. “Absolutely not,” Hildebrand said during an interview with Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a non-profit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which focuses on childhood health epidemics and has anti-vaccination views.
The case of Daisy Hildebrand has sparked debate over vaccination policy in the US, particularly amid the country’s most serious measles outbreak in over a decade. Texas has reported over 480 cases and 56 hospitalizations since January. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services, visited the Hildebrand family to express condolences.
However, it is unclear if Kennedy fully agrees with his organization’s stance on vaccines. In an interview published by The Atlantic, Kennedy told Hildebrand that he had expressed skepticism about the vaccine in private, saying “You don’t know what’s in the vaccine anymore.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for University Medical Center Children’s Hospital where Daisy was treated denied claims made by director of programming for CHD-TV Polly Tommey, who interviewed Hildebrand.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has not commented on Kennedy’s private views. The agency has deployed additional teams from the CDC to assist Texas and supplied local pharmacies with more MMR vaccines in response to the outbreak.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/texas-dad-peter-hildebrand-daisy-measles-outbreak-2060011