America’s ousted vaccine chief has told Sky News there will be more deaths from a growing measles outbreak unless the US government shifts its rhetoric on vaccination.
“Ultimately, they’re not gonna be able to run from reality,” said Dr Peter Marks, former head of vaccines at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Dr Marks also echoed concerns among public health experts that the federal administration’s stance on vaccinations and cuts to global health initiatives could make the world, including America, more vulnerable to other preventable diseases.
There have been 935 confirmed cases of measles in the US, with outbreaks in six states and cases reported in 23 others.
There are also related outbreaks in Mexico and Canada, which share links to the Mennonite religious community in which the US outbreak took hold.
Dr Marks was forced to resign as the director of the FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research in March after clashing with incoming US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over his stance on vaccines and scientific evidence.
RFK Jr has come under intense criticism from public health experts after continuing, despite the outbreak, to endorse alternative and unproven ways to prevent and treat measles.
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Secretary Kennedy has since publicly endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as the safest and most effective way of preventing measles.
But at the same time, he has continued to criticise the MMR jab.
MMR – one of the safest and most well-studied vaccines in history – is credited with virtually eliminating measles in the US and much of the developed world in the early 21st century.
Uptake of the vaccine is now falling.
On Friday, as the latest data confirmed measles cases continued to rise, Secretary Kennedy instructed the federal agencies to review the use of alternative drugs in combination with vitamins for the treatment of measles and other diseases.
In an interview the same day, while maintaining he is not opposed to vaccination, Secretary Kennedy repeated erroneous claims that the MMR jab contains “aborted foetus debris and DNA particles”.
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‘These are needless deaths’
Three people have died in the US outbreak so far, two of them children. None had been vaccinated against measles.
“It’s fully appropriate to say that these are needless deaths,” said Dr Marks. “And we’re going to be having more of those if this measles outbreak continues to spread.”
He also believes public health experts need to get better at preventing “misleading information and lies” around vaccination to take hold.
“We have yet to find the kind of active, unified voice that we need to say: ‘hey guys, stop this stuff’,” said Marks.
“These people over there, they’re entitled to their opinion, but they don’t have to harm your kids by broadcasting it.”
He is careful not to directly criticise the man who forced him from his position at the FDA, urging him, instead, to listen to reason.
“To consider alternative viewpoints from those who have a lot of knowledge and experience,” said Marks.
‘A sad day for America’s children’
Others are less cautious about criticising RFK Jr: Paul Offit, a vaccinologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “When he was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, I think that was a sad day for America’s children.
“He has for 20 years been a virulent anti-vaccine activist, science denialist and conspiracy theorist.”
Prof Offit is also concerned about his impact on the rest of the world.
“We export our fears and I think with social media now, it’s much easier to amplify those fears.”
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Uptake of the MMR jab is falling in the UK and parts of the EU. Cases of measles have increased there too but, with the exception of Romania, to a lesser extent than in the US.
An increase in measles, one of the most infectious diseases known to science, is often “an early warning sign” of falling vaccination rates more widely, according to the head of the UK’s vaccine advisory committee, Prof Andrew Pollard.
“Just as we’ve seen whooping cough outbreaks here in the UK over the last couple of years,” said Pollard.
“It’s not just MMR where the [vaccination] rates are lower, it’s also other vaccines where we’re not getting such high coverage.”
According to the World Health Organisation, 138 countries have reported measles cases with 61 experiencing large outbreaks. The highest number globally since 2019.
The situation could now get worse after the Trump administration froze the US annual contribution to the WHO, which stood at $960bn last year and has threatened to cut $300m for the global vaccine alliance (GAVI).
“That money not coming through for our next strategic cycle would mean that we will be unable to vaccinate about 75 million children,” said Sania Nishtar, CEO of GAVI.
According to GAVI, that could lead to well over a million additional child deaths over the next five years from diseases like Malaria, meningitis and yellow fever.
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GAVI is urging the US administration to reconsider a funding cut, in part because US businesses manufacture many of the vaccines it supplies, but also because it keeps the US safe.
“We are the only agency in the world that maintains the stockpiles of vaccines,” said Nishtar.
“If there’s an Ebola outbreak anywhere in the world, we would be the ones mobilising the stockpiles to ensure that the outbreak is contained. There and then, preventing it from reaching American shores.”
Dr Marks predicts that the administration will be forced to shift its stance if the outbreak continues to grow and vaccine-hesitant Americans begin to witness the typically unseen impact vaccinations have.
He said: “As the deaths start to crank up, public opinion will certainly change because they will see once again what happens when people around them are dying or getting very sick.”
