The Guardian
· collected 2026-10-12 · by Walker Bragman and Melody Schreiber
The six-year-old girl at the children’s hospital in Lubbock, Texas, burned with fever and struggled to breathe.
asserted
girl → burn → fever
Doctors soon put her on a ventilator, snaking a thick tube down the child’s throat so a machine could breathe for her; they placed IVs to rehydrate her tiny body and they prescribed antibiotics for any bacterial infections that may have taken hold in the weeks she had spent at home battling measles.
But it was too late.
uncertain
it → put → measles
, the child went into shock, her blood pressure crashed and she went into cardiac arrest.
asserted
she → go → arrest
She could not be resuscitated.
uncertain
She → resuscitate → ?
Her family, and the nation, mourned: she was the first child to die of measles in the US in a decade.
asserted
she → mourn → decade
Yet some anti-vaccine activists soon began claiming that the girl died from medical malpractice, not measles, revealing a playbook that they are now running in Pennsylvania amid a growing outbreak – a message taken up by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime anti-vaccine activist, as he publicly disputes the rising death toll.
asserted
he → begin → toll
The deaths in the US from measles – now numbering eight in less than two years – are a political minefield for Kennedy, centering him in a public backlash after years of his false claims about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
uncertain
deaths → number → vaccine
The deflection campaign is already having real-world consequences beyond the rising body count.
asserted
campaign → have → count
Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group previously led by Kennedy, claims to have sparked malpractice investigations into the doctors who treated the two young unvaccinated girls who died from measles amid last year’s outbreak in west Texas, which infected at least 762 people.
uncertain
which → lead → people
“At first they were going to throw out the complaints,” Brian Hooker, CHD’s chief scientific officer, announced in a recent video.
asserted
Hooker → go → video
“But they have, upon further review … decided that they’re going to let their own medical expert look at the records for those particular deaths.
asserted
expert → decide → deaths
Because in each case, inappropriate antibiotics were prescribed, and that, I believe, led to both girls’ deaths.”
asserted
I → prescribe → deaths
Paul Offit, an infectious diseases pediatrician and internationally recognized vaccine expert, said “it’s not a good look” for Kennedy and other anti-vaxxers for so many cases and deaths to rise.
asserted
cases → recognize → ?
“So they’re trying to say, ‘Well, it wasn’t measles.’”
asserted
it → try → ?
Katherine Wells, Lubbock Public Health’s director, agreed.
asserted
Wells → agree → ?
“It’s their playbook,” she said.
asserted
she → ’ → ?
“It’s just another tactic by them to disrupt or to question vaccines and the safety of vaccines.
asserted
It → ’ → vaccines
The issue at hand is that we’re having these large measles outbreaks, and they’re not stopping.”
asserted
they → have → outbreaks
It’s not just the deaths – it’s also the severe disease, Wells said.
asserted
Wells → ’ → ?
The “massive” outbreaks affect “families and communities and disrupt lives”, Wells said.
asserted
Wells → affect → lives
About one in five unvaccinated measles patients are hospitalized.
asserted
patients → hospitalize → ?
Measles erases immunity to all other illnesses for years, putting patients at risk of other serious infections.
asserted
Measles → erase → infections
And survivors may years later develop severe measles complications such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which is fatal and untreatable.
uncertain
which → develop → panencephalitis
Last year, Hooker traveled to Texas to interview the deceased six-year-old’s parents, who said they still would not have vaccinated their children.
asserted
they → travel → children
A second child, aged eight, soon died from measles at the same hospital.
asserted
child → age → hospital
Hooker asked to see the children’s medical records, and he shared them with Pierre Kory, a critical care physician with no pediatric training who lost his board certifications for promoting Covid misinformation, heavily promoted the anti-parasitic ivermectin as a Covid treatment, and claimed that polio paralysis is caused not by the virus but by pesticides.
asserted
paralysis → ask → pesticides
Kory, who himself escaped legal liability in a malpractice lawsuit brought by the estate of a Covid patient who died as a result of his treatment plan, concluded that the measles deaths were actually the result of medical error.
asserted
deaths → escape → error
Kory claimed the first child was prescribed “a completely inappropriate antibiotic” for a bacterial infection she developed because of measles, adding that “she did not die of measles by any stretch of the imagination,” but rather she died of pneumonia and medical mismanagement.
asserted
she → claim → pneumonia
He also attributed the second child’s death to “medical malpractice” because of her antibiotic regime.
asserted
He → attribute → regime
Secondary bacteria infections are very common with measles, which can create a cascade of deadly complications.
asserted
which → create → complications
Privately, Kory reportedly said that he suspected the two deaths in young girls in Texas were caused by a weaponized version of measles.
uncertain
deaths → say → measles
Hooker and a colleague both submitted complaints to the Texas medical board alleging that the antibiotics were given improperly to the sick children.
asserted
antibiotics → submit → children
In the video, he said the medical board is reviewing the complaints.
asserted
board → say → complaints
The Guardian and Important Context were unable to confirm Hooker’s claims.
uncertain
Guardian → confirm → claims
Anyone can file a complaint with a state medical board, and boards take complaints seriously.
asserted
boards → file → complaints
Several leading anti-vaccine figures have received medical board complaints about their own conduct.
asserted
figures → lead → conduct
“The physicians went above and beyond, and the hospitals went above and beyond,” Wells said.
asserted
Wells → go → ?
Pediatricians in hospitals work with the sickest children, with high stress and relatively low pay.
asserted
Pediatricians → work → stress
“It’s so hard to be told that you either wanted to hurt them or didn’t want to give the best care you could,” Wells said.
uncertain
Wells → ’ → care
Now, with the CHD accusations and possible medical board reports, “I think it’s in the back of everybody’s minds,” she said.
asserted
she → think → minds
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
