Why Was a Texas Doctor Treating Patients While He Was Sick With Measles?

Ben Edwards ignored recommendations to go into quarantine and continued to see patients while he was sick with measles.

West Texas, we have a problem.

That the doctor involved in the West Texas measles outbreak was actually “treating” kids while he was sick with measles has not gotten enough attention.

Ben Edwards, the Texas doctor who has been pushing vitamin A, budesonide, and antibiotics to folks in the middle of the measles outbreak was apparently treating them while he was sick with measles.

When you have measles, you are contagious from about four days before to four days after the rash appears. Since his rash had just started, Ben Edwards was contagious and had been for more than a few days.

Why is that a problem?

Any other doctor would have been in quarantine until they were no longer contagious.

Measles is contagious, and he is exposing every one he sees to measles!

“In the following days, hundreds of people from the Mennonite community lined up at Dr. Edwards’s makeshift clinic, held behind a local health food store, said Tina Siemens, who helped organize the event.

Mrs. Siemens said people seeking treatment for active measles infections and those who hoped to prevent one were in attendance.”

Keeping With Kennedy’s Advice, Measles Patients Turn to Unproven Treatments

And not just regular contagious, the measles virus can linger in the air for up to two hours, so that people can become infected if they enter a room he had already left!

But didn’t they all have measles anyway?

Ben Edwards saw hundreds of kids and their parents while he was contagious and literally “covered with measles.”

Nope!

It seems that many were also looking for ways to avoid measles…

“For healthcare personnel with known or suspected measles, exclude from work for 4 days after the rash appears.”

Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel: Epidemiology and Control of Selected Infections Transmitted Among Healthcare Personnel and Patients (2024)

Whatever the case, this is not something that any doctor should be doing!

References

Keeping With Kennedy’s Advice, Measles Patients Turn to Unproven Treatments https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/health/measles-texas-kennedy.html

Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel: Epidemiology and Control of Selected Infections Transmitted Among Healthcare Personnel and Patients (2024) https://www.cdc.gov/infection-control/hcp/healthcare-personnel-epidemiology-control/measles.html

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