Dr. Ben Edwards said on camera that he had measles while seeing patients, some of them children. Credit: Courtesy Photo / CHD TV

A Texas physician that controversial Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently praised as an “extraordinary healer” was captured on video stating that he was infected with the highly contagious measles virus while treating patients, including children.

The video of Dr. Ben Edwards was shared March 31 by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccination group that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded. Kennedy also served as the organization’s chief litigation counsel.

The clip is likely to give Kennedy’s critics more ammunition as he comes under fire for sending mixed messages about the importance of vaccines amid a measles outbreak that’s Texas’ worst in 30 years.

The video shows Edwards stating he has measles as he’s in scrubs between treating patients in his clinic in Seminole, Texas. The clinic’s location is ground zero for the measles outbreak that’s resulted in some 600 cases and two deaths in the Lone Star State. Health authorities have also tallied hundreds more cases in Mexico, Canada and additional U.S. states.

“How are you feeling? Catch measles yourself?” the interviewer in the clip asks Edwards.

“Yeah. I was pretty achey yesterday,” the physician replies, noting the measles rash on his face. “Little mild fever. Spots came in the afternoon.” Edwards also states in the video that his infection began the day before he was captured on camera, back at work at the clinic. Measles is contagious for about four days before and four days after a rash first appears, according to medical experts.

In the video, Edwards adds that he received the MMR vaccine as a child but couldn’t remember how many shots he received.

“Quite a few?” the interviewer prompts.

“Yeah,” Edwards replies.

“That doesn’t work then, does it?” the interviewer then asks.

“No, apparently not,” Edwards says. “It must wear off.”

Edward’s last statement appears to repeat a widely debunked claim made by anti-vaxxers that the MMR vaccine’s effectiveness declines over time. Secretary Kennedy has also repeatedly stated in the media that contracting measles inoculates a person for life, while the vaccine “wanes very quickly.”

Medical experts have criticized Kennedy for sending mixed messages about the effectiveness of vaccines while the Texas outbreak continues.

“What Mr. Kennedy adds to this mix is really only more confusion and disinformation about what vaccines can do, what they don’t do, how safe they are, how well they work,” Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Newsweek about RFK Jr.’s ongoing contributions to vaccine skepticism and disinformation as Health Secretary. In a bio on the website of Veritas Wellness, the Lubbock clinic where he practices integrative medicine, Edwards describes himself as “a physician who believes that our body is designed perfectly and knows how to heal itself if given the opportunity.”

“Now I see that all we have to do is to find out what our bodies are missing that the Lord intended them to have, and what harmful things we are being exposed to that shouldn’t be there,” Edwards states in the bio. “Replace what’s missing and remove what is harmful. That’s it. Then sit back and watch the ‘miracle cure’ that is waiting inside of you manifest.”

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Apr 16-29, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.