A man from Texas whose daughter became the first death of America in a decade, talked about his loss for the first time.
Peter, who refused to give his last name, stitched the tears back when a reporter asked him if he knew the victim in a parking lot and said, “That is our child.”
The father of five and 28-year-old construction worker said his girl was only six years old. She was also not vaccinated, like many in the community.
But he told the Atlantic that it was “God's will” that she had died of the disease before he added: “Everyone must die.”
He also said that he regards measles as a normal part of life and still doubts about the vaccine.
Studies show that the shot is 97 percent effective against measles, while extensive research has not made a connection between the vaccine and autism.
The girl, not mentioned, was the first of two people who died in the outbreak, with a different fatality reported in a non -vaccinated adult in New Mexico last week.
They have been the first fatalities of the disease in the US since 2015. A total of 223 people have been infected and 29 in the hospital in the outbreak of West Texas so far.
A 28-year-old Mennonite man named Peter in Seminole, Texas, revealed that his six-year-old daughter was the first measles in America in a decade. The image above is a Mennonite Church Service in Seminole
The above is a stock image of a child that is infected with measles in Texas
Another 30 people are infected in an adjacent community in New Mexico, while two people who visited the area before they returned to Oklahoma are also infected.
Unveiling his daughter was the first fatality for the Atlantic Ocean, Peter said he belongs to a Mennonite community in Seminole, Texas, where many of the residents have not been vaccinated against measles.
He unveiled his daughter's disease and said she had been sick for three weeks.
The family knew that it was measles and brought her to the hospital at one point, but doctors gave her cough medicine and told the family to 'go home'.
“They don't want to help us,” said Peter.
But while the girl's condition deteriorated, the family brought her back to doctors who put her on a fan.
Peter explained: 'She became more and more sicker and sicker. Her lungs are connected. We were there on Saturday to Monday, three days … and then it was worse, very bad. '
That Tuesday the girl died of pneumonia, which is common in serious measles cases.
Most of Texas cases, a total of 156, have been to Gaines County, where Seminole is located.
The vaccination percentage in the area is 82 percent, well under 95 percent needed to maintain the herd of immunity. The national average was 93 percent last school year.
The above shows Seminole, in the west of Texas, where the outbreak was first reported. Seminole is located in Gaines County, which has reported most cases
Texas officials have set up a mobile unit to offer tests and vaccinations for measles to parents and children
Many in Mennonite communities such as Peter's are not -vaccinated, although those figures are not reflected in official data, because the children are often home education or registered in non -accredited schools that do not have to collect data.
The religious doctrine does not prohibit vaccines, although many residents, including Peter, doubt.
He said measles are considered normal for the community and “everyone has it. It's not that new to us. “He also heard that getting measles could strengthen the immune system against other disease, a theory Robert F Kennedy JR promoted.
Peter is also concerned about the potential effects on his children.
'The vaccination has things that we do not trust. We don't like the vaccinations, what they have nowadays, “he said.
'We have heard too much, and we saw too much'
Peter also stated that the Mennonite community, where most of the Texas things are centered, was wrongly selected and that it is not just Mennonites that spread the disease.
Peter said that his daughter's death was 'very difficult' and that it left 'a big gap' in his family.
Before he told reporters that he had nothing else to say, he added: 'You probably know how it goes when someone dies.
“It's really hard to believe.”
