Measles Misinformation, Ozone Recovery and Woolly Mice

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  Happy Monday, listeners, for Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

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  Let's kick off the week with our usual science news roundup.

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  First, a quick note about measles,

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  which is still spreading in West Texas and has also cropped up in smaller numbers in eight other states.

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  In an op ed for Fox news published on March 2,

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  US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr arguably downplayed the importance of vaccines,

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  saying the MMR DAB provides protection against measles,

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  while also calling vaccination a, quote, personal choice.

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  He also claimed that vitamin A supplementation has been shown to,

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  quote, dramatically reduce measles mortality.

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  Since the Op ed's publication, many experts have sounded the alarm on that plug for vitamin a.

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  The research RFK Jr referenced does exist, but there's important context missing from that op ed.

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  The analysis he cited focuses on studies that mostly looked at low income countries where many people have vitamin A deficiencies.

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  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent data,

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  less than 1% of people in the US have vitamin A deficiencies.

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  Peter Hotez, co director of the center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital,

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  told the Washington Post that vitamin A can play a role in treating children who are hospitalized with measles.

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  But he and other experts conveyed concerns to the Washington Post about RFK Jr.

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  S framing creating a false equivalency between vaccination,

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  which is an extremely effective way to prevent measles,

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