Austin-based anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree says he wants children to catch measles and polio

Del Bigtree, an Austin-based anti-vaccine advocate and media personality with deep ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in a recent interview that he wants his children — and others — to contract vaccine-preventable diseases including measles and polio.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Bigtree said he is “genuinely upset” when children are vaccinated because it reduces the likelihood that his own children will catch viruses such as chicken pox and measles. He said he believes children’s health “depends on them catching those live viruses.”

Bigtree referred to measles and polio by name and said he would like his teenage son to contract those illnesses. He also indicated he had considered driving his unvaccinated family to South Carolina amid a historic measles outbreak so they could be exposed to the virus.

He said infection would give children the “Ferrari of immunity.”

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/politics/article/austin-del-bigtree-wants-kids-catch-measles-polio-21939399.php