Kennedy sends mixed vaccine messages amid Texas measles outbreak
In the first test of the Trump administration's outbreak response, Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been sending mixed messages about a rapidly spreading measles outbreak in Texas.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy initially downplayed the outbreak during a Cabinet meeting with President Trump last week, saying it was “not unusual” and falsely claimed that many people hospitalized were there “mainly for quarantine.”
A child in Texas died from measles on the same day as those remarks, the first recorded measles death in the U.S. since 2015.
Two days later, Kennedy in a social media post outlined how his agency is responding, including by providing the Texas Department of Health with MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccines.
“Ending the measles outbreak is a top priority,” Kennedy wrote, but he did not directly call for people to get the shot.
In an op-ed published Sunday on Fox News's website, Kennedy inched slightly closer to that declaration but still stopped short.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote.
He emphasized that the decision to get vaccinated was a “personal one,” urging parents to talk with their doctors “to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine.”
But public health experts aren't ready to celebrate.
Kennedy has a long history of disparaging the MMR vaccine. He has falsely and repeatedly linked it to rising autism rates and questioned its safety.
In a foreword to a 2021 book written by the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy wrote that measles outbreaks “have been fabricated to create fear” to “inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children.”
Wendy Parmet, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law, described Kennedy’s op-ed as “mealy-mouthed advice.”
"It’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s not forthright,” Parmet said. “It’s a half-attempted step. It's certainly more than we've heard from him before, and ... some of what is in that editorial, I think, is helpful, but it's certainly not anything close to what we have seen in the past, or could expect to see from a secretary of HHS, given the situation."
For instance, a nationwide outbreak of measles in 2019 led top health officials of Trump's first administration to warn about the greatest number of cases reported in the country since measles was effectively eliminated in 2000.
Those cases were primarily driven by outbreaks in New York City and New York state in unvaccinated communities.
“This current outbreak is deeply troubling and I call upon all healthcare providers to assure patients about the efficacy and safety of the measles vaccine,” Robert Redfield, then-director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a statement at the time.
In a separate statement from that period, then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar highlighted the importance of vaccines.
"Vaccines are a safe, highly effective public health solution that can prevent this disease,” Azar's statement read. “The measles vaccines are among the most extensively studied medical products we have, and their safety has been firmly established over many years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken.”
During that outbreak, anti-vaccine movement leaders held rallies in the impacted communities, questioning the safety of the measles shot and likening public health measures banning unvaccinated children from schools to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
Del Bigtree, a top Kennedy ally and head of the anti-vaccine group the Informed Consent Action Network, even wore a yellow Star of David at rallies to identify with parents who declined to vaccinate their children.
The response under Kennedy's HHS so far has been much more muted.
“There's been incremental movement from the sort of downplaying to [Kennedy's op-ed], but it still feels to some degree half-hearted in terms of really using the megaphone, the platform of our nation's public health agencies to speak very clearly about what individuals should do to protect themselves and their families,” said Jason Schwartz, an associate professor and vaccine researcher at the Yale School of Public Health.
“But I think the response in the past few days, especially this op-ed, should be more of a cause for alarm for vaccination programs then a sigh of relief,” Schwartz added.
Kennedy’s response to a question at the Cabinet meeting, initially directed at Trump, was his first public acknowledgement of the outbreak.
By that point, more than 100 people had been infected. The child’s death had been publicly confirmed earlier in the day by state officials.
Glen Nowak, co-director of the Center for Health & Risk Communication at the University of Georgia, said choosing to publish his "call to action" in Fox News was Kennedy’s way of potentially reaching conservatives who are skeptics of public health messengers.
Nowak, who spent 14 years as a top spokesperson for the CDC, said Kennedy is trying to thread a needle. For instance, the statement on the public benefits of measles vaccination came after a paragraph emphasizing treatment, such as vitamin A, for people who are sick.
Vitamin A has been used for years in children in developing countries with severe measles, but doctors have said the evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. It isn’t used widely in the U.S., likely because children aren’t Vitamin A deficient.
Kennedy also pointed out that 98 percent of measles deaths were eliminated before the introduction of the MMR vaccine due to “improvements in sanitation and nutrition” and emphasized that “good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses.”
“The references to healthy diet and vitamins are probably the way to kind of maintain credibility among [his allies],” Nowak said. “It's much easier to be a critic of measles vaccine when you're not responsible for what happens. But as secretary of Health and Human Services, if people see him as impeding measles vaccination and putting children in harm's way unnecessarily, that's a problem.”
Kennedy’s recent comments also come as health agencies stoke broader concern about how the Trump administration will approach vaccine oversight.
Shortly after Kennedy was sworn in, a public meeting of CDC’s vaccine advisory panel was postponed, with no information about it being rescheduled.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration canceled a meeting of outside advisers to choose the flu vaccine strain.
Given those actions and Kennedy’s history, Nowak said the next steps are crucial.
"Is this just a one-off message? Or is this going to be a consistent message going forward?“ Nowak said. “Because we know that if there's a lot more people who are unprotected, we're going to have a lot more outbreaks, a lot more cases of vaccine-preventable diseases."
-
Vaccine critic RFK Jr. backs measles vaccine amid deadly Texas outbreak
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, is voicing support for the measles vaccine amid a deadly outbreak, mainly in Texas.CBS News - 15h -
Vaccine critic RFK Jr. backs measles vaccine amid deadly Texas outbreak
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, is voicing support for the measles vaccine amid a deadly outbreak, mainly in Texas.CBS News - 15h -
First measles death reported in Texas as Kennedy downplays outbreak
A child has died of measles in Texas, the first death in an outbreak that's infected at least 124 people. HHS secretary RFK Jr. has downplayed the outbreak.NBC News - 5d -
As Texas measles outbreak grows, parents are choosing to vaccinate kids
As the measles outbreak in Texas keeps spreading, parents who previously chose not to vaccinate their children are now lining up to get their kids the MMR shots.NBC News - 6d -
Anti-vaccine movement falsely blames measles shots for Texas outbreak
As a measles outbreak sweeps through Texas, anti-vaccine groups are pushing a familiar and false theory: The virus is being caused by the vaccine itself.NBC News - 6d -
Texas mom with baby too young for measles vaccines worries about outbreak
A child who was hospitalized with measles in Texas has died from the illness, marking the first death in an outbreak that has infected more than 120 people since late last month. Omar Villafranca ...CBS News - 5d -
NY Post challenges RFK Jr. on Texas measles outbreak: 'This vaccine is safe'
The editorial board of the New York Post is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to clarify that the measles vaccine is safe amid a deadly outbreak in Texas. "Go to ...The Hill - 4d -
Mother says "it's terrifying" as measles cases rise in Texas amid outbreak
Texas is facing its largest measles outbreak in decades. At least 124 people have come down with the virus — mostly kids and those who are not vaccinated. The outbreak has spread across nine ...CBS News - 5d -
Texas Official Warns Against ‘Measles Parties’ Amid Growing Outbreak
At least 146 measles cases have been identified in West Texas so far, including 20 hospitalizations and one death.Wired - 2d
More from The Hill
-
Vance knocks Zelensky for ‘sense of entitlement’ after Oval Office spat
Vice President JD Vance on Monday knocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for "a certain sense of entitlement" during a clash with the Kyiv leader and President Trump in the Oval Office last ...The Hill - 1h -
Pentagon: $80M in savings found in initial DOGE scrutiny
The Pentagon, in initial work with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has found some $80 million in what it's deemed wasteful spending, according to the building's top ...The Hill - 1h -
Jeffries: It's important to have 'strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence’ at Trump address
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called for Democrats to have a “strong, determined and dignified” presence at President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. ...The Hill - 2h -
Whoopi Goldberg calls Trump-Zelensky meeting 'one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen'
Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of “The View,” called the heated Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky one of the “most embarrassing” exchanges she’s ever ...The Hill - 2h -
Pentagon orders thousands more troops to southern border
The Pentagon is sending up to 5,050 additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border even as unlawful border crossings have sharply fallen in recent weeks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a ...The Hill - 2h
More in Politics
-
Trump orders pause on military aid to Ukraine in wake of Oval Office clash with Zelenskyy
The Trump administration is pausing military aid to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials, following last week's public clash between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr ...NBC News - 24m -
Vance knocks Zelensky for ‘sense of entitlement’ after Oval Office spat
Vice President JD Vance on Monday knocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for "a certain sense of entitlement" during a clash with the Kyiv leader and President Trump in the Oval Office last ...The Hill - 1h -
Pentagon: $80M in savings found in initial DOGE scrutiny
The Pentagon, in initial work with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has found some $80 million in what it's deemed wasteful spending, according to the building's top ...The Hill - 1h -
USAID official put on leave for memos saying funding cut will "result in preventable death"
"This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale," Nick Enrich wrote in the memo.CBS News - 1h -
USAID official put on leave for memos saying funding cut will "result in preventable death"
"This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale," Nick Enrich wrote in the memo.CBS News - 1h