Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 17
RFK Jr. Backs Anti-Vaccine Group During Worst Measles Outbreak in 35 Years
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 17

RFK Jr. Backs Anti-Vaccine Group During Worst Measles Outbreak in 35 Years

3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Sep 17

Summary

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the anti-vaccine group he founded that Americans worried about vaccines have “a friend at the White House” and pledged to fight for people who say they were injured by shots.
  • The health secretary’s appearance came as the United States faces its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, with medical experts saying several of his vaccine claims were misleading.
  • Children’s Health Defense, the group Kennedy addressed, has long challenged vaccine safety; at the conference he again raised allegations linking vaccines to harms including autism and sudden infant death syndrome.
  • The speech underscored Kennedy’s break from mainstream public-health messaging at a moment of rising measles deaths, growing doubts about the MMR shot and scrutiny of the administration’s outbreak response.

Insights

How will decentralized state health registries handle a top-down federal overhaul of childhood immunization data and privacy rules?
Could conflicting testimonies about a deadly 2019 measles outbreak lead to a criminal investigation of the current Health Secretary?
How will a federal push for unlicensed, single-dose vaccines impact the ongoing nationwide measles resurgence in schools?