Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, voiced support for the measles vaccine Sunday amid a deadly outbreak in the Southwest, mainly in Texas.
An unvaccinated child who died in late February in Texas was the first U.S. fatality from the highly contagious disease in a decade.
Recently confirmed as health secretary, Kennedy has previously made numerous false and misleading claims about the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and had downplayed the growing outbreak, saying annual outbreaks were “not unusual.”
But on Sunday, Kennedy said he was “deeply concerned about the recent measles outbreak,” in an opinion piece published by Fox News.
“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,” he wrote.
However, he said, “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” and he urged all parents to “consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine.”
He said he had directed federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to provide support to Texas health authorities.
The CDC and other health agencies have faced staffing cuts in recent weeks as part of President Trump’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government.
Kennedy said health workers, officials and communities were responsible for “ensuring that accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy is disseminated” and making “vaccines readily accessible for all those who want them.”
Kennedy has dismissed critics who say he is anti-vaccine, claiming his views were mischaracterized and insisting he was advocating for “common sense” policies.
Kennedy wrote in the piece that, “The current Texas outbreak has predominantly affected children, with 116 of the 146 cases occurring in individuals under 18 years of age. The DSHS reports that 79 of the confirmed cases involved individuals who had not received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while 62 cases had unknown vaccine status. At least five had received an MMR vaccine.”
Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said recently on “CBS Mornings” that even a slight dip in vaccination coverage can lead to outbreaks.
“This is a measles outbreak that began in a very close-knit, rural, Mennonite community that has very low vaccination rates. And unfortunately, we have seen vaccination rates exemptions … really soar in Texas in recent years,” she said.
While measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, outbreaks persist each year.
Vaccination against the respiratory virus is very effective at conferring immunity — with two doses estimated to be 97 percent effective, according to the CDC.
Last month, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins, told CBS News the outbreak in Texas was “troubling, because this was completely preventable.”
He pointed out that Texas “has the lowest vaccination rates, the highest school exemption rates from measles vaccination — having a measles outbreak, including hospitalizations of individuals who’ve been infected with measles.” Adalja said it should act as a reminder that measles is still a risk when proper precautions aren’t taken.
