Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s personal visit to the family of a Texas girl who died of measles appeared to mark a slight shift for the former anti-vaccine activist, who has sought to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak.
Public health and infectious disease experts who have sounded alarm over the Trump administration’s lackluster measles response gave Kennedy some credit for finally saying the measles vaccine is the “most effective way to prevent the spread” of the disease.
But that message is undercut by Kennedy’s continued mixed messages, public health funding cuts and the muzzling of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), experts added.
“We are seeing at least some sign this administration understands they need to respond more appropriately,” said Jason Schwartz, an associate professor and vaccine researcher at the Yale School of Public Health.
“It’s encouraging that there was an acknowledgement of basic public health knowledge, but it reminds us of just how little we’ve heard from this administration about the benefits of vaccination,” Schwartz added. “It’s noteworthy that the acknowledgement was the stuff of headlines.”
Kennedy said the CDC has redeployed a team to assist state and local officials with the outbreak, which has sickened more than 500 people in Texas alone. It has also spread to a daycare facility in Lubbock, where at least 6 children have tested positive for measles.
Katherine Wells, director of public health for the city of Lubbock, told reporters Tuesday one of her biggest worries has been a measles outbreak among vulnerable groups like kids who are too young to be vaccinated.
Wells said state and local health departments now recommend an early dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to infants between six and 11 months old. They are also working to ensure children between the ages of 1 and 4 years get a second dose.
Asked about the severity of the outbreak on Sunday, President Trump indicated he wasn’t very concerned.
“It’s so far a fairly small number of people relative to what we’re talking about,” he said. “This is not something new.”
“And we’ll see what happens, but certainly, if it progresses, we’ll have to take action very strongly,” Trump said.
Kennedy similarly indicated the outbreak is easing, a fact belied by the numbers on the ground.
Andrew Pavia, a professor and pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Utah, said the administration isn’t taking the outbreak seriously, and one social media post from the HHS secretary won’t cut it.
Pavia said the CDC is still being hampered in how it can respond, as a result of the external communications blackout instituted when the Trump administration took office.
“With an outbreak of this size, assistance and leadership from CDC are essential but has been largely absent. CDC has apparently not been permitted to act as a trusted voice or to provide frequent updates to clinicians and the public,” he said.
In March, the CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations, according to a report by ProPublica. Leaders ordered staff to not release the expert assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging.
The outbreak represents the first time Kennedy has had to reconcile his past as a leading critic of vaccines and his leadership of the federal health establishment.
So far, Kennedy has touted fringe theories about prevention and treatment, like the benefits of vitamin A and cod liver oil over the measles vaccine, which is the only proven way to prevent infection.
When he has talked about the shot, he’s framed it as a personal choice while also suggesting the vaccine can cause just as much harm as the disease itself.
Kennedy’s social media post came only after a second unvaccinated child died from measles, and after a top Senate Republican said “top health officials” should “unequivocally” promote vaccination.
“Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a post on the social platform X.
Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had previously questioned Kennedy’s anti-vaccine past and expressed concern about his ability to lead HHS before eventually voting to confirm him.
Hours after Kennedy’s post on X talking about vaccination, he also highlighted the work of two doctors treating infected children with steroids and an antibiotic, treatments that physicians say are ineffective and not recommended.
Trump called the doctors “extraordinary healers.” One of the doctors said in a podcast last month that “it’s clear” the MMR vaccine causes autism, a debunked theory that Kennedy continued to promote throughout his confirmation process.
Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said he wasn’t surprised that Kennedy promoted anti-vaccine doctors immediately after his most direct statement yet on the benefits of the measles shot.
“Show me a pattern of responsible science-based statements, and I’ll have more understanding of where he’s at. But right now, I don’t think one statement in any way determines what his approach is to dealing with vaccine-preventable diseases,” Osterholm said.
