RFK Jr tells US families to vaccinate children against measles amid outbreak

# RFK Jr tells US families to vaccinate children against measles amid outbreak

Health secretary, longtime vaccination skeptic, spent years boosting misinformation about vaccines including MMR

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years.

Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN's State of the Union on Sunday morning.

His remark came as the incidence of measles crossed a milestone - the US has now officially recorded 2,371 confirmed infections so far this year, surpassing the total tally in 2025 of 2,289.

Kennedy's statement was extracted from him by Dana Bash, CNN's host, who invited him to use his "bully pulpit" to talk directly to parents as the new school year approached. She urged him to tell families that they should vaccinate for measles "because it is safe and it will help them save their children's lives".

The health secretary replied: "Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective, it stops measles in about 97% of the cases. People should get vaccinated."

Later in the interview he added that people should also get the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the main protection against the disease that has been a particular target of the anti-vaccination movement.

The health secretary's call for parents to vaccinate their children for measles contrasts starkly with the many years in which Kennedy has been a leading proponent of misinformation questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccinations.

Asked whether he took any responsibility for the measles surge, he said: "Absolutely not."

He went on to blame the outbreaks on religious communities who eschew vaccines and on global health conditions.

He accused the CNN host of "saying nonsense", "repeating like a parrot" and "making assertions you can't support". In one especially demeaning remark he said Bash had become "flustered".

"I'm not flustered at all," she asserted in a calm voice. "I am frustrated because you are the HHS secretary and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country."

In a further comment dripping with condescension, Kennedy told Bash "you probably don't understand this because you're not a scientist".

The journalist riposted: "But you're not, either."

Speaking to CNN's State of the Union later in the show, Ashish Jha, who advised Joe Biden's White House on its Covid response, said he was heartened to hear Kennedy say that "every kid in America should be getting the MMR vaccine". But he added that much else of what the health secretary had said "just isn't true".