Health secretary RFK Jr. endorses the MMR vaccine — stoking fury among his supporters : Shots

The approval of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sparked angry protests from anti-vaccine activists.

“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy said in the third paragraph. Long post On the social media platform, X. Kennedy created a post following the meeting on Sunday in Gaines County, Texas, with the families of two children who died of measles during the recent outbreak in the state. He also said, along with other medical supplies, he instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “operate a clinic with pharmacies and the necessary MMR vaccines.”

Kennedy’s support is consistent All available scientific evidence About the MMR vaccine. “We’ve seen a lot of trouble with our children,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. According to the Texas Department of Health, only 10 of the 481 measles cases recorded were As of April 4th It is a partially or fully vaccinated individual, which is about 2% of the overall cases. Three people who have not been vaccinated so far, two children in Texas adult He died of this disease in New Mexico.

“I’m happy to hear what Secretary Kennedy said about vaccinating,” says Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a retired professor of pediatric infectious diseases. Edwards wanted explicit approval for the vaccine early in January, but said it was “better than never being late.”

However, Kennedy’s proposal that the vaccine was effective has infuriated several members of the anti-vaccine community who responded to the statement in X.

Anti-vaccine anger

“I’m sorry, but there is no defense against this inadequate language statement,” wrote Dr. Sheri Tenpenny, a well-known anti-vaccine activist who claimed that the COVID vaccine could cause patients during legislative hearings in Ohio. Be magnetizedallowing them to stick “spoons and forks” all over their bodies.

Dell Bigtree, a well-known anti-vaccine activist who supported Kennedy’s presidential election and recently co-founded a nonprofit called Maha Action, also questioned the support of the Health Secretary. Big Tree suggested that Kennedy’s post was “cut off.” He then continued to make unproven claims about vaccines and autism, linking to a documentary he made on this topic.

“We voted to challenge healthcare providers, but rather than support it.” Posted Dr. Mary Tully Borden, a Texas-based doctor, has opposed the Covid vaccine and is currently filing a complaint with the hospital’s privileges from the Texas Medical Board. Borden says the complaints are related to Ivermectin in her prescription patient. Ivermectin is an unproven alternative therapy for COVID.

“Kennedy was one of the candidates who attracted people who might not vote for Trump,” Boden told NPR in an interview. Much of the appeal came from people who were “very tired of what happened during the pandemic,” she says. “Neither Biden nor Trump were even happy to talk about the pandemic, and Kennedy was,” she says.

The funeral procession will be seen Sunday, April 6, 2025 following the state’s second death of measles in Seminole, Texas.

Annie Rice/AP

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Annie Rice/AP

She says Kennedy’s decision to support the MMR vaccine to control the outbreak reminds her of a forceful response to Covid.

“Do I need to make a declaration? “Okay, what should I do?” she says. “It rubs me the wrong way.”

Kennedy’s statement also contradicts his long-standing vaccine skepticism. The Health Secretary previously chaired an anti-vaccine nonprofit called Child Health Defense, which sought to sue New York over state school vaccine requirements during the 2019 measles outbreak. In the end, the incident was lost.

2023, middle Interview In podcaster Joe Rogan, Kennedy denied that the measles vaccine led to a decrease in deaths. He argued that malnutrition was the root cause of measles deaths, and that by the time the vaccine debuted in 1963, the death rate was already low. The few deaths that occurred were “all children in the Mississippi Delta, black children, very malnourished and almost dying of measles,” he told Logan. Kennedy did not cite any evidence of that claim.

In his new role, the Health Secretary occasionally recognized the effectiveness of MMR shots. “Vaccinations not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity and protect those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons,” he wrote. With Op-Ed In the same post on March 2nd, in Fox News, Kennedy argued that Vitamin A can “dramatically reduce measles mortality.” Offit says Vitamin A does not affect the course of disease in developed countries like the United States and can damage the liver of a large number of children. Public media in Texas is a case of several children in West Texas. I’ve been hospitalized Using Vitamin A toxicity following his Fox News Statement.

Alternative therapy

It was unclear why Kennedy would choose this moment to explicitly support the MMR shot. The Ministry of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment. in Second post On Sunday evening, Kennedy posted a photo of herself posing with the families of those who lost their children, promoting two treatments: “aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin.”

Budesonide is an inhaled steroid used to treat asthma, and “measles has no role,” says Offit. Clarithromycin is an oral antibiotic, but Offit says that it is the wrong kind of antibiotic to treat secondary bacterial infections caused by measles. “Neither is worth it,” he says.

Offit says he hopes the outbreak of measles will continue and likely worsen despite Kennedy’s online approval. “This is a massive uncontrolled outbreak,” Offit says. In 2000, measles were excluded in the United States, but again killing children. “I’ve never been more upset. It’s very difficult to see this.”

NPR’s Selena Simons-Duffin and Rob Stein contributed to this report.