Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to suggest getting measles is the best defense against the disease, as a Texas outbreak spreads across the U.S.
More than 220 people in the state have been diagnosed with the infectious virus, and California, New York, and Maryland have also reported cases of late. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sweating over the outbreak, warning health-care workers and travelers to “be vigilant.”
While RFK Jr. recently shifted his stance to concede that vaccinations are actually pretty useful, he has still stopped short of urging skeptics to go and get it. And in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night, he appeared to still favor natural immunity through exposure to the virus.
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“It used to be, when I were a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said, then taking a swipe at the vaccine. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”
In Texas, uptake of the vaccine is lower than in other states, partly fueled by COVID skepticism. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine offers 93 percent protection against measles if the recipient has one dose, and 97 percent after two doses, according to the CDC.
RFK Jr. also touched on the issue of maternal immunity, the transfer of disease immunity from a mother to her baby through transplacental transfer pre-birth and breastmilk post-birth.
“It does not appear to provide maternal immunity, it used to be that very young kids were protected by breast milk,” he said of the MMR vaccine. “Women who get vaccinated do not provide that level of immunity that the natural measles infection did. So you’re now seeing measles hit very very young kids and hitting older people within whom the vaccine has waned.”
It is true that infants are protected from birth against measles by maternal antibodies if the mother is immune to measles, but this passive immunity gradually disappears after about six months, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Kennedy’s main point was that the “government shouldn’t force” people to get the vaccine. He outwardly railed against the MMR vaccine, telling Hannity that it causes “adverse effects.”
“There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, like encephalitis and blindness, etc., so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves,” he said, while adding that the vaccine does “stop the spread of the disease.”
He also noted that “anyone who wants the vaccine” can get it for free.
Nonprofit organization Encephalitis International reported that between one and two of 1,000,000 children who had a vaccination will develop encephalitis from it—less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that any side effects from the MMR vaccine are usually “mild” and “go away on their own.”
RFK Jr.’s top spokesperson at HHS, Thomas Corry, quit two weeks into his tenure over his boss’ management of the outbreak.
