I’m sure Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the noted vaccine skeptic and snake-oil salesman now in charge of Americans’ health, will get right on the deadly and growing measles outbreak in Texas as soon as he’s done kneecapping a few vaccines.
Kennedy showed his deep empathy and concern for the Texas outbreak, which has now claimed the life of an unvaccinated child, by giving the verbal form of a shoulder shrug during President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting this week.
“There are two people who have died, but we’re watching it,” Kennedy said, with the deep human compassion one expects from a dead-eyed conspiracy theorist with a taste for roadkill bear-cub meat.
Apparently he’s not watching it too closely. Texas health officials say only one person has died, a child in Lubbock, the first child to die from measles in 22 years. But hey, one death…two deaths…who’s really counting?
Kennedy clearly has no concern about the Texas measles outbreak
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers remarks during a Cabinet meeting held by President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.
Kennedy said hospitalizations relating to the measles outbreak were “mainly for quarantine.”
Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer of Covenant Health Lubbock Service Area, told CNN: “We don’t hospitalize patients for quarantine purposes. Quarantine is not something that would happen in a healthcare facility. We admit patients who need acute supportive treatment in our hospital.”
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Well, not to worry. It’s just the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services not knowing what the hell he’s talking about.
An anti-vaxxer like Kennedy is never going to take measles seriously
Kennedy, who lacks any scientific or medical background that might qualify him to be in charge of our health, said the Texas outbreak is “not unusual,” adding: “We have measles outbreaks every year.”
Cool. Granted, the Texas outbreak of 124 cases is already more than 40% of the total number of measles cases the country faced all last year (we’re two months into this year) and more than twice the number of measles cases the United States saw in all of 2023. But, you know, those are just “numbers” from the “U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” which is a “federal agency” that Kennedy “oversees.”
The number of measles cases in the current West Texas outbreak continues to grow, with the Texas Department of State Health Services saying Tuesday the number of confirmed infections is now up to 58.
A counterpoint to Kennedy’s dry nonchalance comes from Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, who said of the outbreak: “We’re still in free-fall. It still has a lot of energy and steam behind it.”
RFK Jr. is the worst person to have in charge of a measles outbreak
When dealing with the outbreak of a wildly contagious disease, I prefer Hotez’s honesty over Kennedy’s laissez-faire attitude.
A sign reading “measles testing” is seen as an outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, has raised concerns over its spread to other parts of the state, in Seminole, Texas, U.S., February 25, 2025. REUTERS/Sebastian Rocandio
But that’s what Americans should expect from Kennedy. The anti-vaccine non-profit he started, Children’s Health Defense, once published a book that claimed “measles outbreaks have been fabricated to create fear” and are used to “inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children.”
In 2021, Kennedy said the often-deadly diseases we’ve eradicated with safe vaccines aren’t really the problem: “Every disease, every one of these childhood diseases, or rashes, mumps, measles, pertussis, chicken pox that are treated by these vaccines are all self-limiting, they’re all treatable. None of the chronic diseases that are caused by vaccines are curable.”
Rather than sweat a measles outbreak, RFK Jr. is busy hampering vaccines
You need to wear a tinfoil hat to believe any of that bunk. And tinfoil hats might soon be our only defense against infectious diseases, as Kennedy — when he’s not busy saying “Meh” to the Texas measles outbreak — has been using his time and power to cancel vital federal vaccine advisory committee meetings aimed at developing next season’s flu vaccine.
One was scheduled for this week and the other for next month.
A protester demonstrates as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, DC. In addition to meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy will meet with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee tomorrow.
The Washington Post reported that committee members were notified via email and no reason was provided: “The email warned members against forwarding the email. It suggested members decline to answer questions from media.”
The Post also noted: “Kennedy has pledged ‘radical transparency’ into the scientific process. But the cancellation of the meeting eliminates an opportunity for the public to hear from federal agencies and the companies about the merits of proposed flu vaccine formulas, decreasing visibility into the process at a time when the safety of vaccines has been attacked as not having enough data.”
Don’t worry, Americans, your health is in the hands of a complete quack
Also this week, Kennedy paused production of a COVID-19 vaccine pill. He had previously called the COVID vaccine, which has saved untold lives globally, “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Kennedy is welcome to treat viral outbreaks by sticking a pickle in his ear or whatever he does, but for the rest of us, it would be nice if our health czar wasn’t a raging lunatic.
Between the Texas measles outbreak and bird flu and the measles cases that just popped up in Kentucky and New Jersey, Americans have some legitimate health stuff to worry about. Too bad our health is in the hands of a guy I wouldn’t trust to apply a Band-Aid properly.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. cans flu vaccine meeting while measles rage in Texas | Opinion
