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…
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. has urged parents to vaccinate their children against measles, amid the worst outbreak in 35 years. The longtime vaccine critic, who has regularly advised Americans not to take medical advice from him, warned of the importance of the vaccine during a heated CNN interview on Sunday. "Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles," he said, emphasizing that the vaccine is effective, preventing the disease in about 97 percent of cases.
The surge in measles cases, declared essentially eradicated in the US a quarter of a century ago, has been linked to declining immunization rates, a trend attributed in part to vaccine skepticism. Over 2,370 measles cases have been confirmed in the US this year, breaking the multi-decade high from the previous year. Health officials from the US and Mexico will convene later this year to assess whether the two countries have lost their measles-free status.
Kennedy, a vocal anti-vaccine advocate, accused CNN host Dana Bash of repeating information without critical thinking, becoming flustered in the interview. Critics point to his anti-vaccine policies as contributing to the erosion of trust in immunizations. The nation recorded 2,289 measles cases in 2025, the highest since 1991, with major outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah, and Arizona, along with smaller clusters in other states.
International health officials will determine if the US and Mexico have lost their measles-free status in November.
The US eliminated local measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, but recent years have seen these rates fall below the 95 percent needed to prevent outbreaks. Public health departments and researchers acknowledge incomplete official counts of disease cases due to lack of treatment-seeking. Experts suspect the spread of measles cases may be wider than reported, driven by lower vaccination rates.
National vaccination rates for measles, mumps, and rubella among kindergarteners dropped to 92.5 percent in the 2024-25 school year, down from 95.2 percent in 2019-20. This figure likely hides even lower rates in certain communities. Utah, battling measles for over a year, has seen more than 700 cases, according to the state health department.
Mathematical modeling and genetic analyses suggest a large outbreak on the Utah-Arizona border could be three to four times larger than currently known, according to Utah state epidemiologist Leisha Nolen.
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