Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of well-established vaccines, said Wednesday that his department is tracking an outbreak of measles that has infected more than 100 people and killed a child in Texas. But he played down the consequence of the resurgence — 25 years after the disease had been thought to have been eradicated in the U.S.
"We're following the measles epidemic every day," Kennedy said during President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting since being sworn in Jan. 20. “Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. ... So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.”
But the death of an unvaccinated school-age child in West Texas, confirmed by a state health official this week, is the first fatality in the U.S. since 2015.
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Kennedy has been scarce at HHS headquarters, has not visited a number of HHS agencies and has not sent all-staff emails to the department's workforce, according to one department official. Notably, this person said, Kennedy has not done anything to address the measles outbreak.
“It’s almost like he’s still in campaign-mode rather than realizing he’s head of a large agency and workforce," the HHS official said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the Senate as the Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday.
An HHS spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump's decision to tap Kennedy to lead HHS reflected the president's own tortured relationship with pandemic disease, mass immunization and a political base that has become increasingly critical of vaccines following the health and economic damage wrought by Covid-19.
It also poses a risk to Republican lawmakers in the midterm elections if measles, bird flu, ebola or another disease rips through the country following Kennedy's appointment and the Department of Government Efficiency's cutbacks in foreign and domestic efforts to combat those viruses, according to some GOP strategists.
"If you’re cutting a program, that increases the potential for something to go wrong — you’re going to own it," said one strategist who has worked on Republican presidential, Senate and House campaigns. "Maybe the measles thing is the canary in the coal mine. ... This is a small example of a potential problem. This has real-life consequences, and that's the part that is politically perilous."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who voted to confirm Kennedy, said the government needs to pay close attention to the public health implications of communicable diseases.
“We should be worried about any outbreak, particularly measles,” Murkowski said.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a temporary Trump White House adviser who is the public face of DOGE, erroneously said Wednesday that public funding for anti-ebola efforts had been turned back on after DOGE cut it off, according to The Washington Post, which reported that the money is still frozen. The DOGE cuts, and Trump executive orders pausing some government operations, complicated the administration's response to an avian flu outbreak that has spiked egg prices and could endanger people. But Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week that her department would commit as much as $1 billion to combating the economic and health effects of the disease.
Many political experts believe Trump's reactions to Covid-19 hurt him in losing re-election to Joe Biden in 2020. In order to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Trump administration issued stay-at-home guidelines that contributed to economic losses. Congress and Trump then spent trillions of dollars — later augmented by a massive Biden stimulus law — to prevent an economic collapse. At the same time, Trump launched Operation Warp Speed, a successful effort to push drug companies to develop a vaccine in record time.
Health officials in Lubbock, Texas, held a press conference on Wednesday following confirmation of the first death related to the current measles outbreak.
But many Trump voters were upset by the federal guidelines and more-stringent state-level commercial shutdowns, and some questioned the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. Trump's pride in pushing for the vaccine dissolved during his 2024 campaign. His shift was apparently enough for Kennedy, who dropped out of the race and endorsed him. Since taking office, Trump has issued a federal ban on Covid vaccine mandates in schools and ordered the reinstatement of military personnel who were fired for refusing to take the vaccine during the Biden administration.
In other words, Trump has found a position that allows him to oppose vaccine mandates without banning immunizations, a stance that gives him some room to maneuver to each side when necessary. Kennedy, who was confirmed 52-48, with former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., casting the only Republican "no" vote, has long been more critical of vaccines — including the MMR shot.
Kennedy has promoted an unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism, and he blamed measles deaths in Samoa in 2018 on immunizations rather than the disease.
“I think that we need a vaccine that is not a leaky vaccine,” Kennedy told NBC News of the MMR vaccine in February 2024. "The immunity that you get is ephemeral, and it wears off over time.”
He added that the "most frightening part" of the measles shot is that "it does not provide maternal immunity." Asked whether he would recommend that children get the measles vaccine, he walked away from the interview.
The refusal to endorse the shot puts Kennedy in a small minority of Americans, according to polling in recent years. The vast majority of children in the U.S. receive a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, and roughly 9 in 10 Americans said in 2023 that they believed the benefits of that vaccine outweigh the risks, according to the Pew Research Center.
"It was irresponsible for the president to put a vaccine skeptic in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services," Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said. "The death in Lubbock is tragic, and I hope it will be a wake-up call for Republican leaders who have pushed dangerous conspiracy theories about vaccines and advocated for cuts to medical research and public health."
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., an obstetrician by trade, told NBC News that he spoke to Kennedy on Thursday morning — but that measles did not come up.
"He's already said that he's pro-vax," Marshall said, shifting the blame for skepticism to the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"Fauci did more to create vaccine hesitancy in this country in two years than Bobby Kennedy potentially could have done in a lifetime," Marshall said, referring to Fauci's role on Trump's coronavirus task force and testimony to Congress about the origins of Covid-19 that some Republicans say was knowingly false.
Marshall also pointed a finger at Biden, pinning the outbreak on undocumented immigrants.
"I encourage everyone to get their measles vaccine, their MMR vaccine. I think it’s a great idea," Marshall said. "But this wouldn’t be happening in Texas right now if it wasn’t for Joe Biden’s open border."
Trump frequently portrayed Fauci as a villain during the 2024 campaign and, upon taking the presidency, revoked the security detail protecting him.
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy said that he is broadly in favor of inoculations, but refused to endorse the measles vaccine.
Deputy White House press secretary Kush Desai said the West Wing is happy with Kennedy.
"The White House has full confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his ability to deliver on President Trump's mandate to Make America Healthy Again," Desai said in an exchange of text messages.
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