Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said two people died in the measles outbreak. His agent said it was just one.
WASHINGTON – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sitting in a cabinet room at the White House, is the first public appearance of a top U.S. health official, who said the two died in a measles outbreak in Texas.
But state and local health officials — including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Kennedy chief — said only one person died. White House and health officials did not answer questions about the differences.
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, also said the measles outbreak is “not uncommon”.
Texas health officials say a known death was a school-age child — the first measles death in the United States since 2015. The child was not vaccinated.
“We follow the measles epidemic every day. I think there are 124 people currently suffering from measles, mainly in Gaines County, Texas, and mainly in the Mennonite community,” Kennedy said. “Two people died, but we’re watching it.”
Kennedy said the latest outbreak was not unique.
“By the way, there are four measles outbreaks in this country this year,” he said. “Last year, there were 16. So it’s not uncommon. We have measles outbreaks every year.”
According to the Texas Department of Health, 124 cases have been identified so far. Of these, only five people were vaccinated. The rest are unvaccinated, or their vaccination status is still unclear. The outbreak in Gaines County, home to a large Mennonite community — whose members are exempt from religious exemptions from vaccination — is the most obvious, with 80 people infected.
The doctor wants a different message
Dr. Manan Trivedi, an internist who practices in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, was among the crowd to attend Kennedy’s controversial confirmation hearing in opposing the nomination. Kennedy’s measles review should be different, he said.
“The information here should be ‘get your child vaccinated – measles is deadly, it is highly contagious, but can be prevented by an extremely verified, effective vaccine,” he said.
He also said the extent of the transmission made it “very unusual”.
For example, in 2023, there were only four outbreaks. According to a paper published by the National Institutes of Health, parents’ confidence in vaccines and local vaccines for those who are not vaccinated, suggesting that the recovery of measles points to lower parents’ confidence in vaccines and local vaccines.
Laura Anderko, a registered nurse from Annandale, Virginia, holds a Ph.D. With 40 years of experience in public health, Kennedy said he was “dangerously unaware”.
“Over time you’ll notice that most of the sick kids are uninoculated,” she said.
Contribution: Eduardo Cuevas
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is the White House correspondent for USA Today. You can follow her on x @swapnavenugopal
This article originally appeared in USA Today: Robert Kennedy, first of all, measles commentary, saying that outbreaks are not uncommon
