This month, my daughter turns one. It is certainly a joyous milestone for our family, but lately I’ve been finding myself looking forward to another milestone: when she will finally be eligible for her measles (MMR) vaccine.
The worsening measles outbreak has exceeded 600 cases nationwide, with more than 500 in the Texas Panhandle region. Measles is a highly contagious virus that can cause fever, rash, and cough, and cause serious complications in children especially, such as brain damage. People who have contracted measles are largely unvaccinated, and, tragically, another child has just died from measles. This isn’t normal. Between 2000, when measles was declared eliminated in the US, and 2024, there were three reported deaths total due to measles—two in 2003, and one in 2015. The latest outbreak has resulted in three deaths so far this year, the most deaths due to a measles outbreak in decades. While there could be many reasons for this uncharacteristically high death rate, this is unexpected and devastating.
Surely, during one of the worst and most deadly measles outbreaks of this century, you’d think our nation’s public health leaders would invest in response and prevention campaigns. Wrong. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—the deeply unqualified head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—has continued to spread false claims and wreak havoc on our public health systems. On his watch, HHS has haphazardly cut staff, funding, and removed critical information that the public has a right to.
Slashing the HHS workforce
In line with the workforce cuts across the federal government, RFK Jr. announced that roughly 10,000 workers would be laid off from HHS. At the same time, several senior officials—including Dr. Peter Marks, top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—were pushed out or resigned. The process has been nothing short of chaotic, with hundreds of staff showing up for work one morning only to be denied access to the department’s building because they had been fired. Many HHS staff have not been told who was fired and who remains on their team. RFK Jr. even claimed some staff were mistakenly fired, but it’s still unclear whether they will be reinstated.
At the same time, the entire agency underwent massive restructuring, with 28 divisions consolidated into 15, and a new “Administration for a Healthy America,” which includes a mish-mash of agencies covering topics including mental health, toxic substances, and worker health. The HHS statement claims that this overhaul will enable the agency to “implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.” While in one breath lamenting the chronic disease epidemic, RFK Jr. stripped our nation’s top public health agency of the programs and experts working to address it.
You know what doesn’t combat the chronic disease epidemic? Terminating the Diabetes Prevention Program. What will absolutely fail at providing the science to protect workers from physical and chemical hazards? Gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). And if RFK Jr. actually wants healthy parents and children, then he would not be cutting research on maternal and child health. RFK Jr. touts his supposed interest in “environmental toxins” and “clean water,” but these important issues largely fall under the authority of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), not HHS—and political leaders at the EPA have already made clear plans to weaken protections against toxic chemicals. While RFK Jr. spouts empty rhetoric about reducing chronic disease, his colleagues are taking actions that will increase it.
What’s more, the administration has cut billions of dollars of funding to state health programs, threatening infectious disease tracking and other critical health services. Already, officials in state and local health agencies have lost their jobs and had to cut public health programs. For example, in Texas—the state currently hit hardest by the measles outbreak—federal grants for immunization and infectious disease response were terminated, bringing certain critical activities to combat the outbreak, like vaccine clinics, to a grinding halt.
Out with evidence-based decision-making
Rather than invest in scientific capacity and programming that will save lives, RFK Jr. continues to prop up dangerous anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories. According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Dr. Marks—the aforementioned FDA official who was ousted—was asked to produce data on cases of brain swelling and death due to the measles vaccine, data that does not exist because there are no confirmed cases of this happening in the United States. Furthermore, in addition to directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study a supposed link between vaccines and autism—which has been disproven by dozens of studies—RFK Jr. tapped a promoter of vaccine misinformation to lead the study. This is a clear example of bias, with a research lead who has decided the (unsupported) conclusions before the study has even begun. RFK Jr. directed staff to fabricate “evidence” to justify his crackpot beliefs rather than listen to and act on actual science.
In the absence of the “data” that supports their anti-science agenda, the administration is also suppressing dissemination of scientific reports. A ProPublica investigation found that political appointees at CDC halted release of an assessment that found that the risk of catching measles is high in areas with lower vaccination rates. The agency said that the assessment was not released because “it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know.” If this isn’t gaslighting, I don’t know what is. RFK Jr. has made a career of eroding trust in vaccines and has only ramped up these efforts since joining HHS. Amid the deadliest measles outbreak in decades, and one that is largely fueled by low vaccination rates, it is incredibly callous to claim that information that could help assuage parents’ concerns—and save lives—was unnecessary to share because it is “common knowledge.” Especially since evidence shows that measles vaccination rates among children are steadily declining. So much for “radical transparency.”
In a moment when people need clarity, competence, steady leadership, and evidence-based decision-making, RFK Jr. is creating chaos, inefficiency, and real harm. Rather than firmly and repeatedly state that a breadth of data show that the measles vaccine is safe and effective at preventing severe disease and death, RFK Jr. makes conflicting and confusing statements, including promoting unproven treatments that have put several kids in the hospital.
As a parent, I deeply empathize with those who are trying to make the best decision to keep their kids safe. Information from health care providers, public health experts, and government agencies helps us make those decisions. This is why RFK Jr.’s actions are so dangerous. Forcing a federal agency to reorient itself around your own misunderstanding—or deliberate distortion—of science isn’t a thought exercise. It is literally costing kids’ lives.