Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come under fire for appearing to complain that children dying with measles get more attention than people he says are harmed by vaccines.
As the death toll from the worst measles outbreak in decades rises, Donald Trump’s Health Secretary also told a room full of vaccine skeptics that they had a “steadfast friend” in Washington.
“In our country we care about rare illnesses and deaths. We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines,” Kennedy said.
“I’d ask you to care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries.”
The comments were made as Kennedy headlined a conference of the Children’s Health Defense, which he founded and led for years before joining the Trump administration.
During his tenure at the organization, Kennedy sued vaccine manufacturers and challenged state vaccine laws as he built the foundations for his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
But his appearance coincides with the nation’s largest measles outbreak in 35 years, with four measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania this summer alone.
The victims included children who were too young to be vaccinated, as well as unvaccinated people. The latest death, which took place this week, involved an 18-year-old who died of measles complications relating to a severe neurological condition that causes inflammation in the brain.
Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, hit out at Kennedy for his comments and called on him to resign.
“This week, RFK Jr. had a choice: use his megaphone to combat misinformation and save lives, or return to his roots as a promoter of vaccine lies,” said Naughton, whose group works to recruit and train scientist candidates for public office.
“With a deadly measles outbreak killing people in Pennsylvania, the best thing Kennedy can do for Americans is step aside.”
Kennedy used his speech to recap his agenda over the past year—from flipping the food pyramid and changing hospital meals to scrutinizing chemical additives.
Amid several technical glitches—including a reading lamp that kept falling from the podium—he then doubled down on his view that routine childhood vaccinations are linked to autism, despite overwhelming scientific consensus and numerous large-scale studies showing no causal connection.
Kennedy also claimed that sudden infant death syndrome, anorexia and diabetes could be side effects of routine vaccines, lamenting that the system to track such effects is “broken.”
Kennedy’s speech at the Children’s Health Defense gathering in Washington on Thursday marked his most visible return to his roots since taking office.
The group describes itself as a nonprofit organization focused on vaccine safety and rejects the label “anti-vaccine.”
But its critics, including public-health experts, have characterized it as a major source of vaccine misinformation.
At a conference earlier this month for the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the group’s chief executive Mary Holland compared vaccine injury to 9/11, saying there was a “connection” between the two and noting the tragedy was characterized by “shocking, big lies” and “extraordinary propaganda.”
“I think the parallels, the commonalities between 9/11 and COVID are obvious, and they’re extensive. Both of them signified a global turning point…. Both of them are characterized by shocking, big lies, and we know from Nazi Germany that it’s the big lies that stick, it’s not the little lies,” she said.
“Both of them were characterized by extraordinary propaganda and censorship, and the propaganda for me on 9/11 was just watching the planes hit the building on 9/11 over and over, it was incessant on the media.”
Kennedy praised Holland on Thursday as an “extraordinary warrior” as well as others he said were simply trying to find the “existential truth” about vaccines.
“Let me be clear. You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” he told the audience.
“President Trump will not allow the government to treat parents who question vaccine orthodoxies as lepers,” he added.
