FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: February 27th, 2026
CONTACT: Jeremy Funk, [email protected]
“Good food is not expensive,” Claims Kennedy, As 80% of Americans See Only Rising Costs Under Trump
Washington D.C. – U.S. measles cases now exceed 1,100 so far in 2026, almost exclusively among unvaccinated people, putting the nation on track for another record-breaking year with more needless child deaths likely to follow. While measles cases have now been confirmed in 27 states, no state has been hit harder than South Carolina, where 93% of the infections are among people who have not received the MMR vaccine. Few doctors have ever even seen a case of measles in their careers, until now.
Since last October, South Carolina has been ground zero for the historic and ongoing measles crisis, but Trump Health Secretary Kennedy has not bothered to step foot in the state to promote the simplest and quickest way out of this mess: get vaccinated. It is unclear why, whether to avoid answering for the dangerous and discredited claims Kennedy made on national television against the proven safe and effective measles vaccine, or because the Trump White House political team desperately wants to keep quiet the unchanged, aggressive Trump-RFK Jr. anti-vax agenda given its extreme unpopularity.
Enter RFK’s food rhetoric as a major distraction. Last night, Kennedy merrily carried on with his ‘eat healthy’ road show in Austin, TX, where he repeated a dubious claim: “Good food is not expensive”.
GOOD FOOD NOT EXPENSIVE? That’s surely news to the 80 of Americans who say costs have not come down under Trump and cite grocery prices as a top concern. Contrary to Donald Trump’s claims, grocery prices are still rising. Beef prices were 15% higher in January 2026 compared to January 2025, with chicken up 1.6%, milk up nearly 2%, fruits and vegetables up .5%, and the average pound of coffee is up 18% — all while wage growth has shrunk since Trump took office. Even Trump’s own U.S. Agriculture Department expects food-at-home prices to rise 2.3 percent in 2026, about the same as they increased in 2025. It also costs more to cook the food; utility costs rose 13% in 2025, and pots, pans, and silverware are up 13.1% since last year – rising more than five times faster than inflation overall.
“It’s important to call out what’s really going on here. Our anti-vaccine health secretary is barnstorming the country everywhere except where measles is running rampant – likely because of the leading role he’s played in the outbreak,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch project. “Kennedy was given marching orders from the Trump White House to keep a lid on their escalating anti-vax agenda and instead distract Americans with dishonest, unaffordable food advice. As long as Donald Trump keeps giving his greedy corporate donors a pass to price-gouge families at the grocery store in pursuit of record profits, Kennedy’s empty rhetoric on nutrition will continue to accomplish nothing. Meanwhile, RFK’s fear-mongering and policy-making against safe and effective vaccines has been wildly successful at spreading preventable diseases, which will only drive up costs even higher.”
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