Washington D.C. – On CNN’s State of the Union this weekend, Trump health secretary RFK Jr. did his rock-bottom public trust rating and pariah-status with independent voters no favors with his gratingly condescending, patronizing and fact-free performance — particularly on simple questions over the administration’s anti-vax agenda that has objectively fueled an historic measles crisis.
Host Dana Bash laid out the facts: “The measles cases in the U.S. just reached a 35-year high, the second record-breaking year in a row; 93 percent of these cases are among the unvaccinated. The outbreak is happening on your watch. And even before becoming HHS secretary, for years, you have been one of the leading voices questioning the efficacy of vaccines.”
When appropriately asked ‘Do you accept some responsibility for this measles outbreak?’, Kennedy barked: ‘Absolutely not,’ arguing that international cases somehow excuse his record sowing unfounded vaccine fear for decades and the administration’s continued efforts to undermine vaccine safety, all contributing to lower vaccination rates and more measles outbreaks.
Bash correctly noted: “You’re the most famous vaccine skeptic on the planet.” Kennedy responded with a blatant lie: “I have never questioned the efficacy of the MMR vaccine.” The record is clear to the contrary.
Undercutting his own argument that the Trump administration is blameless for the worsening trend on measles, Kennedy confirmed the Wall Street Journal’s reporting that Donald Trump urgently wants him to escalate his fishing expedition for an autism-vaccine link that has already been thoroughly debunked: “He certainly does.”
As Bash correctly pointed out: “Do you understand why people are not getting measles vaccines? Because they’re hearing you say that it could cause autism. … you are the HHS secretary, and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country.”
In response to the resignation-worthy interview, Protect Our Care Senior Advisor Anne Shoup said: “For over 20 years, RFK Jr. has abused his celebrity status to smear vaccines including the proven safe and effective measles shot, with no credible science backing him up. His efforts have unfortunately worked to scare more people into vaccine hesitancy, which now fuels the record-breaking measles crisis we’re suffering through today. This crisis that has everything to do with RFK Jr. and Donald Trump because they welcomed it, are doing nothing to address it, and are instead making matters worse by further fanning the flames of vaccine skepticism. As we speak, Sec. Kennedy is carrying out Donald Trump’s order to manufacture an autism-vaccine link despite study after study disproving it, including trying to seize all Americans’ private medical records for data to cherry-pick. Kennedy is busy spending taxpayer money on self-promotional podcasts and celebrity cooking shows, but not one dime on ads promoting the measles vaccine in the face of major outbreaks. No one in a position of power has done more to accelerate the spread of measles than RFK Jr., and no one is doing less to fix it now.”
“Also alarming, the nation’s top health official clearly has no plan to prepare for the next pandemic,” added Shoup. “Kennedy couldn’t offer a single detail on what steps the administration has taken to stay ahead of looming public health threats and instead threw red herrings and rambled about the constitution. And Kennedy wonders why the public has lost all confidence in him.”
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