“RFK Jr. has earned every bit of contempt from the world’s top medical journal as he and his anti-vax allies fan the flames of a historic measles outbreak that’s costing us millions of dollars,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project.
SHOT: NPR: ‘One year of failure.’ The Lancet slams RFK Jr.’s first year as health chief
One of the world’s leading medical journals has issued a scathing rebuke of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to mark his first year leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The editorial — titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure” — appears in the latest issue of the Lancet.
A quote from the piece marks an otherwise blank front cover: “The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm.”
The journal’s editorial board catalogues many of the controversial actions taken under Kennedy’s watch, including the dismissal of agency employees, “revisions of guidelines and recommendations contradicting decades of established science,” cuts to cutting-edge scientific research, the undermining of vaccine policy and promotion of “junk science and fringe beliefs.”
The Lancet is one of the oldest peer-reviewed medical journals in circulation. It also boasts one of the highest impact factors, making it one of the most cited medical journals in the world.
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The editorial comes just as the country has crossed a sobering milestone.
On Friday, the U.S. surpassed more than 1,000 measles cases in 2026 alone, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The escalating outbreaks across the country makes it likely the U.S. will soon lose its measles elimination status.
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Since 2019, more than two-thirds of counties and jurisdictions have reported notable drops in vaccination rates, an NBC News/Stanford University investigation found. Among states that track MMR rates, more than half their counties — 67% — fall below the level needed to stop a measles outbreak.
An alarming new report calculates the price tag for the U.S. if those rates continue to fall.
If measles vaccination rates continue to drop just 1% annually for the next five years, the cost to the U.S. could reach $1.5 billion a year, according to a new report from the Yale School of Public Health.
Armed with existing county-level vaccination coverage data, Yale researchers used mathematical models to calculate predicted increases in measles cases, hospitalizations and their associated medical and societal costs.
Based on their projections, $41.1 million would be needed each year to cover patients’ basic medical needs, including health insurance, and $947 million for public health response efforts such as surveillance and contact tracing. Lost productivity in the workforce, the report found, could reach $510.4 million each year.
LIME: The Guardian: As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws
As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.
Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s. The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.
Leaders of this campaign include the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy led for years, a group run by his longtime book publisher, and Leslie Manookian, an Idaho film-maker, homeopath and activist whom Kennedy has called his friend.
Doctors and advocates for children’s health warn that removing or weakening mandates, particularly those that require vaccination in schools, will lead to lower vaccination rates – and more illness and suffering for families.
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