RFK Jr.’s CDC Brushes Off Likely U.S. Loss of Measles Elimination Status As “Cost of Doing Business”
Washington D.C. – On Tuesday night, Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care, projected massive rotating messages onto the U.S. Health and Human Services headquarters that read “Measles HQ” and “RFK Jr.: Making America Sick Again” — marking the tragic yet avoidable milestone of 12 straight months of measles transmission in the U.S., which now threatens the nation’s measles elimination status. The effort was first reported by The Hill. Measles outbreaks are now reported in at least 9 states — most severely in South Carolina, where confirmed cases now top 640, almost exclusively among unvaccinated children. The projection ads followed an event hosted by Public Health Watch with Hawaii Governor Josh Green, M.D., Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, and Dr. Annie Andrews to urge missing-in-action Trump HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop ignoring the crisis and making matters worse.
The Trump administration is taking no responsibility for the consequences of pushing an extreme and dangerous anti-vax agenda, including baselessly fear-mongering against proven safe and effective vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine. Instead of mobilizing a serious response to the ongoing threat to public health, the Trump-RFK Jr. CDC has callously downplayed and dismissed the potential of the U.S. losing its measles elimination status as a “cost of doing business.”
Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care: “Secretary Kennedy has been busy doing anything but addressing or even acknowledging the worsening measles outbreak that is almost exclusively harming unvaccinated children. We hope that shining a literal spotlight on the HHS will spur the Trump administration to raise awareness of the proven safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine. It’s the least RFK Jr. can do after he helped cause this mess by spreading dangerous, fabricated lies about the MMR vaccine, likely scaring parents out of vaccinating their children.”
“Unfortunately, no one should hold their breath for a competent or constructive response from the Trump administration that callously views more American children needlessly getting sick with measles as a business write off,” added Hancock.
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