RFK reverses stance on MMR vaccine
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote an op-ed on Sunday urging American parents to vaccinate their children against measles while stressing the importance of nutrition and personal choice in vaccination.
Kennedy began by saying he is “deeply concerned” about the measles outbreak that has seen 146 confirmed cases in Texas and is claimed to be linked to one child fatality, the first in a decade. Seventy-nine cases reportedly occurred among unvaccinated children, whom Kennedy said are at most risk, while the remaining 67 cases occurred in children despite their being vaccinated against measles.
After first touting vitamin A as a therapeutic that can help reduce mortality, the HHS secretary recommended parents vaccinate their children with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—though he emphasized that the decision is “a personal one.”
“Parents play a pivotal role in safeguarding their children’s health,” Kennedy wrote. “All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine. The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
Kennedy closed by stressing the importance of nutrition as “a best defense” against chronic and infectious illness, and said that together with sanitation, nutrition eliminated most measles deaths before the vaccine was introduced.
“Tens of thousands died with, or of, measles annually in 19th Century America. By 1960 -- before the vaccine’s introduction -- improvements in sanitation and nutrition had eliminated 98% of measles deaths. Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses. Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet,” he said.
Kennedy before: Kids who get measles are healthier
The op-ed shocked observers who recall Kennedy’s opposition to the MMR vaccine. Last year, when asked by John Stossel whether he would give his children the MMR vaccine if they were young, Kennedy said he would not.
“In 1964, there was about three or four hundred [children] who died [from measles] and they were almost all severely malnourished kids, mainly from the Mississippi Delta . . . It’s very, very hard to kill a healthy child with any infectious disease, but particularly with measles,’ he told Stossel. “And the World Health Organization now says vitamin A is an absolute cure for measles, which we didn’t know about back then. Back then, we were treated with chicken soup and it was a week at home watching ‘Leave it to Beaver.’ And every kid caught it. Every single kid got it. And I had 11 brothers and sisters, and we all got it, and we were all fine. And there are lots and lots of studies out there now that show that kids who get measles as a child are much healthier when they grow up, that they’re much more resistant to cancers, to atopic diseases, to allergies, and to heart disease.”
Kennedy: MMR vaccine associated with autism
During a Q&A session at the Godspeak Cavalry Chapel in 2021, Kennedy said the MMR is associated with autism.
“[Vaccination advocates] knew that a lot of mothers believe the MMR vaccine was causing autism. And they believed that by studying the MMR vaccine alone, isolating it from the other vaccines and studying it alone, they could exonerate that vaccine. And then they could use that to exonerate all the vaccines. So they did a study where they just isolated the MMR vaccine and they looked at children in Georgia, which is where CDC's headquarter was, had five scientists on it, who were their top scientists and what they found was when the data came back: black boys who got the MMR vaccine on time, which means under 36 months of age under three years had a 336% higher chance of getting autism diagnosis than children who did not get it on time,” he said.
Kennedy explained that Blacks have stronger immune systems than Whites, which means they need only half the antigen Whites do. When they receive the full antigen, it pushes their immune system “over the cliff.”
