Kennedy continues to shrug off criticism

Oh NOW he tells us to get vaccinated.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years.

Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning.

His remark came as the incidence of measles crossed a milestone – the US has now officially recorded 2,371 confirmed infections so far this year, surpassing 2025’s total tally of 2,289.

And Kennedy’s anti-vax views have probably done their bit to boost those numbers. He angrily denies it, but he has after all been airing his anti-vax views from his position as health secretary. It’s not as if we made that up.

Kennedy’s statement was extracted from him by Dana Bash, CNN’s host, who invited him to use his “bully pulpit” to talk directly to parents as the new school year approached. She urged him to tell families that they should vaccinate for measles “because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives”.

The health secretary replied: “Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective, it stops measles in about 97% of the cases. People should get vaccinated.”

Later in the interview he added that people should also get the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the main protection against the disease that has been a particular target of the anti-vaccination movement.

Round of applause for Dana Bash.

Kennedy continues to shrug off criticism that his work as a prominent vaccine skeptic, both before and after he entered the Trump administration, has exacerbated the problem. Asked whether he took any responsibility for the measles surge, he said: “Absolutely not.”

So his noisy vaccine “skepticism” was completely inert? It influenced no one? Not one person acted on it?

Any hope that Kennedy’s measles statement might indicate a change of heart were dashed in the rest of the CNN interview in which he turned combative. Batting off questions from Bash, the health secretary responded with personal attacks.

He accused the CNN host of “saying nonsense”, “repeating like a parrot” and “making assertions you can’t support”. In one especially demeaning remark he said Bash had become “flustered”.

“I’m not flustered at all,” she asserted in a calm voice. “I am frustrated because you are the HHS secretary and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country.”

In a further comment dripping with condescension, Kennedy told Bash “you probably don’t understand this because you’re not a scientist”.

The journalist riposted: “But you’re not, either.”

There are a lot of other things he’s not.

The health secretary’s belligerent approach, in which he at times appeared red-faced while frequently poking his finger towards Bash, attracted the attention of commentators. The journalist Aaron Rupar described the performance as “RFK Jr’s epic CNN crashout” and said in a post on X that Kennedy’s “yelling” sounded like “a rabid dog barking”.

I wonder if he’s had his rabies shot.