Anti-vaccine group once led by RFK Jr circulates false assertions amid measles outbreak | Robert F Kennedy Jr
The nonprofit group that Robert F Kennedy Jr. launched into a massive anti-vaccine movement defends his former boss even as the US health secretary presides over the worst year for measles In more than 30 years.
Three people have died and 1,958 people have been infected with measles in the United States this year, according to the report. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inside South CarolinaDue to the epidemic in which 144 people got sick, 224 people are in quarantine. Most are unvaccinated children.
Children’s Health Defense, or CHD, led by Kennedy 2015 Through 2024, he is publishing daily articles and videos fueling fear about vaccines and falsely suggesting that the risks associated with vaccine-preventable diseases are exaggerated.
This month, at the height of South Carolina’s outbreak, with more than 200 people in quarantine, CHD published an article circulating anti-vaccine tropes and arguing that Kennedy’s criticisms of the spread of measles were unfounded.
The article notes that CHD’s chief scientific officer “questioned whether measles should be prevented in the first place.” The host of a CHD.TV program was quoted as saying it was “ridiculous” to blame Kennedy for the outbreaks.
CHD did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
As measles spread in the United States this year, Kennedy made statements that undermined confidence in the measles vaccine and the public health response, experts said. In an interview with CBS, he said “people should get the measles vaccine” but then expressed concerns about whether enough security testing has been done. One view in indianaHe said the vaccine’s effectiveness had diminished and “leaked” and suggested the number of cases in the US wasn’t that bad compared to higher numbers abroad.
CDC says It is stated that two doses of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, are 97 percent effective. Most people do not experience side effects, and those that do occur are usually mild, such as fever or aches.
“HHS and CDC continue to support strong measles containment through active monitoring and coordination with state and local health departments,” Kennedy spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said in an email, adding that the U.S. is faring better than Mexico and Canada in its efforts.
“Secretary Kennedy emphasized that vaccination remains the most effective protection against measles,” he said.
Public health experts said the article published by CHD this month is just the latest example of how the group is working from a familiar anti-vaccine playbook to defend Kennedy, downplay the dangers of diseases and exaggerate vaccine risks; This shows that getting vaccinated is worse than getting sick, when the opposite is true.
Such posts serve multiple purposes, said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco who has followed CHD and Kennedy for years. He said they were trying to convince themselves and the people in the field that measles wasn’t that bad, while also defending Kennedy and themselves.
“Nobody wants to believe they’re hurting kids,” Reiss said. “They will be blamed for this, and rightfully so, because the majority of cases are in people who have not been vaccinated, and they have been promoting anti-vaccine misinformation for years.”
Public health experts said Kennedy’s leadership harmed efforts to control measles.
“Even if it wasn’t responsible for the actual start of the epidemic, it is certainly responsible for the spread of the epidemic,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of the advocacy group Vaccinate Your Family.
This isn’t the first time CHD has mobilized against a pandemic this year.
During a measles outbreak in Texas earlier this year, CHD encouraged people not to get vaccinated and traveled there. produce video He said measles wasn’t that dangerous. “Measles is not a serious threat to America’s children,” chief executive Mary Holland said in an article. Videos, articles and social media posts were also published suggesting that people who died of measles died of another disease. Kennedy later repeated CHD’s claims, claiming that a child had died It may have been caused by another reason.
“According to his family, he survived the measles, and according to the medical reports, I saw a report about this today, it was not the measles that killed him, but a bacteriological infection,” he told CBS News. He told Fox News that his death was due to pneumonia.
Pneumonia is one of many possible conditions complications of measlesAccording to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Other complications of measles include brain swelling, deafness and immune amnesia This increases susceptibility to other infections.
In its South Carolina post this month, CHD included misinformation about deaths in Texas, saying two children died from “hospitals, hospital-acquired infections, and biased healthcare professionals.” local medical authorities, health authorities And Kennedy’s own CDC They attribute their deaths to measles.
Rekha Lakshmanan of the Texas-based Immunization Partnership said the group’s activities in Texas have become a tool to scare parents away from vaccinating their children and direct them to alternative treatments that are not effective.
“CHD is making many claims that are not true,” Lakshmanan said. He added that these false claims distract from the fact that vaccines can help children survive and protect themselves from disease.
The group’s work is remarkable for a period. new study found what researchers call an emerging online “health communication gap” regarding measles. They said the CDC posted about measles only 10 times across three social media platforms between January and August, far fewer than the average of 45.8 posts during that time period over the past four years. From 2021 to 2024, 82% of posts promoted routine or “catch-on” measles vaccination, but not a single post from 2025 highlighted routine vaccination, the study found.
By contrast, they found that CHD posted about measles 101 times on X alone in the same time period.
It has been reported that 18 more people have been infected in South Carolina since December 12. State health officials said this week that children at four schools remain in quarantine and some will be quarantined until Jan. 2.
