RFK Jr.: When You Think About It, Does Two Children Dying Of Measles Even Count?
And he promises to stop "exposures" causing autism "by September."
One of the very first things that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came out with in his first interview as Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary was an absolute lie. Surely, you are shocked by this.
Speaking with Dr. Jon LaPook for CBS News about food additives and dyes that are banned in the EU and legal here, Kennedy Jr. claimed that they were “clearly associated with a grim inventory of diseases including cancers, behavioral diseases, neurological diseases like ADHD, and it’s very, very well documented.”
Is it though? While there have been studies showing that many of these dyes may be carcinogenic, there’s nothing to show that they cause behavioral disorders or neurological disorders (neither of which are “diseases,” thank you).
There’s evidence to suggest that Red Dye 40 can exacerbate ADHD symptoms, but that’s not the same thing as causing it. Scientists don’t know what, precisely, causes ADHD, though it’s thought to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors, so how RFK Jr. came to the conclusion that it’s caused by food dye, and that this is “well documented,” is beyond me.
Aside, perhaps, some American consumers who really need their Doritos to be fluorescent red for some reason, even though nacho cheese isn’t even that color to begin with, pretty much no one is opposed to banning these dyes, and, for something so vastly unnecessary, even potentially being carcinogenic is a reasonable reason to ban it. And yet — and yet! — this man is so committed to telling lies that he had to throw that in there.
That’s who we’re dealing with here.
Meanwhile, just yesterday, RFK Jr. promised at a Cabinet meeting that they would throw money and research scientists at autism, and would know “by September” what causes it, and limit those “exposures.”
Here, too, he means “vaccines.”
It is not reassuring that the man he’s picked to lead this effort is the not-a-scientist and not-a-doctor this guy.
Back in the CBS interview, LaPook then pivoted to the fact that we’ve already had two deaths from measles in 2025, to which RFK Jr. responded that there have only been three deaths in the last decade, as if the fact that two of those deaths had occurred since he became HHS secretary was not slightly significant. He then tried to claim that people only died from the measles when they were already sick from something else, which LaPook pointed out was not remotely the case with the two children who had just died.
“We’re always going to have measles no matter what happens. The vaccine wanes very quickly,” Kennedy Jr. said.
And yet, somehow, the vast, vast, vast majority of those who get measles have never been vaccinated.
Ninety-nine percent of those who receive the measles vaccine in childhood are protected against getting it for at least 20 years, and for most people, the protection is lifelong. If all children who were able to get the vaccine got the vaccine, everyone would be protected for life anyway. There’s no reason for anyone to get the measles, and certainly no reason for anyone to die from it.
LaPook noted that Kennedy Jr. had actually said in recent days that the vaccine was the best way to prevent the transmission of measles and got him to say it again, and even managed to get him to say that it would be good for parents to vaccinate their children. Unsurprisingly, this milquetoast endorsement would send more than a few of Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vax acolytes through the roof.
Kennedy Jr. then did his usual “we’re not taking anyone’s vaccines away, we just want to make them safe” bit, suggesting that we don’t know if they are safe or not. Which we do.
“We don’t know the risks of many of these products because, they’re not safety tested,” he said, adding that “When I say they’re not safety tested, what I mean is they’re not adequately — many of the vaccines are tested for only three or four days with no placebo group.”
Yeah, there’s no placebo group because no one wants to risk people’s lives by not giving them the vaccine. There also would not need to be a placebo group to determine whether or not there were adverse reactions to something. That’s not what placebo groups are for.
Asked about the fact that thousands of employees, programs, and studies have been cut from the HHS, Kennedy Jr. said it had been explained to him by Elon Musk that maybe 20 percent of the cuts would be a mistake and that they’d just bring them back later if that were the case — but that they had to do things this way because “disruption.”
“Disruption” is not notably a good thing for government.
Dr. LaPook asked him if it would not, perhaps, have been better to find out what the jobs, programs, and studies were actually for beforehand, and Kennedy Jr. claimed “it takes too long and you lose political momentum.”
Kennedy Jr. more or less admitted that the ways of DOGE were a mystery unto him and that he was simply “not familiar” with and didn’t approve any of the 50 pages worth of cuts they were making. He was, however, pretty sure that “The cuts were mainly DEI cuts, which the president ordered.”
Dr. LaPook asked him if he considered it problem that a University of Michigan study on adolescent diabetes was defunded, and Kennedy said he’d have to look into that. It’s not clear on how adolescent diabetes is DEI, but I’m sure they’ll come up with something.
Indeed, if RFK Jr. has any skill at all, it is in “coming up with something.” That “something” might not be provable, it might be a straight up lie, but it’s “something.” He has an incredible talent for just straight up pulling things out of his ass. Sadly, this is a skill better suited for an improv troupe than for the person in charge of America’s health, but what can we do?
For me and everyone here, two measles deaths is unacceptable.
However, the number one cause of death among children in this country is gun violence. Republicans say that’s the price of freedom.
I don’t think two measles deaths is going to move them to take action.
I would get an MMR booster, but I'm worried about adult-onset Autism.