{"id":581018,"date":"2026-08-03T00:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581018\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T00:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:44:08","slug":"in-remarkable-about-turn-us-health-secretary-tells-families-to-vaccinate-children-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581018\/","title":{"rendered":"In remarkable about-turn, US health secretary tells families to vaccinate children \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert F Kennedy jnr<\/a>, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles<\/a>, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years.<\/p>\n

Kennedy is a leading vaccination sceptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). He made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN\u2019s State of the Union on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

His remark came as the incidence of measles crossed a milestone \u2013 the US<\/a> has now officially recorded 2,371 confirmed infections so far this year, surpassing the total tally in 2025 of 2,289.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the past two years have seen more measles infections in the US than the rest of the 21st century combined. The last time a greater number of measles cases were recorded in a single year was in 1991.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s statement was extracted from him by Dana Bash, CNN\u2019s host, who invited him to use his \u201cbully pulpit\u201d to talk directly to parents as the new school year approached. She urged him to tell families that they should vaccinate for measles \u201cbecause it is safe and it will help them save their children\u2019s lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

The health secretary replied: \u201cParents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective, it stops measles in about 97 per cent of the cases. People should get vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The health secretary\u2019s call for parents to vaccinate their children for measles contrasts starkly with the many years in which Kennedy has been a leading proponent of misinformation questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccinations. Even since he became the country\u2019s top health official, he has depicted a measles vaccination as a personal choice and claimed inaccurately that the power of the inoculation is waning.<\/p>\n

The call also comes late in the day, given the rate at which measles is spreading in the US. The 37 new measles outbreaks that have already been recorded this year are putting the US in danger of losing the measles elimination status that it has held since 2000.<\/p>\n

Kennedy continues to shrug off criticism that his work as a prominent vaccine sceptic, 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: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to blame the outbreaks on religious communities who eschew vaccines and on global health conditions.<\/p>\n

Any hope that Kennedy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

He accused the CNN host of \u201csaying nonsense\u201d, \u201crepeating like a parrot\u201d and \u201cmaking assertions you can\u2019t support\u201d. In one particularly demeaning remark, he said Bash had become \u201cflustered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not flustered at all,\u201d she asserted in a calm voice. \u201cI am frustrated because you are the HHS secretary and you are talking about things that lead to vaccine hesitancy in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy subsequently told Bash, \u201cyou probably don\u2019t understand this because you\u2019re not a scientist\u201d.<\/p>\n

The journalist replied: \u201cBut you\u2019re not, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health secretary\u2019s 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 \u201cRFK Jr\u2019s epic CNN crashout\u201d and said in a post on X that Kennedy\u2019s \u201cyelling\u201d sounded like \u201ca rabid dog barking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Andy Kim, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, took from Kennedy\u2019s comments that he and Donald Trump had no plans to prepare for a possible next pandemic. \u201cThe only thing they have a plan for is trying to distract you from the fact that they\u2019ve taken away healthcare from millions,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n

Kennedy used the CNN exchange to spread further misinformation about other aspects of public health. He claimed that both respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is a major cause of infant mortality, and Lyme disease were caused by manipulation of germs in laboratories.<\/p>\n

The suggestion has been contradicted by decades of scientific evidence that suggest they both have natural roots. RSV was initially identified in the 1950s, two decades before such experimentation, known as \u201cgain-of-function\u201d research, started.<\/p>\n

During the interview, Kennedy repeated unfounded claims that there was a link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism, and poured doubt on the efficacy of vaccines to protect children against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Speaking to CNN\u2019s State of the Union later in the show, Ashish Jha, who advised Joe Biden\u2019s White House on its Covid response, said he was heartened to hear Kennedy say that \u201cevery kid in America should be getting the MMR vaccine\u201d. But he added that most of everything else the health secretary had said \u201cjust isn\u2019t true\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jha said that the dramatic rise in measles cases on Kennedy\u2019s watch was not coincidental. \u201cThe administration has not done enough to promote vaccines. It has not done enough to highlight the harms that come from measles.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert F Kennedy jnr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,16082,43,1139,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":["post-581018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-measles","tag-news","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}