Kennedy Irks MAHA, Scientists With MMR Endorsement

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is drawing fire over his response to the measles outbreaks in Texas and elsewhere from both sides of the vaccination argument.

Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again followers and key allies are speaking out after he appeared to turn around from his history of skepticism over vaccines earlier this week by endorsing the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine on social media and in television interviews, reports The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

His endorsement comes during an outbreak that has resulted in the deaths of two children and measles infections in hundreds of other people.

Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine advocate and Kennedy's former communications chief, pushed back on the secretary's statement on X, where he called the MMR vaccine the "most effective way to prevent the spread of measles."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studies show that two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective in preventing measles.

"Your post got cut off," Bigtree responded to Kennedy. "The MMR is also one of the most effective ways to cause autism." Several studies have determined that there is no link between the vaccine and autism.

Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy founded and chaired, is now distancing itself from him.

"Bobby Kennedy was our founder, but Bobby Kennedy is now the Secretary of HHS," organization CEO Mary Holland said this week. "He is in a completely different role than he was in, and what he says does not speak for Children's Health Defense in any way at this point."

She added that the organization stands behind "free choice," and accused Kennedy of releasing "partial information."

"Yes, vaccines can prevent disease," she said. "They also have very significant side effects."

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said he does not think Kennedy has changed his mind, as he did not "enunciate the reasons" for backing the vaccination.

Kennedy has hired vaccine skeptic David Geier to head government research into vaccines and autism after firing the Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks.

He has also canceled a meeting that would have been held to plan for next year's flu vaccines.

Further, even after backing the MMR vaccine, the secretary praised two "healers" who promote alternative treatments, including an asthma drug, budesonide, and an antibiotic clarithromycin, neither of which has been proven to treat measles.

American Values, a super PAC that backed Kennedy's presidential campaign, has told its supporters to "take a deep breath" and insisted that he "has not turned his back on the medical freedom movement."

It also said that MAHA is about allowing vaccine choice, not banning vaccines.

Other MAHA backers are saying they wish Kennedy had advocated for "informed consent" rather than the MMR vaccine itself to ensure people understand that the FDA has listed potential, while rare, reactions to the shot, including encephalitis or Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Zen Honeycutt, the founding executive director of the nonprofit Moms Across America, said she thinks Kennedy needs to address the issue further.

"We urge Kennedy to provide clarity on his statement and balance it with acknowledgment of the risks of potential serious and sometimes deadly side effects of the MMR vaccine," she said.