Robert F Kennedy Jr revives misleading measles vaccine claims as US nears 900 infection cases
United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has reprised his misleading claims about vaccines, including that the measles jab contains cells from aborted foetuses, at the same time the country is battling one of its worst outbreaks of the infection in 25 years.
Mr Kennedy's comments come as the US nears 900 cases of the measles nationwide and scientists have warned that the country is at a tipping point for the return of endemic measles, declared eradicated nationally in 2000.
Two children and an adult have died and hundreds more have been infected in the outbreak in Texas, which is centred in a Mennonite community and has spread to several neighbouring states, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Hundreds of Americans have been infected in the US'S latest measles outbreak in Texas, which has spread to neighbouring states, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
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Reuters: Sebastian Rocandio
)
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)'s confirmed measles case count is 884 — triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The three-month outbreak in Texas accounts for the vast majority of cases, with 663 confirmed as of Tuesday.
North America has two other ongoing outbreaks, including one in Ontario, Canada which has resulted in 1,020 cases from mid-October through to April 23. The Mexican state of Chihuahua had 786 measles cases and one death as of Wednesday, according to data from the state health ministry.
Health officials in Mexico and the US say all three outbreaks are of the same measles strain.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs and is preventable through vaccines.
Mr Kennedy, who became the nation's top health official in February as part of the new Trump administration, has for decades helped sow doubts regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, contributing to a decline in vaccination rates.
He says he is not opposed to vaccines, but has begun to revive some of the unproven or debunked theories he promoted as a lawyer and public figure, now from his perch at the US Health and Human Services Department.
Photo shows
close up of robert kennedy jr pointing to the camera
Mr Kennedy Jr is a prominent vaccine sceptic and will now oversee vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
"There are populations in our country, like the Mennonites in Texas, [who] were most afflicted, and they have religious objections to the vaccination, because the MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles, so they don't want to take it," Mr Kennedy said in an interview on Wednesday.
Mr Kennedy was referring to the combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine. The vaccines do not contain "foetal debris" from abortions or intact fetal cells, vaccine experts said.
The rubella portion of the vaccine is produced from a foetal cell line originating from an abortion that took place in the 1960s. The MMR vaccine does not contain the cells in its final form.
The cells are derived from foetal cells that have been replicated over decades in test tubes in laboratory settings, thousands of times removed from the original ones.
"The virus is grown in these cells, then this virus is purified, meaning everything other than the virus is filtered out, and all that's left is this attenuated virus that can't make you sick," Dr Miriam Laufer, the Interim Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland, said.
According to a fact sheet on how vaccines are made from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, the amount of DNA involved in final vaccine preparation is minimal, at billionths or trillionths of a gram.
"While the final vaccines do not contain intact foetal cells, they may contain trace amounts of cell-derived materials, such as fragments of DNA," Dr Paulo Verardi, a professor of Virology and Vaccinology at the University of Connecticut, said.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr Kennedy also said this week that the mumps portion of the vaccine does not work and that there were safety concerns over it.
"The problem is really with the mumps portion of the vaccine and the combination. That combination was never safety tested," he said on Monday at a live televised town hall event.
Two doses of the MMR vaccine provide around 86 per cent protection against mumps, according to the CDC.
While it is true that vaccine protection can wane over time, the rate varies depending on the disease and vaccine, Dr Verardi and other vaccine experts said.
"For mumps in particular, immunity can decline, so adults vaccinated in childhood may become susceptible again," he said.
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Still, vaccinated individuals generally experience a milder illness if infected, which is still a key benefit of vaccination.
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