RFK Jr. Doubles Down on His Bonkers ‘Aborted Fetuses' in Jabs Theory
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doubling down on his bonkers theory that measles jabs contain aborted fetuses.
Speaking to NBC News' Tom Llamas on Thursday night, President Donald Trump's secretary of health and human services stood by his debunked claim just days after sparking alarm for linking a deadly measles outbreak to vaccine hesitancy fueled by what he bizarrely called 'aborted fetus debris.'
His remarks come as the U.S. faces its largest measles outbreak in around 25 years, and two young girls have died.
'My agency has recommended that people take the vaccine to prevent the disease,' Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, told Llamas when pressed on his position on measles and vaccines.
'There are many people in this country who won't take the vaccine for religious reasons. The MMR vaccine contains millions of particles that are derived from fetal tissue, millions of fragments of human DNA from aborted fetuses. And for religious reasons they don't want to take it,' he told Llamas.
Kennedy was referring to the combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine.
The health secretary added: 'We need to take care of that population too. We need to have treatments for measles too—no child should die of measles in this day and age.'
Vaccines do not contain aborted fetuses, fetal cells, fetal DNA, or fetal debris, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The rubella component of the vaccine is developed from a fetal cell line known as WI-38 that originally came from the lung tissue of an elective abortion performed more than five decades ago. No new fetal issue has been used since, and cells used today are thousands of times removed from the original source.
'No new cell lines are being generated,' a nationally respected pediatric infectious disease doctor, who wasn't authorized to give an on-the-record interview, told NBC News.
'Theologically, I'm pretty conservative,' the doctor said. 'If we were taking new cell lines from new terminations of pregnancies, I would have a different feeling about it.'
Kennedy first appeared to have floated the false 'fetus debris' claim during a NewsNation town hall event on April 30 dedicated to Trump's first 100 days back in office.
'There are populations like the Mennonites in Texas who are most afflicted, and they have religious objections to the vaccination because the MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles,' he said at the event.
'So, they don't want to take it. We ought to be able to take care of those populations when they get sick.'
Kennedy is leading the Trump administration's 'Make America Healthy Again' initiative and has sparked concern with his controversial comments about vaccines, autism, and pesticides since becoming federal health secretary in January.
The nation's top health official, who's long claimed a link between vaccines and autism, drew widespread criticism last month by claiming that people with autism—a neurodevelopmental disorder—will never play baseball, go out on dates, pay taxes, write poems, or hold down a job. He also described autism as a 'preventable disease' caused by a mysterious environmental toxin.
Health experts are alarmed by Kennedy's suggestions that the measles jab is unsafe, a claim which contradicts decades of research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The World Health Organization declared measles eliminated from the United States in 2000 due to the success of vaccination efforts. International travel and growing vaccine hesitancy are thought to be behind its resurgence.
Kennedy is urging parents to 'do your own research,' before vaccinating their newborns.
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