Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist ― appeared to strike a drastically different tone in a new Fox News op-ed published Sunday in which he advocated for the MMR vaccine amid a growing measles outbreak in Texas.
The op-ed, titled “Measles Outbreak Is A Call To Action For All Of Us,” carried the subheadline: “MMR Vaccine Is Crucial To Avoiding Potentially Deadly Disease.”
In the piece, Kennedy said he is “deeply concerned” about the outbreak in the South Plains region that’s “claimed the life of a school-aged child, the first measles-related fatality” in America for more than a decade.
Kennedy wrote about the risks of measles “especially to unvaccinated individuals” and acknowledged the previous fatality rate of 1 in 1,205 cases before the introduction of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine in the 1960s.
Vaccines must be “readily accessible for all those who want them,” said the yearslong vaccine skeptic, adding that: “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
But Kennedy also said the decision to vaccinate remains “a personal one” and stopped short of urging people to receive them.
The op-ed split opinion on social media, following as it did years of Kennedy’s promotion of debunked vaccine misinformation.
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Only last week, Kennedy downplayed the outbreak in Texas as “not unusual.”
Public health experts warned last year how deadly epidemics — including of measles — could surge in the United States again if Kennedy was confirmed as America’s top health official given his past debunked takes on shots.
