As measles ravages South Carolina, RFK Jr. undermines the vaccine
There is a massive measles outbreak spreading rapidly in Upstate South Carolina. Already, 111 people, mostly in Spartanburg County, have contracted the virus. People have been exposed to measles at church, in health care facilities, and at schools.
According to the South Carolina Department of Public Health, 254 people are currently in quarantine, including 43 children. Dr. Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist, says the measles outbreak is “accelerating.”
Measles was “declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.” But that is due to the effectiveness of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. In Spartanburg County, the immunization rate in schools is 90%, and many large schools have vaccination rates in the low-80s. According to the CDC, “[o]ne person infected with measles can lead to a dozen other people becoming infected in any community where less than 95% of people have been vaccinated against measles.”
Measles is a dangerous disease. Symptoms of the disease include a high fever, cough, and a rash. In severe cases, the disease can cause “blindness, pneumonia or encephalitis, swelling of the brain.” Twenty percent of measles cases among the unvaccinated result in hospitalization and “between one and three of every 1,000 children who get measles die from respiratory or neurologic complications,” Forbes reported. Before vaccines became widely available, “measles was the single leading killer of young children globally.”
As Bell noted, increasing vaccination rates now could slow the spread of measles in South Carolina. “If people are willing to be vaccinated, receiving an MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure has been shown to prevent measles infections,” Bell said.
In response to the South Carolina measles outbreak, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top public health official, has said nothing. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of promoting dangerous misinformation about the MMR vaccine, which has contributed to lower vaccination rates.
In his 2023 book, Vax-Unvax, Kennedy Jr. promoted debunked research from Andrew Wakefield, a former English doctor, who linked the MMR vaccine to autism. (The study was retracted by Wakefield’s co-authors nearly 20 years earlier.) In 2019, while leading the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy Jr. wrote that MMR vaccines have an “unconscionably high injury rate.” A 2024 study published in Lancet found the measles vaccine prevented “93.7 million deaths globally between 1974 and 2024.”
As HHS Secretary, Kennedy Jr. removed language from the CDC website which stated that vaccines did not cause autism.
Kennedy has simultaneously downplayed the danger of the measles virus. “If you look at the kids in Africa who get measles, these other diseases, they’re all malnourished. It’s hard for the disease to affect a healthy kid. It’s easy for the disease to affect an unhealthy person with a ragged immune system,” Kennedy said in a 2023 interview with Joe Rogan.
In response to an outbreak earlier this year in Texas, Kennedy Jr. has issued a boilerplate statement encouraging people to get vaccinated against measles. But, as HHS Secretary, Kennedy Jr. has simultaneously continued to promote false claims about the dangers of the MMR vaccine.
In a March 11 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Kennedy Jr. claimed the MMR vaccine “does cause deaths every year,” including “all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera.” As a result, Kennedy Jr. said, whether or not to vaccinate is a personal choice.
According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Kennedy’s claims are false. To the contrary, there are “no deaths shown to be related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people.” The MMR vaccine only poses a risk to immunocompromised individuals, who already do not receive the vaccine.
In a March 3 interview on Fox Nation, Kennedy Jr. said that it is “very very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person.” Therefore, the best way to prevent measles is “to keep themselves healthy.” Children died in Texas from measles this year with no underlying health conditions. In the same interview Kennedy Jr. promoted “cod liver oil” for the treatment and prevention of measles. Cod liver oil is not a substitute for vaccination. Vitamin A may be useful for the treatment of measles but it is impractical to get a therapeutic dose of Vitamin A from cod liver oil. To do so, “you would have to ingest 45 teaspoons of cod liver oil per day for 2 days.”
Kennedy appoints anti-vax conspiracy theorists to key roles
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is “a federal advisory committee that develops recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States.” On June 9, Kennedy removed all 17 voting members of ACIP.
In their place, Kennedy selected some of the leading purveyors of anti-vaccine misinformation. Kennedy appointed Vicky Pebsworth, the research director of the National Vaccine Information Center, an anti-vaccine advocacy group. For decades, Pebsworth has argued that the MMR vaccine caused her son to develop autism.
The new vice-chair of ACIP is Robert Malone, who the New York Times dubbed a “COVID misinformation star.” When a child died after contracting measles early this year, Malone published a newsletter claiming the child had died from other causes. A statement from the hospital disputed Malone’s framing of the tragedy. “The child was receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized,” the hospital said in a press release. “It is important to note that the child was not vaccinated against measles and had no known underlying health conditions.” In a December 2025 ACIP meeting, Malone suggested that administering multiple vaccines to children at the same time, as the MMR vaccine does, could be dangerous. “My point of view is that this topic has merit,” Malone said. “It’s the whole reason why we now have a childhood vaccine schedule working group.”
In August, Kennedy appointed Jim O’Neill as the acting head of the CDC. O’Neill, who is also the deputy HHS Secretary, has no medical or scientific training.
In October, O’Neill called for the MMR vaccine to be divided into three separate vaccines, echoing a call by Trump from September. Breaking up the MMR vaccine has been a priority of the anti-vax movement for many years, even though there is no evidence that the combination poses any danger. It is a major priority of Wakefield, who has made a career falsely linking vaccines to autism.
Three separate vaccines would require every child to receive six shots, making it much more difficult to be fully protected. Further, individual vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella are not currently available or licensed in the United States. In the meantime, O’Neill’s statements suggest the current combination vaccine is unsafe at a time when increasing the vaccination rates in South Carolina and other hot spots is critical.
I take particular umbrage to the people who crow about personal choice when it comes to vaccines. When your choice endangers the lives of others, that's a real problem. Also, your children don't have your same self-determination. RFK Jr. is a monster for helping promulgate this anti-vax nonsense.
Thanks for highlighting this topic. It is unconscionable that our government is working desperately to undermine our public health and spread misinformation and more of their trademark lies. Sadly, I can't see a way that this will end well. Sigh.