Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Saturday ripped the press and politicians he accused of “trying to scare” Americans about the threat of infectious diseases.
“The media and certain demagogue politicians are constantly trying to scare us about infectious disease, and we take the attention away from the chronic disease that is being caused by powerful entities, by big food companies, by big pharmaceutical companies,” Kennedy said at a Fox News town hall.
The health secretary’s remarks came two days after he accused Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s team of fabricating two deaths linked to an ongoing measles outbreak in Lancaster County.
The health secretary claimed on X that the county’s coroner said “it has no record of any measles deaths,” adding that state law “requires that all measles deaths be reported to the coroner.”
When asked by a town hall guest Saturday whether, in light of the deaths, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine should be mandatory, Kennedy doubled down Saturday on his doubt of Shapiro.
“There was a press conference by the governor. It was highly politicized, and we saw a lot of the sort of old COVID playbook rolled out, where there was finger-pointing and politicizing and fearmongering,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy accused the governor of being “unwilling to share any information” with county officials regarding the purported deaths.
“They’re making claims that nobody can validate,” he said. “The press, of course, repeats them because they love doing that, but the press should be asking the question: Where are these kids? And asking the governor, ’Why isn’t he sharing that with the county, which he’s legally obligated to do?”
The number of measles cases in the U.S. this year has already surpassed last year’s record-breaking total.
Kennedy, known for his history of vaccine skepticism, has endorsed the MMR vaccine, though his messaging has been mixed.
On Saturday, the health secretary said the global measles epidemic was fueled by children not getting vaccinated during COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as “a lot of people across the globe” losing “faith in the public health system” amid the pandemic.
Despite the increase in measles cases, Kennedy suggested that HHS has other priorities.
“What I’m trying to do as HHS secretary, one, deal with the infectious disease outbreaks, which we’re doing, but also redirect attention and resources to the thing that’s really killing Americans, which are foodborne diseases.”