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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday endorsed the measles vaccine while also pushing a string of false and debunked assertions about other vaccines, RSV and the ongoing measles outbreaks.
When pressed by host Dana Bash during a contentious appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kennedy eventually said the measles shot is safe, and parents who have not should vaccinate their children against the viral disease.
“I will say it right now, that people — parents should get their children vaccinated for measles,” Kennedy said after Bash challenged him to look into the camera and tell people to get vaccinated.
“A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97 percent of the cases. So people should get vaccinated,” Kennedy said.
Health officials recommend two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in childhood, and those two shots are 97 percent effective against measles infection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 2,371 measles infections this year, outpacing all of 2025. It’s the highest number of cases seen since 1991.
Pockets of low vaccination have been increasing in recent years, which experts attribute to misinformation and distrust in mainstream science. Anywhere the vaccination rate drops below 95 percent is at risk for an outbreak.
Kennedy, who frequently disparages vaccines and has a history of amplifying misinformation, said he has never questioned the efficacy of the MMR vaccine. But he has said the vaccine is “leaky” and that its immunity declines significantly every year.
Kennedy said he takes no responsibility for the ongoing measles outbreaks.
During the interview, Kennedy also claimed that respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV, was artificially made by scientists conducting “gain-of-function” research.
Gain-of-function involves manipulating a pathogen to give it enhanced abilities in order to study its evolution. One of the chief criticisms against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that his agency funded gain-of-function research in China that may have caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
But RSV was initially discovered in 1956, and early experiments in what was later called gain-of- function didn’t occur until the 1970s, when scientists were researching splicing together genes from different organisms.
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