Measles Outbreak Kills Child, Sparking Concern Under HHS Secretary Kennedy

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of well-established vaccines, said Wednesday that his department is tracking an outbreak of measles that has infected more than 100 people and killed a child in Texas. But he played down the consequence of the resurgence — 25 years after the disease was declared to be eliminated in the U.S.

“We’re following the measles epidemic every day,” Kennedy said during President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting since being sworn in Jan. 20. “Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. ... So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.”

But the death of an unvaccinated school-age child in West Texas, confirmed by a state health official this week, is the first fatality in the U.S. since 2015.

Kennedy's stance on vaccines has drawn criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, called it “irresponsible” for Trump to appoint a vaccine skeptic to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

“The death in Lubbock is tragic, and I hope it will be a wake-up call for Republican leaders who have pushed dangerous conspiracy theories about vaccines and advocated for cuts to medical research and public health,” Castro said.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., an obstetrician by trade, told NBC News that he spoke to Kennedy on Thursday morning — but that measles did not come up. "He's already said that he's pro-vax," Marshall said, shifting the blame for skepticism to the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"Fauci did more to create vaccine hesitancy in this country in two years than Bobby Kennedy potentially could have done in a lifetime," Marshall said, referring to Fauci's role on Trump's coronavirus task force and testimony to Congress about the origins of Covid-19 that some Republicans say was knowingly false.

Marshall also pointed a finger at Biden, pinning the outbreak on undocumented immigrants. "I encourage everyone to get their measles vaccine, their MMR vaccine. I think it’s a great idea," Marshall said. "But this wouldn’t be happening in Texas right now if it wasn’t for Joe Biden’s open border."

Kennedy has promoted an unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism, and he blamed measles deaths in Samoa in 2018 on immunizations rather than the disease. “I think that we need a vaccine that is not a leaky vaccine,” Kennedy told NBC News of the MMR vaccine in February 2024. "The immunity that you get is ephemeral, and it wears off over time.” He added that the "most frightening part" of the measles shot is that "it does not provide maternal immunity."

Asked whether he would recommend that children get the measles vaccine, he walked away from the interview.

The refusal to endorse the shot puts Kennedy in a small minority of Americans, according to polling in recent years. The vast majority of children in the U.S. receive a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, and roughly 9 in 10 Americans said in 2023 that they believed the benefits of that vaccine outweigh the risks, according to the Pew Research Center.

Deputy White House press secretary Kush Desai said the West Wing is happy with Kennedy. “The White House has full confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his ability to deliver on President Trump's mandate to Make America Healthy Again,” Desai said in an exchange of text messages.