When asked hypothetically if he would vaccinate his children today for measles during a House hearing Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said “probably,” but added he doesn’t think people should be taking medical advice from him.
“My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” he said in response to the question from Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin during the House Appropriations Committee hearing. “I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
When pressed, he repeated he didn’t want to give advice to other people.
“But that’s kind of your jurisdiction, because CDC does give advice, right?” Pocan asked. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under HHS.
“I think what we’re going to try to do is to lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, accurately as we understand them, with replicable studies,” Kennedy replied.
He declined to answer whether he would vaccinate a child against chickenpox and polio.
Kennedy also appeared before a Senate panel Wednesday in a separate hearing.
Kennedy’s statements come as the United States deals with a concerning amount of measles cases. The majority of the infections have been reported in an outbreak in West Texas that has led to the deaths of two children.
The number of cases in Texas alone has grown to 709, while total cases nationwide have surpassed 1,000, with infections confirmed in at least 30 states. Almost all of those infected in the Texas outbreak were either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, according to health officials. Both of the children who died were unvaccinated.
After previously downplaying the growing number of cases and making several false and misleading claims about the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, Kennedy acknowledged the vaccine’s efficacy in an exclusive interview with CBS News in April.
In the interview, Kennedy publicly encouraged people to get the measles vaccine, marking the first time he has done so since becoming HHS secretary.
“The federal government’s position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine,” he said, but added, “The government should not be mandating those.”
Kennedy has a long history of raising doubts about vaccines — despite decades of evidence showing they have saved millions of people from debilitating illness or death.
