On April 17, 2026, testifying before the House Education and Workforce Committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said: “I've never been anti-vaccine.” Asked about the measles outbreak, he said: “It has nothing to do with me. It has to do [with the fact] that we have a global epidemic.”
The claim is contradicted by his own recorded statements. On the Lex Fridman podcast in July 2023 he said, “There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective” — a remark he later denied making on PBS NewsHour. In 2021 he urged people to tell parents, “Before you vaccinate that baby, do your independent research.” FactCheck.org, CNN, PBS and Newsweek have all checked the denial against the tape.
The hearing turned sharp when Rep. Lucy McBath asked him to apologize for saying autism “destroys families.” Kennedy replied: “Those are crocodile tears, Congresswoman.”
The outbreak context: 2025 closed with 2,144 confirmed measles cases, the most since 1992, with three deaths, two of them children. By around April 10, 2026 there were 1,714 cases, running ahead of the previous year's pace. National kindergarten MMR coverage stood at 92.5 percent for 2024-25, below the roughly 95 percent needed for herd immunity.
Under a Trump presidential memorandum, a January 5, 2026 change signed by Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill as acting CDC director cut the routine childhood immunization schedule from covering 18 diseases to 11, shifting RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza and COVID-19 to risk-based or shared decision-making. A federal court stayed that change on March 16, 2026 in AAP v. Kennedy, a month before Kennedy testified.
On elimination status: PAHO stripped the designation from the Region of the Americas in November 2025, driven substantially by Canada's outbreak. The United States-specific review was postponed to November 2026 and is still pending. As of August 6, 2026, the US had recorded 2,465 cases and no deaths.
Related entries: After a Presidential Memo, HHS and CDC Cut the Number of Vaccines Recommended for All Children, A Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Schedule Overhaul, Finding It Likely Illegal and Most of His Vaccine Advisers 'Distinctly Unqualified'.