“Dana, you most likely don’t perceive this since you’re not a scientist.”
That was Heath and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to CNN‘s Dana Bash on State of the Union this morning.
It was a real if considerably confounding assertion since, as Bash noticed to the HHS honcho in response, “You’re not both.”
Their contretemps adopted a back-and-forth wherein Bash pressed the secretary on whether or not or not childhood vaccines trigger autism.
“There have been greater than 40 research involving 5.6 million folks to conclude there isn’t any hyperlink between vaccines and autism,” she mentioned, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Illnesses. Kennedy identified that a lot of these research centered on the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, saying that he desires the opposite childhood vaccines studied with equal vigor.
To his credit score, Kennedy additionally urged dad and mom to get their youngsters the MMR vaccine, a stance he has not at all times absolutely supported.
The context for the interview was the present 35-year excessive in U.S. measles instances.
Given Kennedy’s outspoken stance towards childhood vaccines over time and present ranges of vaccine hesitancy throughout the nation, Bash requested him if he would settle for “some duty” for this present measles outbreak, which noticed instances rise near tenfold between 2024 and 2025, with greater than 2,300 already this yr.
“Completely not,” mentioned Kennedy, earlier than sustaining that the outbreak was Worldwide in nature.
Measles had been thought of nearly eradicated within the U.S. after the yr 2000.
You’ll be able to watch extra of their change under.
