In a rare sit-in interview with CBS News, National Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recommended a measles vaccine and said he was “unfamiliar” with cutting back state and local public health programs.
The conversation was recorded shortly after a visit to West Texas, where she attended the funeral of an eight-year-old girl who died after contracting measles. The intense outbreak there has been causing over 500 people to become ill and killing two young children.
In a clip of the discussion released Wednesday, Kennedy was one of his strongest supporters, providing the measles vaccine. “People should get the measles vaccine, but the government shouldn't require them,” he said.
But after a while he raised safe concerns about the shot, as he had done before.
For months, Kennedy has faced intense criticism of handling the West Texas outbreak from health professionals who believe that failing to provide full support for vaccinations is hampering efforts to contain the virus.
Additionally, he has promoted unproven treatments for measles, such as cod liver oil. Texas doctors believe its use is linked to signs of liver toxicity in some children arriving at local hospitals.
Throughout the outbreak, Kennedy has often paired vaccine support with a discussion of safety concerns about shots with a “miraculous” alternative treatment.
Over the weekend, he posted on social media that measles, mumps and rubella vaccines were the “most effective way” to prevent the spread of measles. This is a statement of relief from infectious disease experts and anger from his vaccine pathogens.
That night he posted again. This time we praised “two extraordinary healers” who claimed to have effectively treated about 300 measles-attacked children with the antibiotic steroids budesonide and clarithromycin.
Scientists say they argue that there is no cure for measles infections and that otherwise it undermines the importance of vaccination.
Later in the CBS interview, Kennedy was forced to take the administration's recent move to suspend more than $12 billion in federal grants to state programs that address infectious diseases, mental health and childhood vaccinations.
(The judge temporarily blocked the cuts after the state coalition sued the Trump administration.)
Kennedy said he was not familiar with the suspension and claimed it was “mainly a day cut,” referring to the diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by the Trump administration.
Dr. Jonathan Lapook, a medical correspondent for CBS, asked about specific research cuts at the university, including a $750,000 grant to University of Michigan researchers to study diabetes in adolescents.
“I didn't know that, and that's what we see,” Kennedy said. “There were a lot of research that got our attention and it didn't deserve to be cut, and we revive them.”
