Irwin Redlener: How many measles deaths will it take for RFK Jr. to step down?

Another young child in Texas has just died of measles.

That eight-year-old girl will not be the last tragic consequence of misinformation and conspiracy theories promulgated by anti-vaccine activists, none more influential than now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Yes, it might be true that in the last few days Kennedy is seemingly more positive about the measles vaccine than in the past. This is a perfect example of too little, too late.

As secretary, the famous anti-vaccine activist is the most senior public health official in the U.S. This may be one of the most irresponsible presidential Cabinet appointments in modern memory.

Additionally, in the past few weeks, distinguished physician-scientist Peter Marks, head of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division, was forced out of his job. He said in his resignation letter, ”It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by [Secretary Kennedy], but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Alarmingly, some 10,000 Health and Human Services staff, including senior scientists, have also been shown the door. In many cases, this was due to the administration’s random thoughtlessness or the scientists’ unwillingness to go along with its arbitrary, ideology-based public health positions.

As the measles outbreak has now spread to nearly 20 states, with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, non-physician Kennedy publicly promoted a good diet, Vitamin A and cod liver oil as treatments and possible prevention strategies for measles.

These are unproven and dangerous ideas. But some ardent vaccine-deniers, parents and physicians just won’t quit the false, discredited belief that the measles vaccine is linked to autism.

As a result, health officials in Texas are already seeing evidence of Vitamin A toxicity in children being given high doses of supplements by well-meaning parents who have fallen for the nonsense being promoted by Kennedy, supported by misinformed doctors and amplified by conspiracist social media echo chambers.

There is still more bad news on the horizon for the millions of American children and adults who suffer from chronic, debilitating and life-threatening diseases, from cancer, genetic disorders and heart disease to diabetes and neurological conditions. Using a cast of medically naive, non-scientist advisors, led by Elon Musk and sanctioned by President Trump, Kennedy is overseeing billions of dollars of cuts to vital research programs and the firings of some of America’s most brilliant and productive medical scientists.

Kennedy is indeed a vocal spreader of dangerous health misinformation and is despoiling America’s reputation as the leading public health agency in the world. But there are three additional concerns that deeply worry legitimate medical scientists and public health experts.

First, now that he has control of the nation’s Cabinet-level health agency, Kennedy is no ordinary anti-science commentator ranting on the internet. He has an enormous megaphone to spread misinformation.

But even prior to getting the nod from President Trump, Kennedy was the most influential anti-vaccine voice in the world. His organization, Children’s Health Defense, created in 2007, has been relentless in wreaking havoc and death by spreading false information about HIV/AIDS and other lethal conditions in developing countries across the planet.

And he has shamelessly exploited his family’s internationally revered name in his quest to mislead millions of people desperate for information.

Who would doubt that the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and nephew of President John F. Kennedy would provide anything but honest, science-based, life-saving health information? Unfortunately, too many people have been duped by an esteemed political pedigree that Kennedy Jr. has routinely exploited.

The second issue with Kennedy is his failure to understand basic principles of public health. While your personal healthcare decisions are a matter of selecting among choices, hopefully informed by reliable information and recommendations from a competent healthcare provider, your decisions are, indeed, all yours.

Whether you choose to go on a particular chemotherapy regimen or not won’t endanger others. If you choose to eat an unhealthy diet or would rather not exercise, it’s on you.

But public health operates on a fundamentally different set of principles. Here, the goal is to protect the health and safety of entire communities. It is explicitly not just about your well-being. You cannot sell food or goods deemed dangerous and advertise that they are safe. You can’t drive drunk because that would be a threat to the lives of others.

If you don’t vaccinate your child and the level of vaccination among school children in a community falls below a certain threshold, all children and many vulnerable adults face the possibility of contracting a once lethal disease that had been, thanks to the measles vaccine, declared officially eradicated in the U.S. 25 years ago.

Requiring children to be vaccinated should not be seen as a personal parental choice. It is a public health decision that also protects everyone else’s children and grandchildren.

And it is Kennedy’s responsibility, as the most senior public health official in America, to distinguish between health decisions that affect individuals versus those that affect the whole of society.

The ability to predict and prevent pandemics is suddenly at grave risk. Kennedy has been publicly promoting dangerously misguided methods of controlling a possible bird flu pandemic as the U.S. works to withdraw from the World Health Organization. Both are terrible ideas in 2025.

Every Republican senator who voted to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary should understand how much their decisions to support an unqualified presidential cabinet pick will undermine the health and well-being of all Americans, including their own constituents.

Irwin E. Redlener is an adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, the founding director of Columbia’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness and an adjunct professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

From The HILL: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5236083-anti-vaxxer-kennedy-health/