In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made several unsupported or misleading claims about the measles vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said is safe and “the most important tool to prevent” the disease. Meanwhile, a measles outbreak in Texas continues to expand.
Measles is an extremely contagious vaccine-preventable disease that can lead to death or disability. It also wipes out immune memory for several years after an infection. As an outbreak in Texas continues to expand, social media posts have claimed without sufficient support that measles infections are beneficial later in life against cancer and other diseases, an idea health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has echoed.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be serious and even fatal. Fortunately, it can safely be prevented by vaccination. But in the wake of outbreaks in the U.S. and elsewhere — likely in large part due to low vaccination coverage — social media posts have downplayed the risks of measles and falsely claimed the vaccine “is more dangerous than the actual illness.”
Flu shots and vaccines that protect children against measles, mumps and rubella have been effective in preventing illness, serious disease and death. But a meme has been circulating with the false suggestion that those vaccines are ineffective. Actually, they’ve saved millions of lives and have eliminated both measles and rubella in the U.S.
Over a nearly 18-hour Twitter spree, Darla Shine, the wife of Bill Shine, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications, made a series of false and misleading statements about measles and vaccines.