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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Issues: measles vaccination

Measles Is Harmful, Contrary to Flimsy Social Media Claims of Long-Term Benefits

Measles Is Harmful, Contrary to Flimsy Social Media Claims of Long-Term Benefits
March 14, 2025

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.

RFK Jr. Misleads on Vitamin A, Unsupported Therapies for Measles

RFK Jr. Misleads on Vitamin A, Unsupported Therapies for Measles
March 7, 2025

In the midst of a growing measles outbreak in Texas that has killed one child, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has misleadingly focused on vitamin A, including from cod liver oil, and two non-standard medications as treatments for measles.

RFK Jr. Minimizes Measles Outbreak in Texas

RFK Jr. Minimizes Measles Outbreak in Texas
February 27, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services, downplayed the seriousness of an ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, falsely claiming that people had been hospitalized “mainly for quarantine” and misleadingly stating that the situation is “not unusual.” The Texas outbreak is already larger than any single outbreak last year and has led to the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015.