In visit to Texas, RFK Jr. said autism, diabetes deserve more attention than measles

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U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a visit to Texas on Tuesday that measles deserves less attention than other chronic diseases, while downplaying the number of deaths that have occurred in the state’s historic outbreak of the virus.

During a visit to Texas A&M University in College Station, Kennedy said that Europe’s measles deaths are higher than the U.S.’ “four deaths in 20 years,” two of whom were Texas children this year.

He also said more attention should be focused on chronic conditions like diabetes, as well as autism, which Kennedy has previously linked to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. The scientific community has widely debunked the theory, asserting the vaccine does not cause autism.

“Every child who gets measles gets a headline,” Kennedy said during the visit alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “When I was kid, there were 2 million measles cases a year and nobody wrote about them.”

Over the last few months, Kennedy has been criticized for his response to the measles outbreak, which has been largely centered in Texas. He has questioned the role measles had in the deaths of three individuals confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control this year. He has praised private medical providers who have used alternative treatment methods on measles patients, to ease some symptoms including vitamin A and budesonide, an inhaled steroid typically used for asthma but does not “cure” measles.

Public health officials have repeatedly said that two doses of the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles.

He stressed on Tuesday that his agency has to take care of Texans who want to vaccinate, but also Texans who do not.

“We have to talk to those people, too,” he said.

Kennedy stressed the federal support he’s sending to Texas, which has footed the bill so far to try to contain the outbreak through testing and vaccination. So far, the effort has cost the state more than $4.5 million since the first case was detected in late January, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“We’re working very closely with the governor of Texas with the public health officials in Texas. We’ve provided them enormous support from the CDC, all the support that they’ve requested for vaccines and for alternative medicine,” he said.

He also struck an optimistic note about the state of Texas’ outbreak. He said measles cases are slowing as officials are doing well to manage the outbreak.

While Tuesday’s state measles update shows the number of cases slowing in Gaines County, the heart of the outbreak, areas new to the outbreak, such as El Paso, are showing a faster rise in cases. On Tuesday, El Paso had 11 new cases, a 45% increase since Friday.

Texas health officials were more cautious about whether this slowing of infections could be maintained. On Tuesday the number of measles cases in Texas had risen to 663 cases in 26 counties. Of those, 87 patients had been hospitalized and two school-aged children have died since the outbreak began in January.

"It’s too soon to say. We can really only see trends looking backwards. We’d need to see a few weeks of decline to say that it was trending downward,” said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. “There was a lot of travel for the Easter holiday so we’re watching to see if there is an increase in cases over the next few weeks."

Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and vocal vaccine proponent, said work remains to contain the outbreak.

“The numbers are still going up,” Hotez said. “This is not a time to take your foot off the gas.”

Rollins said she invited Kennedy to her alma mater to see Texas A&M’s research, as the two agencies work on the upcoming five-year Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The report, which both secretaries said would come out this summer, is expected to be a rejection of the latest 453-page advisory report, completed under the Biden Administration, that typically informs policies on healthy eating.

“Traditionally, the dietary guidelines have been a political document,” Kennedy said. “Today, we’re changing that.”

During the event, Rollins ticked off Americans’ poor health metrics, including how about 100 million Americans are obese and the rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other diet-related diseases on the rise. She also announced a second round of funding for USDA’s marketing assistance for specialty crops program. A total of $1.3 billion is being made available to farmers who grow specialty items including fruits, vegetables, vegetable seed, mushrooms, tree nuts, nursery crops, Christmas trees and culinary and medicinal herbs and spices.

Kennedy complimented A&M’s commitment to providing better nutrition to the American people, after making several tour stops on the campus including a sorghum greenhouse.

“No longer will taxpayers pay for junk food and sugary drinks for our SNAP recipients. When we talk about chronic obesity and chronic disease, especially amongst our youth and our adolescents, it hits the hardest with those who are the most food challenged,” Rollins said.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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