Anti-vaccine group once led by RFK Jr circulates false assertions amid measles outbreak

Key Highlights

• In South Carolina, 224 people are in quarantine amid an outbreak that has sickened 144 people.
• Most are unvaccinated children. Children’s Health Defense, or CHD, which Kennedy led from 2015 to 2024, produces a daily stream of articles and videos stoking fear about vaccines and falsely suggesting that the risks associated with vaccine-preventable diseases are exaggerated. At the height of the South Carolina outbreak this month, when more than 200 people were in quarantine, CHD published an article circulating anti-vaccine tropes and arguing that criticism of Kennedy over the spread of measles was unfounded. The article says CHD’s chief scientific officer “questioned whether measles needs to be prevented in the first place”.
• It quoted the host of a CHD. TV show saying it was “absurd” to blame Kennedy for outbreaks. CHD did not respond to a Guardian request for comment. As measles spread through the US this year, Kennedy has made statements that undermined confidence in the measles vaccine and the public health response, experts said.
• In one interview with CBS, he said “people should get the measles vaccine”, but then raised concerns about whether it was adequately safety-tested.
• In an appearance in Indiana, he said the vaccine waned in effectiveness and was “leaky”, and suggested the case counts in the US were not so bad, compared with larger numbers overseas. The CDC says two doses of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, is 97% effective.