In 2016, while researching healthy ways to get pregnant, Simpson became drawn into the anti-vaccine movement after becoming \u201chooked\u201d on the docuseries The Truth About Vaccines, which featured RFK Jr., founder of Children\u2019s Health Defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Man, if a Kennedy is saying to be cautious, that\u2019s probably something,\u201d Simpson told Raw Story <\/a>about her initial reaction. <\/p>\n Children\u2019s Health Defense, a nonprofit founded by Kennedy, has been identified<\/a> as one of the leading sources of false and misleading claims about vaccines, with a worldwide impact.<\/a><\/p>\n Over the years, it has filed federal and state lawsuits challenging vaccine policies, including a 2019 case<\/a> in New York over school vaccine requirements following a measles outbreak, which the group lost.<\/p>\n Simpson went down the anti-vaccine \u201crabbit hole\u201d and became an \u201canti-vax influencer,\u201d even dressing up as a measles virus for Halloween. <\/p>\n After the first measles-related death of a six-year-old in two decades, anti-vaccine influencers<\/a> at Children\u2019s Health Defense and beyond reframed the tragedy into material urging people not to get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.<\/p>\n Dr. Leslie Treece of Cookeville Pediatric Associates in Tennessee told Raw Story that she has seen an increase in parents refusing to vaccinate their children due to misinformation. Still, she expects a \u201cbig pendulum swing\u201d back to vaccines as outbreaks rise.<\/p>\n In 2020, after the pandemic began, Simpson supported mask-wearing and decided to consult a specialist about some anti-vaccine claims. When the specialist debunked the argument that an emulsifier in vaccines opens the blood-brain barrier, allowing aluminum to enter and cause brain inflammation linked to autism, Simpson began researching \u201cactual biology.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was just like, \u2018Well, dang, what if I\u2019m wrong about everything?\u2019\u201d Simpson said. She later co-founded the group and podcast Back to the Vax<\/a> with Lydia Greene, fellow mother and former anti-vaxxer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government officials are saying the same thing, so why should they be afraid to spread this information? It\u2019s mainstream now,\u201d said Greene, speaking about the spread of the anti-vaccine movement.<\/p>\n Greene, a mother of three, described her earlier self as a \u201ccrunchy mom,\u201d a term for mothers who pursue a holistic, natural approach and are skeptical of conventional medicine, often championing<\/a> Kennedy\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n Since RFK Jr. was appointed<\/a> Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he has changed eligibility rules for COVID vaccines, replaced the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with members critics call \u201cvaccine skeptics,\u201d cut $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development, and launched an investigation into a debunked link between vaccines and autism.<\/p>\n Even though the health secretary said<\/a> that he is not taking \u201cpeople\u2019s vaccines away from them,\u201d health officials are worried that the mixed vaccine messaging will result in lower vaccination. <\/p>\n \u201cMany of the myths and disinformation coming from this administration is likely to confuse parents and consumers of vaccines, and that will result in lower vaccination,\u201d Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who directs the University of Minnesota\u2019s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told<\/a> PBS.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way this is going to change is when kids start dying, and they\u2019re going to die in high enough numbers where you know a kid that ended up with horrible brain damage or death because of a vaccine-preventable disease,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n In 2025, the U.S. reached a milestone<\/a> in reported measles cases, the highest since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. The CDC has confirmed<\/a> three deaths so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some kind of karmic justice maybe for me in that I wished this would happen when I was an anti-vaxxer, and now I\u2019m watching it play out, and it\u2019s a disaster, and I feel guilty a little,\u201d Greene concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-vaccine moms are rethinking what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. preaches. \u201cHe [RFK Jr] was a big part of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":264843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[107313,210,15010,67,132,68,2857],"class_list":{"0":"post-264842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-anti-vaxxers","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-vaccines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115289783810714357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EOEB4VU7QNEQHCX5FRT6DEA3KE.jpg\")
Lydia Greene and Heather Simpson co-founded Back to the Vax after rethinking their anti-vax stance. UCG\/Michael Siluk\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images <\/p>\n![\"HHS](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4FKSPKWDPRBWLCRH3Y67RPQS6E.jpg\")
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the founder of the nonprofit Children\u2019s Health Defense. Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag <\/p>\n![\"CORAL](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTCNL76QHRB2JPHMAN4KKWPBMA.jpg\")
In 2025, the U.S. reached a milestone in reported measles cases, with many parents opting not to vaccinate their children. Joe Raedle\/Joe Raedle\/Getty Images <\/p>\n