{"id":744251,"date":"2026-04-22T01:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/744251\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:25:18","slug":"rfk-jr-gives-xenophobic-reason-for-measles-outbreaks-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/744251\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. Gives Xenophobic Reason For Measles Outbreaks In U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. accused immigrants of being responsible for the country\u2019s multiple infectious disease outbreaks \u2014 dodging his own responsibility as the voice of U.S. health policy who regularly rails against the very vaccines that prevent such outbreaks.<\/a><\/p>\n

The secretary made the xenophobic comment<\/a> at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday about his agency\u2019s 2027 budget. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) expressed concern to Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaxxer, over the rising number of infectious disease cases such as measles and polio.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery patient, every child with measles should be treated with compassion. But I had seven cases just in the last couple of weeks in my county. The contagious spots have been grocery stores and colleges, you can\u2019t stop it,\u201d Dingell said of measles, the highly contagious disease that U.S. officials announced they eliminated in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve met with the family of one of them, and I said, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you get immunized?\u2019\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd they said, \u2018We\u2019re listening to our government. Our government tells us not to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before lawmakers in Washington, D.C., April 21, 2026. At a House hearing, Kennedy blamed the several measles outbreaks across the country on immigrants who arrive from countries that have not eliminated the disease, dodging responsibility as a vocal source of vaccine misinformation.<\/p>\n

Graeme Sloan\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The U.S. is at great risk of losing its measles elimination status<\/a>, as several states fight to contain outbreaks<\/a> that originated in Texas last year. Public health experts have always maintained that the best way to prevent infection is to receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.<\/p>\n

But despite Kennedy being the most vocal source of vaccine misinformation<\/a>, the secretary tried to blame the outbreaks entirely on immigrants who come to the U.S. from countries where measles is not eliminated \u2014 framing the issue as a global epidemic rather than a national public health crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with me,\u201d he told lawmakers. \u201cIf you\u2019re worried about polio and tuberculosis, you should look at the immigration policies in this country. \u2019Cause the place where it\u2019s occurring are the place[s] where the immigrants are going, because they\u2019re not vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the HHS did not immediately respond to HuffPost\u2019s request for evidence to support the secretary\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

Dingell rejected Kennedy\u2019s answer, reminding him that many Americans have stopped getting vaccinated. While measles cases are surging<\/a> globally \u2014 with Canada having recently lost its elimination status<\/a> \u2014 the U.S. is rapidly declining in its ability to protect Americans from the disease.<\/p>\n

The secretary blamed the drop in inoculation rates on the U.S. government\u2019s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Kennedy parroted misinformation and confusion over vaccine safety and efficacy<\/a>. Notably, efforts to inaccurately pin the spread of COVID-19 on Chinese people led to increased hatred, racism and violence<\/a> against members of the broader Asian community in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may think that you\u2019re pro-vaccine, but people aren\u2019t hearing that \u2014 and I\u2019m talking to the people that are actually sick right now. So that\u2019s worrying me,\u201d Dingell said. \u201cAnd you\u2019re hiring people that are vaccine-skeptic health appointees, and they are spreading, quite frankly, lies about vaccine safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public health experts say it takes a 95% vaccination rate<\/a> to prevent outbreaks. In the 2024-25 school year, national rates fell to 92.5%, according to data<\/a> from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. accused immigrants of being responsible for the country\u2019s multiple infectious disease…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":744252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,49697,67,132,68,2857],"class_list":["post-744251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-rfk-jr","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vaccines"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116445755903843358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744251","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=744251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}