RFK Jr. Promotes Vitamin A, Vaccine 'Freedom of Choice' amid 'Rapidly' Expanding Measles Outbreak

Mar. 15, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about the measles vaccine amid worsening outbreak.Photo:Rebecca Noble/Getty

Rebecca Noble/Getty

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.said “I’m a freedom-of-choice person” when it comes to vaccines — amid a fatal outbreak of measles that theU.S. Centers for Disease Controlsaid will “continue to expand rapidly.”

In aMarch 11 interviewwith Sean Hannity on Fox News, Kennedy, theSecretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressed the worsening outbreak, saying “Anybody who wants a vaccine can get one, and we will make sure of that, and they can get it for free.”

However, he emphasized, “I’m a freedom-of-choice person, yeah. We should have transparency. We should have informed choice, and if people don’t want it, the government shouldn’t force them to do it.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),.Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty

Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty

“What we need to do is give them the best information, encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy went on to claim that the vaccine causes encephalitis (brain swelling) but there have been just three published reports of this, theCDCsays. Between 1999 and 2004 alone, more than 500 million doses of the vaccine were given,according to estimates.

Encephalitis, in fact, is a symptom of severe cases of measles. “Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella," theCDCsays.

Along with vaccines, Kennedy said, “we’re providing vitamin A” to outbreak-impacted areas, telling Hannity that studies show it can “help against serious disease and death.”  Vitamin A supplements, theMayo Clinicexplains, “are recommended for children with measles who are at an increased risk of vitamin A deficiency. Research suggests that supplementation might reduce death due to measles.”

Stock image of a child getting vaccinated.Getty

Getty

Experts are quick to point out a key fact: “If someone is infected with measles, then vitamin A can help mitigate some of the longer-term sequelae but it does not prevent measles in an unvaccinated person,” University of Texas Health infectious disease epidemiologist Catherine Troisi toldHouston Public Media. “Moderate doses of vitamin A can be useful in treatment, but the better choice is to prevent measles from happening in the first place through vaccination.”

It’s unknown if those who died from measles in this current outbreak had a vitamin A deficiency, which the Mayo Clinic says is uncommon in the U.S.

Kennedy also claimed that historically, when it came to measles, “the people who tended to die were people with comorbidities and they were malnourished. Which is less of a problem because the vaccine came around in 1963, and the WIC program which fed all these hungry kids in our country came in in ‘64.” [Per itswebsite, WIC — Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — began in 1972.]

A pop-up measles testing site in Seminole, Texas.Jan Sonnenmair/Getty

Jan Sonnenmair/Getty

Two people have died in Texas — including anunvaccinated child— and one in New Mexico amid worseningoutbreak. Most recent data shows 223 confirmed cases in Texas, theTexas Department of State Health Servicessaid March 11.

The department also said that the child who died from measles “had no known underlying conditions.”

The CDC issued anofficial health advisoryon the deadly measles spread, calling vaccination “the most important tool for preventing measles” as “more cases are expected as this outbreak continues to expand rapidly.”

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source: people.com