Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. accused immigrants of being responsible for the country’s multiple infectious disease outbreaks — dodging his own responsibility as the voice of U.S. health policy who regularly rails against the very vaccines that prevent such outbreaks.
The secretary made the xenophobic comment at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday about his agency’s 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.
“Every 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’t stop it,” Dingell said of measles, the highly contagious disease that U.S. officials announced they eliminated in 2000.
“I’ve met with the family of one of them, and I said, ‘Why didn’t you get immunized?’” she continued. “And they said, ‘We’re listening to our government. Our government tells us not to.’”
The U.S. is at great risk of losing its measles elimination status, as several states fight to contain outbreaks 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.
