PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - When the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., endorsed the measles vaccine this month after an outbreak in Texas claimed the life of a second child, his comments made waves because he has spent 20 years making false claims that vaccines are unsafe.
Translating what Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies hear in his response to the measles outbreak
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - When the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., endorsed the measles vaccine this month after an outbreak in Texas claimed the life of a second child, his comments made waves because he has spent 20 years making false claims that vaccines are unsafe.
Many of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies stood by him anyway, trying to tamp down concerns from others who accused Kennedy of abandoning their movement.
That’s because, according to doctors, public health experts and propaganda researchers who know Kennedy's history well, the health and human services secretary is threading the needle between his agency’s role as a neutral arbiter of science and the rhetoric of anti-vaccine activists. They say his word choices reflect that he is working from the anti-vaccine playbook he has used for much of his career in public life.
Below, The Associated Press examines his comments about the measles outbreak that has infected more than 700 people nationwide and killed three, how his allies have interpreted them, and the facts according to scientists.