RFK Jr. Was Mountaineering in California as Measles Outbreak Worsened

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a vaccine conspiracy theorist with no real medical experience — which is why thousands of doctors and dozens of Nobel Prize winners opposed his confirmation to run the Department of Health and Human Services, and why countless others have been concerned about his ability to lead the nation through an infectious disease outbreak.

Well, measles has been spreading through West Texas since late January, and, sure enough, RFK Jr. hasn’t appeared up to the task.

Kennedy addressed the measles outbreak during President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting late last month. He largely brushed off the severity of the outbreak — claiming, falsely, that it’s “not unusual” — despite it resulting in the first measles death in the United States in a decade. 

A few days later, Kennedy was exploring nature in California. “Afternoon mountaineering above Coachella Valley,” he captioned a Facebook post featuring a few shots of him smiling atop some rocks.

Politico reported on Thursday that the post caused alarm throughout HHS, where officials are working around the clock to contain the disease that has already infected over 150 people. “It’s a serious role, he’s just a couple of weeks in and measles is not a common occurrence, and it should be all hands on deck,” a former Trump official who has spoken to current health officials told the outlet. “When you’re taking a selfie out at Coachella, it’s pretty clear that you’re checked out.”

The reason measles outbreaks are not common — despite what Kennedy said during the Cabinet meeting last week — is the efficacy of the vaccine. The disease has made something of a comeback in the past 20 years amid a rise in vaccine hesitancy, which Kennedy has long been fueling.

It isn’t surprising that he’s pushing alternative medicine rather than vaccination as the outbreak spreads. Kennedy touted

the MMR vaccine and said Americans need to make a “personal choice” about whether to get it in an op-ed for Fox News on Sunday, but he also praised the effects of vitamin A, writing that it can “dramatically reduce measles mortality.” Experts have pushed back. “Vitamin A is not a substitute for vaccination,” Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, recently told CNN, with Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security adding that Kennedy is taking information about vitamin A from scientific studies “out of context.”

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote a letter to Kennedy the following day. “In your March 2nd op-ed responding to the Texas measles outbreak, which has already killed one unvaccinated child, you failed to include a strong call for vaccinations. Instead, you claimed that ‘good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious diseases.’ Do you believe good nutrition is a better defense against measles than the MMR vaccine? Will you change course and tell American parents to vaccinate their children to protect against measles, yes or no?”

Kennedy went on Fox News to discuss the outbreak on Tuesday. He did promote vaccination, but also touted how the HHS has “delivered vitamin A,” while also citing the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin, and cod liver oil as treatments. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, a former professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who served as President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response coordinator, wrote on X that the appearance was “beyond absurd.”

“No, steroids don’t treat measles,” he continued. “No Cod Liver Oil doesn’t treat measles. Vitamin A helps in poor countries where kids have vitamin deficiency. Managing measles is about prevention (vaccines), not quack treatments.”

Unfortunately for the people in West Texas contending with the disease — and for the rest of America — quack treatments are what’s in order as long as Kennedy is leading the nation’s health services.