Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spent years promoting debunked theories and sowing doubts about the safety of vaccines, on Sunday promoted the measles shot.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy wrote on the social media website X.
His post comes amid a resurgence of measles cases and reports that a second child with measles died from the virus. She was not vaccinated and had no underlying health conditions, according to the Texas Department of State Health. The health department reported the first child death of the year on Feb. 26, also in Texas.
The U.S., before this year, had not recorded a measles-related death in a decade.
“As of today, there are 642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas,” Kennedy said on social media platform X.
As recently as last month, on television and in an op-Ed, Kennedy was warning people of the alleged dangers of the measles vaccine.
“It does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy said about the MMR vaccine on Fox News. “It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, etcetera. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.”
Medical leaders have repeatedly refuted Kennedy’s claims. “The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is extraordinarily safe and effective,” Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement last month, as measles spread throughout Texas.
Kennedy has also promoted cod liver oil and other treatments he said were less risky as an alternative to the vaccine.
Hospitalized measles patients are often deficient in vitamin A which cod liver oil can supplement, according to several studies. But “it should be noted that vitamin A does not prevent measles, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “It is not appropriate for parents to use vitamin A as a preventative measure.”
Kennedy’s about face on the MMR vaccine vexed Trump administration supporters online who supported his confirmation because of his pledge to investigate vaccines for any connection to autism — a belief that has long been debunked by scientists.