The largest measles outbreak Texas has seen in over 30 years is sweeping through the western part of the state. According to information released yesterday by the Texas Department of State Health Services, 58 cases have been confirmed throughout five counties. The total number of cases is likely much higher, however, with “health officials suspect[ing] that between 200 and 300 people are infected but untested.”

The vast majority of cases are occurring among the unvaccinated. Only four confirmed cases in Texas were vaccinated. Gaines County, which has the most confirmed cases, is a rural area that has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates in Texas. During the 2023-2024 school year, 18% of kindergarten students had not received the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella.

Meanwhile, RFK Jr., who was confirmed last week as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), appeared in Texas on Tuesday. He did not address the burgeoning measles crisis. Instead, he continued his anti-vaccine advocacy, falsely suggesting that childhood vaccines like MMR may be linked to chronic illnesses. He said he would convene a new panel to study the childhood vaccination schedule and other “formally taboo” issues.

Eight measles cases have also been reported in nearby New Mexico. While it is likely that the cases are related to the Texas outbreak, a connection has not yet been established.

Vaccination rates have been falling across the country in recent years. In the 2022-2023 school year, vaccine requirements were only met by 93% of kindergarten students, falling short of the 95% necessary in order to stop the risk of outbreaks. Across the country, around 280,000 kindergarten students did not have a documented MMR vaccine during the 2023-2024 school year.

Measles is a highly contagious and dangerous disease. According to the CDC, “one infected patient can spread measles [to] up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts.” Thirteen of the confirmed cases in Texas, which have primarily occurred among children and young adults, have resulted in hospitalization. Symptoms of the disease include a high fever, cough, and a rash. In severe cases, the disease can cause “blindness, pneumonia or encephalitis, swelling of the brain.”

Twenty percent of measles cases among the unvaccinated result in hospitalization and “between one and three of every 1,000 children who get measles die from respiratory or neurologic complications,” Forbes reported. Before vaccines became widely available, “measles was the single leading killer of young children globally.”

The MMR vaccine, which is administered in two doses, is highly effective and safe. Getting both doses provides 97% effectiveness against the disease, with one shot providing 93% effectiveness, according to the CDC. The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 due to the effectiveness of the vaccine. But in recent years, cases have begun to climb as vaccination rates have fallen. In 2024, there were 285 confirmed cases across 33 states, with 89% of cases occurring among the unvaccinated or those with an unknown vaccination status. According to the CDC, there have been at least 14 other cases this year, not including the Texas outbreak.

How Kennedy infected the world with anti-vaccine propaganda

In 2005, Kennedy published a nearly 5,000-word article in Rolling Stone and Salon, claiming that thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, was responsible for rising numbers of autism diagnoses in children. Kennedy’s argument relied on a study that was fraudulent. Meanwhile, the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with dozens of studies published in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals" have all concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism. In fact, while the use of thimerosal in vaccines has declined, autism diagnoses have continued to increase.

While Kennedy's article was eventually retracted by both outlets, Kennedy’s crusade against vaccines continued.

In 2015, while promoting the anti-vaccine documentary "Trace Amounts," Kennedy escalated his rhetoric. "They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone," Kennedy said. "This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”

The same year, Kennedy joined the board of the World Mercury Project, now called Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which has been a major source of anti-vaccine activism since 2007. Until it was banned by Meta in 2022, CHD was one of the biggest buyers of anti-vaccine ads on Facebook.

In 2018, when two babies died in Samoa soon after receiving the MMR vaccine, Kennedy and CHD pounced. CHD launched a social media campaign alleging that the babies had died because the vaccines were inherently dangerous. (In fact, the two vaccines at issue had been administered incorrectly.) The Samoan government paused the vaccine program briefly, but when it restarted, many parents were still skeptical — their fears stoked by groups like CHD — and vaccination rates plummeted. In September 2019, a measles outbreak infected over 5,000 Samoans and killed 83, mostly young children. During the outbreak, Kennedy sent a letter to Samoa’s prime minister warning that vaccinations could be spreading the disease. Kennedy also visited Samoa in 2019 and met with anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein.

“Nobody died in Samoa from measles,” Kennedy told an interviewer in August 2024. “They were dying from a bad vaccine.”

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Despite two decades as an anti-vaccine crusader, Kennedy convinced Republican Senators that he would not restrict access to vaccines as the head of HHS.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is a physician and a strong advocate for vaccines. In a post on X today, Cassidy called the measles outbreak in Texas “serious” and promoted the efficacy of the MMR vaccine.

Cassidy said he cast a key vote in favor of Kennedy after “Kennedy gave him assurances that he would not alter the federal vaccine schedule.” A few days after his confirmation, Kennedy is already “investigating” whether the current vaccine schedule is harming Americans.