As Texas measles outbreak grows, RFK Jr. suggests getting measles is the best way to fight it

The West Texas-originated measles outbreak has now infected 250 people, most of them unvaccinated, and left two dead. However, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week suggested the solution isn’t vaccines but more people getting measles. Kennedy made the remark Tuesday during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. “It used to be — when you and I were kids — that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that,” Kennedy said. “The vaccine is effective for some people for life; for many people it wanes.”

Kennedy’s response to the Texas outbreak has drawn repeated criticism from public health experts.

During a Feb. 27 cabinet meeting, Kennedy — a prominent anti-vaxxer — said the eruption of cases was “not unusual,” according to multiple media reports. As evidence, he argued that there have been at least a dozen measles cases annually over the past two decades.

Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, meaning health officials documented no new cases spreading within the country. New cases were sometimes found when people contracted measles abroad and returned to the United States, however.

During the recent outbreak originating in Gaines County, Texas, measles spread quickly among unvaccinated populations.

Gaines County has a large population of Mennonites, a group with a low vaccination rate, according to Johns Hopkins University. Children in the religious group tend to be homeschooled or attend small private schools where vaccinations aren’t requisite for attendance.

Even as measles has waned in the United States, flare-ups have occurred in tight-knit religious communities with low vaccination rates, according to a report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In 2019, the U.S. recorded a spike of 1,274 measles cases, including more than 900 in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York. In 2014, an Amish community in Ohio experienced an outbreak of 383 cases.

After drawing rebukes from public health officials for his Feb. 27 comment downplaying the Texas measles cases, Kennedy later acknowledged the outbreak is “serious.” However, during Tuesday’s Fox News appearance, he was back to peddling falsehoods, including the suggestion that getting measles was the best way to combat its spread.

Because measles is so contagious, at least 95% of a community must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity and prevent outbreaks, Dr. Marschall Runge told the Current via email. Runge serves as dean and executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Even so, natural measles infections don’t lead to herd immunity, research shows. Instead, such infections result in immune amnesia, wiping out 11%-73% of a body’s pre-existing immune memory, according to a 2019 study in Science.

“This weakens immunity to other diseases like influenza, tuberculosis and pertussis for months or years,” Runge said.

Despite Kennedy’s claims, vaccination remains the most effective method for guarding against measles infections, according the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). During a Q&A portion of the Feb. 27 cabinet meeting, RFK Jr. said those hospitalized as part of the Lone Star State outbreak were there “mainly for quarantine.” However, West Texas health officials said those in the hospital were there to treat respiratory issues related to the disease.

The CDC estimates one to three of every 1,000 childhood measles infections result in death due to respiratory or neurological complications from the highly virulent disease.

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.