Public Health — News & Analysis

Measles kills two children as RFK Jr. equivocates on vaccines (April 8, 2025)

April 8, 2025 — A major measles outbreak originating in an undervaccinated community in Gaines County, West Texas, spread to multiple states and killed two healthy, unvaccinated children — the first measles deaths in the United States in more than 20 years — while HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a series of mixed and misleading public statements rather than a clear call to vaccinate.

The outbreak began on February 14, the day after Kennedy was confirmed as HHS Secretary. By early April, hundreds of children had been infected, with 99 requiring hospitalization in Lubbock alone. When Kennedy did address the outbreak, he falsely claimed measles vaccines kill people annually and cause blindness and deafness, promoted aerosolized budesonide as an alternative treatment, and posted photos with the families of deceased children alongside doctors touting unproven remedies. His response stood in stark contrast to the first Trump administration's reaction to a comparable 2019 outbreak, when HHS Secretary Alex Azar issued unequivocal statements that vaccines were "a safe and highly effective public health tool."

Public health experts and former officials pointed to the episode as a direct consequence of anti-vaccine rhetoric shaping federal health policy. "The current administration and RFK have created uncertainty — and people are dying," said one vaccine advocate. The West Texas outbreak was declared over in August 2025, but by that point outbreaks had spread to dozens more states.