“So much for MAHA”: Anti-Vaxxers Fume Over Kennedy Op-Ed Touting Measles Vaccine

The anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist acknowledged that the MMR vaccine saves lives in an op-ed His supporters are not happy.

Written by Walker Bragman Published: 3/3/25

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is facing backlash from his fellow anti-vaxxers because of an op-ed he wrote in response to the measles outbreak in Texas, which claimed the life of an unvaccinated child—the first U.S. measles death in decades. Published by Fox News, the piece acknowledged the benefits of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine the secretary has spent years casting doubt on.

Titled, “Measles outbreak is a call to action for all of us,” the piece noted that “Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness with certain health risks, especially to unvaccinated individuals,” and explained that “vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”

“The MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease,” the subhead read.

Measles, a preventable but highly infectious disease that can cause lasting health complications and even death, has seeing a resurgence in recent years after being declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 due to widespread vaccine skepticism. Today, there are outbreaks in no fewer than ten states.

Kennedy and his allies have been major drivers of that skepticism. Once named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as one of the most prolific vaccine misinformation spreaders on the internet, the secretary previously headed up the anti-vax dark money group Children’s Health Defense—and was paid handsomely for it. He has made claims like, “there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective” and repeatedly falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism, including during his confirmation hearings at which he cited a deeply flawed study published in a journal run by his allies.

The Fox op-ed comes amid heightened public scrutiny. At Trump’s first cabinet meeting last week, the HHS Kennedy too was notably dismissive of the measles outbreaks, declaring, “measles outbreaks are not unusual.” Children’s Health Defense had his back, defending the remarks and casting doubt on the official diagnosis and MMR vaccine. In an article in its publication, The Defender, the group suggested that perhaps the cause of death could not be determined from publicly available information.

“Texas health authorities today announced the death of a child who tested positive for measles, setting off a spate of media reports blaming the measles outbreaks in Texas in New Mexico on declining vaccination rates,” it read. “Some doctors and scientists pushed back, saying too little information about the child’s health has been released so far to assume that a measles vaccine would have prevented the death.”

It is not clear that Kennedy‘s op-ed will quiet public frustration. Critics of the secretary have responded to the piece by noting his role in fueling vaccine hesitancy. Some observed that the op-ed is not a full-throated endorsement of vaccination. Indeed, Kennedy did not actually recommend it, maintaining that vaccination is a personal choice for parents. The piece also tacitly downplayed the need for the vaccine, claiming that “tens of thousands died with, or of, measles annually in 19th Century America” but “by 1960 -- before the vaccine’s introduction -- improvements in sanitation and nutrition had eliminated 98% of measles deaths.”

“Good nutrition remains a best defense against most chronic and infectious illnesses,” he continued. “Vitamins A, C, and D, and foods rich in vitamins B12, C, and E should be part of a balanced diet.”

Nevertheless, even the acknowledgment that the MMR vaccine saves lives was too much for some anti-vaxxers, who were left feeling betrayed by Kennedy.

One notable critic was naturopath and holistic nutritionist Henry Ealy, the founder of a health institute in Portland, Oregon. Ealy has long been an ally of Children’s Health Defense and medical contrarian. He once brought a lawsuit seeking the prosecution of public health officials from both the Trump and Biden administrations, alleging that they had committed fraud against the U.S. amid the COVID-19 pandemic by failing to ensure the accuracy of the data collected. It further alleged that they had manipulated that data. The case was dismissed and the plaintiffs’ appeal was denied.

“I can't tell you how much I do NOT approve of this message @SecKennedy,” Ealy tweeted about Kennedy’s op-ed. “I worked my ass off Friday for this?????!!!!! Fine... We'll do it alone then.”

Ealy was not alone. Another X user asked “is RFK being threatened or has he been compromised?”

Mike Adams, founder of the far-right anti-vaccine website Natural News, expressed his own disappointment and disbelief, tweeting, “If RFK, Jr. actually wrote this, then he has been captured and replaced with a robot clone.”

“Nearly every statement in this paragraph from a Fox News article attributed to him is blatantly false and contradicts his previous statements on vaccine risks,” he wrote.

QAnon influencer John Sabal, who identifies as “The Patriot Voice” on X, called Kennedy’s op-ed a “MASK OFF moment.”

“So much for ‘MAHA’,” he wrote.

Another X user accused Kennedy of being an “Impostor” for pushing the “dangerous” MMR vaccine. Right-wing pundit and “licensed medical professional” Jane Ruby, who goes by “Dr. Jane Ruby” on social media and wears a stethoscope in her X profile banner photo despite not being a medical doctor, also tore into the HHS secretary.

“Another RFK Jr. flip - he's now pushing the LIVE measles vaccines, MMR-II and MMRV (ProQuad),” she posted. “I was right from the beginning.”

Still, not every anti-vaxxer was ready to abandon the new HHS secretary. Larry Cook, whose project Stop Mandatory Vaccination was identified in a 2019 study as one of two entities buying most of the anti-vaccine Facebook ads at the time (the other was Kennedy’s World Mercury Project, which became CHD)—put out a short statement responding to the op-ed.

“Though unfortunate that the vaccine is being recommended, what also was mentioned is that it should be a parent’s choice (end vax mandates), and that nutrients and raising healthy children is also an option,” he wrote. “Baby steps.”