Four people are dead from measles in Pennsylvania, the worst outbreak in decades is spreading, and the man running the United States Department of Health and Human Services spent last Thursday giving a nearly ninety-minute pep talk to the country's most prominent anti-vaccine organization. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not disappoint his crowd. He told them, from a podium, as the Secretary of Health, that they have 'a strong and steadfast friend at the White House.'
The Conference That Should Not Exist
Kennedy headlined the Washington DC conference of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization he led for nearly two decades before being handed control of the entire federal health apparatus. He is now, technically, the person responsible for protecting Americans from preventable disease. He used the occasion to promise the crowd he is still one of them.
'I spent 40 years in these battles,' Kennedy told the room, according to the Guardian. 'I intend to stay in this fight as long as I am able.' He thanked his friends still working at CHD. The separation between the government official and the advocacy group is, to put it generously, theoretical.
Andrew Wakefield also spoke at the event. If that name doesn't ring a bell: Wakefield is the former gastroenterologist whose medical license was revoked after he fabricated the research that launched the modern anti-vaccine movement. He spoke immediately before and after Kennedy. He is treated, at this conference, as a founding prophet. That is who the HHS Secretary shares a stage with.
Four Dead. One Mention.
Kennedy addressed the measles outbreak exactly once during his hour-and-a-half speech. The Guardian reports his response was to pivot immediately to what he called 'vaccine-injured children,' saying, 'I'd ask you to care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries.'
Three people died from measles in Texas and Arizona last year. Four more are now dead in Pennsylvania. This is the worst measles outbreak in decades, happening in a country that had effectively eliminated the disease through routine vaccination. A quarter of Americans now have doubts about the MMR vaccine, according to recent polling the Guardian cites, after years of campaigns by people who were, until very recently, considered a fringe movement.
The majority of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of this outbreak. Kennedy's response is to tell the people who caused the outbreak that he's their guy. That's the situation.
The Grievance List Gets Longer
In the speech, Kennedy claimed that diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome, and anorexia can all be side effects of routine vaccines. He described children diagnosed with allergies, asthma, ADHD and autism as 'damaged' by vaccines. The scientific consensus on these claims is not complicated or contested: there is no credible evidence supporting them.
He also praised researchers at the University of Southern Denmark who are currently under investigation by their own institution, calling them 'the deities of vaccine research.' Their prior work, per the Guardian, has been called 'a house of cards' by other researchers. Kennedy had attempted to fund their project in Guinea-Bissau before local authorities shut it down.
He also touched on electromagnetic fields and chemtrails. This is the person setting American health policy.
The Movement Celebrates Its Arrival
The conference's mood, according to the Guardian's reporting, was one of barely contained disbelief at how far they'd come. 'Just a few years ago, we were the, you know, hated stepchild in the corner,' said Michael Kane, CHD's director of advocacy. 'Now we are a national movement that isn't going anywhere.'
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called being labeled the 'largest anti-vaccine conference, probably in the world' a 'red badge of courage.' Senator Rand Paul was there. Congressman Thomas Massie was there, and recounted personally lobbying Trump to pick Kennedy for HHS. His advice to the assembled activists on dealing with politicians: 'Get the clowns who are here to do what you want. Get them to get in the clown car you want. And use pressure. Treat them like cattle.'
Mark Gorton, president of the Maha Institute, declared himself 'the boldest anti-vaxxer in the anti-vax conference.' He meant it as a compliment. Nobody in the room disagreed.
The Part Where They Admitted They Got Nervous
There was a brief moment of candor about the fragility of their position. Kane told the crowd that back in the spring, the White House reportedly put a lid on vaccine talk ahead of the midterm elections, and the movement got worried. 'February, March, April, May, vaccine reform got a little quiet, a little scary,' he said. 'Behind the scenes, we're like, yeah, what happened?'
But things bounced back. Kennedy spent ninety minutes reassuring them they hadn't been abandoned. Wakefield got his moment at the microphone. Republican senators and congressmen turned up to pay their respects. CHD's CEO, Mary Holland, told the crowd they now have an opportunity to speak to mainstream media as peers.
The measles outbreak currently raging across multiple states is, according to Massie, a 'psy op' designed to control public opinion about Kennedy. He said this at a conference with federal elected officials in attendance. Nobody walked out.
The Dingo Take
A cabinet secretary spoke for ninety minutes at a conference organized by his former employer, promised them he is still fighting their fight, shared a stage with a disgraced fraud whose fabricated research killed children across two decades, and mentioned the active public health crisis he is responsible for managing exactly once, to change the subject. That's not complicated to analyze. That's a man telling you exactly who he is.
The thing that should keep you up at night is not Kennedy himself. It's the architecture around him. Republican senators showing up to collect applause. A congressman coaching activists to 'treat them like cattle.' A movement that spent years being laughed out of school board meetings now setting the agenda for the United States Department of Health and Human Services. They are not confused about what happened. They won. They know they won. They are celebrating, openly, at a conference in Washington DC, while people die of a disease that a vaccine has prevented reliably for sixty years.
Kennedy told the crowd he had to follow the law before he could make permanent change. He asked them for patience. He said they are doing it 'one day at a time.' He is not hiding the plan. The plan is the plan. The measles deaths are, apparently, the acceptable price of getting there.
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