Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary who spent years as one of the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, has told American parents to vaccinate their children against measles. Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kennedy said the measles vaccine works and urged families to use it as the country battles its worst outbreak in more than three decades.
A Striking Reversal
For much of his public life, Kennedy was known for questioning vaccine safety and for leading an organization that amplified doubts about childhood immunization. That history is exactly what made his Sunday comments so notable. Now the official in charge of the federal government’s health agencies, Kennedy used a national television platform to deliver a message that sounded very different from the one that built his reputation.
“We tell people … that parents should get their children vaccinated for measles,” Kennedy said. “A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97% of the cases.” He added: “I’ve never questioned the efficacy of the MMR vaccine.”
The 97% figure is Kennedy’s own phrasing. Public health experts generally say two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles, one of the most contagious diseases known to medicine.
The Worst Outbreak in 35 Years
Kennedy’s comments did not come in a vacuum. The United States is in the middle of its worst measles surge in 35 years. As of July 30, roughly 2,371 confirmed cases had been reported, already more than the total for all of 2025, spread across 45 states.
The pattern in those cases is stark. About 93% of the infections have been among people who were not vaccinated. Two unvaccinated children died during the 2025 West Texas outbreak, a grim reminder that measles, while preventable, can still be deadly.
Elimination Status at Risk
Health officials are now warning that the country could lose its measles-elimination status this fall. The U.S. formally eliminated measles in 2000, meaning the disease was no longer spreading continuously within the country. Losing that designation would be a significant public-health setback and a symbolic blow, an acknowledgment that a disease once beaten here has regained a foothold.
That backdrop gives Kennedy’s endorsement added weight. When the nation’s top health official, and a longtime skeptic, publicly says the vaccine works and that parents should use it, the message can cut through noise that ordinary public-service campaigns often cannot.
It is worth being precise about what Sunday’s remarks were and were not. Kennedy offered a verbal endorsement in a television interview. He did not announce a new mandate, a new policy, or a change in federal rules. For families weighing the decision, the message was encouragement, not requirement.
What It Means for Families
For parents, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the MMR vaccine remains the single most effective tool for protecting children from measles, and the current outbreak makes that protection more relevant than it has been in a generation. Pediatricians continue to recommend two doses for children, and communities with high vaccination rates are far better shielded from the kind of rapid spread now being seen in under-vaccinated areas.
The larger question hanging over the moment is about timing. Kennedy’s own history of vaccine skepticism helped shape a climate in which some parents grew hesitant. Now, with cases at a 35-year high and children having died, he is urging the very shot he once treated with suspicion. Many parents are left asking why it took a historic outbreak to reach this point.
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