With 3 strikes in one short talk, you'd hope he'd be out.
HHS Sec RFK Jr., forced by the press to make a statement about the Texas measles epidemic, and out of his mouth came pure fiction. Perhaps it was the worm talking?
Following the process of a communicable disease is a process, and in healthcare, we’re not always good about providing context during that process so people understand where we are. Katelyn Jetelina, an internationally-recognized epidemiologist, is the best I’ve seen at providing that context. Below is her update on the mess in Texas, where you’ll find the graphic we used for this post and a lot more.
She also tackled the nonsense that came out of RFK Jr’s mouth yesterday when he was finally cornered by the press into talking about the Texas cases:
No, there “nothing unusual” about this year’s measles outbreaks: it is indeed an unusual year. RFK Jr. incorrectly said there’s “nothing unusual; we have measles outbreaks every year.” First, there’s nothing normal about a child dying from measles; that hasn’t happened since 2015. Worse, less than two months into 2025, this year’s tally has already surpassed the annual total for 8 of the past 15 years.
Those hospitalized were not just to be quarantined them, as he said. They were in respiratory distress: they couldn’t breathe without help. We don’t hospitalize to quarantine. Either he cannot say “respiratory distress,” or doesn’t actually know why they were hospitalized, or those he has installed to update him are incompetent.
There has been one death so far. RFK said there have been two deaths. Even his agency, HHS, says it’s only one, as other media have also widely reported. As Dr. Jetelina says, “I don’t know how you get that wrong.”
Click Read More below for the full post from Dr. Jetelina.
This was a helpful summary! I read about all of this in different sources so by putting this together in one post it gave it context. This measles outbreak is disturbing and unfortunately I believe just the tip of the iceberg. What I find particularly interesting is that back before the internet people could say whatever they wanted and it was harder to check for facts but now we have so many different ways to check for facts yet it seems like people continue to tell lies or misinformation that are easily verifiable. You would think that would hold people more accountable or they would be more accountable for the information provided.