RFK Jr. Shuts Down Measles Scare in His First Network Interview as HHS Secretary

CBS’s Jon LaPook tried to hype the measles panic, but Kennedy calmly dismantled the narrative and set the record straight.

The following is a streamlined and editorialized version of a thread that originally appeared on the American Values X page. It was edited and republished with permission. Click here to read the original thread.

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. recently set the record straight in an interview with CBS News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jon LaPook. He pushed back on the claim that a second child had died from measles, exposing the narrative as not just misleading, but flat-out false.

But before that happened, Kennedy addressed the current measles outbreak and ongoing concerns about vaccine safety. He revealed that new safety trials are finally in motion.

“We don’t know the risks of many of these products,” he said. “They’re not adequately safety-tested.” He explained that “many of the vaccines are tested for only 3-4 days with NO placebo group.”

Kennedy made it clear this isn’t about banning vaccines—it’s about transparency. “I’ve always said … I’m not gonna take people’s vaccines away from them,” he said. “I’m gonna make sure that we have good science so that people can make an informed choice.” He added, “We are doing that science today.”

Kennedy was asked about Daisy Hildebrand, the young girl in Texas whose funeral he attended. Her death had been cited in headlines as proof of a growing measles crisis.

“It was very nice to be able to meet the parents in person and spend the whole day with them and share their lives with them and get to know their community,” he said. “The community was very welcoming and loving towards me.”

Kennedy described the experience warmly: “The Mennonite community was beautiful to me.” He added, “I went to a large lunch with the whole community and you had boys and girls sitting together and nobody was on a cell phone.”

That’s when Kennedy dropped the real bombshell: the child didn’t die from measles.

“The child whose funeral I attended this week was hospitalized three times from other illnesses,” he said. “She got measles and she got over the measles, according to her parents.” He added, “I saw the medical report on it today and the thing that killed her was not the measles, but it was a bacteriological infection.”

And it wasn’t the first time the media misled the public. Last month, another child’s death was falsely blamed on measles. But the truth is that it was a case of catastrophic medical error.

“Her death is the result of an egregious medical error,” CHD’s Mary Holland told Steve Bannon. “This girl wound up in the hospital because she did have some difficulty breathing, and instead of giving her breathing care, you’ll understand from the specialists with me that she got inaccurate, wrong-headed medical care, and that’s why she died.”

She added, “She did not die from measles. She died from a medical error, the third leading cause of death in this country.”

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