The Kennedy Center of Contagious Diseases

Measles and whooping cough are spreading around the country. The man in charge of American public health is making everything worse.

https://prospect.org/2025/12/15/kennedy-center-of-contagious-diseases/


Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during the Western Governors’ Association meeting, November 20, 2025, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Credit: Rebecca Noble/AP Photo

One defining feature of the second Trump administration is how, like in a particularly rotten late-empire monarchy, so much depends on the precise details of mental derangement afflicting the national leader and his top courtiers. Probably the most deranged Trump cabinet official, if his " target="_blank">tawdry affairs and wildly erratic behavior are any indication, is Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—though the competition is admittedly stiff.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised that he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.” At the time, I thought this would be very bad, but if anything it has been even worse. In just a few months, Kennedy has obliterated a vast amount of government capacity and expertise that took generations to build up, gravely undermined American medical science, and above all waged an undeclared war against vaccines. The worst outbreaks of measles and whooping cough (or pertussis) in many years are festering around the country, and not only is the federal government AWOL, but Kennedy is expending great effort to make these outbreaks worse, and add more diseases.

So far this year, there have been something like 25,000 recorded cases of pertussis, and no doubt many more that have not been reported. At least 13 people are dead, almost all of them babies under one year old. Last week, classes were canceled in one Iowa district thanks to an outbreak. Meanwhile, America is suffering its worst outbreak of measles since it was declared eliminated in 2000, with a reported 1,837 cases at time of writing. Authorities in South Carolina are dealing with two large outbreaks, with hundreds of people in quarantine.

The reason for this simply has to be declining vaccine coverage. The measles and pertussis vaccines are highly effective, and if the coverage rate is maintained above the “herd immunity” rate—about 90 to 95 percent for these viruses, which may require an occasional booster in the case of pertussis—any outbreak will burn itself out. It follows that it is vitally important for even young, healthy people to get vaccinated, to protect those who can’t be vaccinated, like very young babies.

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