RFK Jr. Dismisses Alarming Spike As US Measles Cases Reach 1,000

Kennedy also announced this month that the HHS will now require placebo testing for “all new vaccines.” Health experts warn that the changes could seriously delay a vaccine’s release and lead to making vaccines less accessible. It could also create situations in which someone needing a life-saving vaccine could instead receive a placebo, which is an inert substance that does not contain the vaccine.

“You are watching the gradual dissolution of the vaccine infrastructure in this country,” Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Washington Post. “The goal is to make vaccines less available and less affordable.” 

Making matters worse, thousands of workers at the HHS were laid off earlier this year as part of President Donald Trump’s continued purge of civil servants. On Monday, more than a dozen states sued the Trump administration over the firings, arguing that the cuts brought important work at the agency to a “sudden halt.”

Despite Kennedy’s seemingly-lax response to the spread and his continued denigration of vaccines, the CDC still recommends vaccinations as the best way to prevent measles.

“Measles is an airborne, extremely infectious, and potentially severe rash illness,” the CDC’s website says. “Before the measles vaccine was introduced, an estimated 48,000 people were hospitalized and 400–500 people died in the United States each year.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.