By Katherine Tinsley
12:59am PDT, May 16, 2025
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the Secretary of Health and Human Services, urged Americans not to take medical advice from him, despite being the country's most prominent public health official.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a history of spreading misinformation about vaccines, and his conspiracy theories have been a cause for concern for many Democrats.
"If you had a child, would you vaccinate that child for measles?" Rep. Mark Pocan asked Kennedy during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, May 14.
"For measles? Um … probably for measles," Kennedy answered, before asserting that his personal beliefs on vaccines are "irrelevant."
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Robert F. Kennedy went on to say that in spite of the influence he wields, people shouldn't necessarily heed his advice.
"I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking advice — medical advice — from me," he said.
"For me to answer that question directly, it will seem like I'm giving advice to other people, and I don't want to be doing that," the "Make America Healthy Again" advocate stressed.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the various federal agencies that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversees, and the CDC does give advice.
"What we're going to try to do is to lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, accurately, as we understand them with reputable studies," the Health and Human Services Secretary clarified.
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As the anti-vaccine movement becomes more popular, the U.S. has seen an increase in measles cases.
"I don't want to give advice," Robert F. Kennedy told the House Appropriations Committee, but he later admitted the measles vaccine is "the most effective way" to prevent the spread of the disease.
