Infectious diseases that debunk Kennedy’s rhetoric

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. devoted much of his latest interview with CNN to explaining that others are lying. Anthony Fauci is lying, the experts consulted by journalists are lying, and the scientific community that has been studying vaccines for decades is lying; Dana Bash, who was questioning him about his claims, had been misled and was merely repeating ‘like a parrot’ what someone had told her. Meanwhile, the US Secretary of Health claimed that respiratory syncytial virus originated from laboratory experiments, attributed Lyme disease to biological research as well, and insisted that he had never questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella. The first claim contradicts the natural history of a virus isolated in 1956 from animals suffering from a respiratory infection; the second revives an old conspiracy theory about a tick-borne disease found on several continents; the third erases, in a single sentence, twenty years of propaganda carried out by Kennedy himself and the organisations he led.

The most revealing moment came when Dana Bash asked him whether he accepted any responsibility for the resurgence of measles, whilst the US is experiencing its second consecutive year with case numbers not seen for decades. Kennedy replied “absolutely not”, attributing the outbreak to the lockdowns imposed during the Covid pandemic and stating that the US was managing measles better than any other country. He then claimed to have contained the outbreaks “at record speed”, thanks to phone calls to governors and the deployment of federal epidemiologists. On 30 July, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had recorded 2,371 cases since the start of the year – more than the 2,289 recorded in the whole of 2025 – with 37 outbreaks and 94 per cent of infections linked to one of them. The two years under the Trump administration thus saw more measles cases than the United States had recorded in the rest of the century.

Kennedy added that the affected communities were almost exclusively religious groups opposed to vaccination, going so far as to claim that the Mennonites had been refusing vaccines since 1796, the year of Edward Jenner’s discovery. By referring to communities that are closed off and distrustful of the state, the secretary is able to portray the epidemic as the product of a distant tradition, removed from the influence of contemporary politics. The data paint a broader picture: national coverage with the MMR vaccine amongst children starting school has fallen from 95.2 per cent in 2019–2020 to 92.5 per cent in 2024–2025, leaving around 286,000 children in a single cohort below the level of protection required to prevent sustained transmission. In many communities, the rate is even lower, whilst 93 per cent of cases in 2026 involved people with no documented vaccination.

The immunity deficit accumulated during the pandemic is certainly contributing to the current situation and would require a vigorous federal campaign, based on a clear, consistent message and widespread access to vaccination. Kennedy, however, spent the early stages of the 2025 outbreak presenting the vaccine as an individual choice, promoting vitamin A and attributing extraordinary qualities to doctors who proposed treatments lacking adequate evidence. It was only in response to Dana Bash’s insistence, on 2 August, that he looked into the camera and urged parents to vaccinate their children, acknowledging that two doses provide protection in 97 per cent of cases. A few minutes later, he reopened the debate on the alleged link between vaccines and autism, claiming that much of the childhood vaccination schedule had never been properly studied and that scientific authorities had ignored contrary evidence. The call to get vaccinated was thus framed within a narrative designed to cast suspicion on the entire system that produces, evaluates and recommends vaccines.

Measles represents the point at which Kennedy’s political responsibility takes on its most evident form, because his institutional power has come into conflict with the reputation he has built as the leading American figure in the anti-vaccination movement. The other ongoing infectious disease emergencies follow different biological trajectories, and all are confronted by a federal system that the new administration has chosen to make smaller, less stable and more dependent on political decisions at the top.

Between 1 May and 27 July, the CDC received reports of 6,707 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the United States, with 423 hospitalisations and cases reported across 45 states. A further 11,500 cases were awaiting confirmation or testing to rule out infection acquired abroad. The increase compared with the same period in 2025 prompted the agency to publish weekly updates, whilst one of the outbreaks was linked to iceberg lettuce distributed across nine states.

Cyclospora has characteristics that make active surveillance essential: the doctor must request a specific test, diagnosis may be delayed, and tracing the food chain requires data collected in a standardised manner. Since July 2025, FoodNet – the network that actively monitors foodborne infections across an area covering approximately 16 per cent of the US population – has been required to focus its activities on Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. Monitoring of Cyclospora and five other pathogens has become optional. A system designed to actively seek out cases has been transformed, specifically for this parasite, into a patchwork dependent on the resources and priorities of individual states.

The cyclosporiasis outbreak thus provides a concrete example of the link between an administrative decision and a loss of epidemiological capacity: the infectious agent is transmitted via contaminated food, whilst the speed with which it is identified depends on the network that collects diagnoses and links cases together. Kennedy stated that the situation was under control, whilst the numbers continued to rise and thousands of reports remained to be classified. The phrase ‘under control’ belongs to the realm of political communication; epidemiological control requires staff, laboratories and comparable data – precisely the resources that his administration has cut back on.

The West Nile virus season has also got off to an unusual start. By the end of June, 48 cases had been recorded – almost five times the average observed by that date since 2004 – and 38 had developed the neuroinvasive form. By 28 July, the number of cases had risen to 113. The spread of the virus depends on its circulation amongst birds and mosquitoes, as well as on temperatures and environmental conditions, whilst community protection relies on entomological surveillance and coordination with local pest control services. ArboNET continues to collect data on human and animal cases; however, its effectiveness depends on health departments being able to sample mosquitoes, diagnose infections and transmit information rapidly.

Added to this picture is the rise in US cases of clade I mpox, which have become more frequent since March 2026 and had risen to over thirty by July. The risk to the general population remains low, and almost all cases involve people who have travelled to countries affected by outbreaks or their contacts. International surveillance is the first line of defence in this instance, as it enables the identification of transmission areas, the issuing of warnings to travellers, and the preparation of laboratories to distinguish between the different clades of the virus. In January 2026, following a decision by the Trump administration and with Kennedy’s full support, the United States completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organisation, thereby ceasing its regular participation in its mechanisms for cooperation and information exchange.

These four phenomena vary in severity and origin; taken together, they demonstrate how irrational it is to weaken an epidemiological network at a time when the occasions on which that network must prove its effectiveness are increasing. In March 2025, the department headed by Kennedy announced a reduction of around 10,000 staff members, which was set to be combined with retirements and voluntary departures, bringing the total workforce down from 82,000 to 62,000. For the CDC, the official plan envisaged a reduction of around 2,400 posts; by the end of the year, between redundancies and resignations, the agency had lost around a quarter of its staff. The HHS assured that essential services would remain unaffected, whilst the departments concerned reported a loss of expertise and operational disruptions.

During the administration’s first hundred days, an Associated Press investigation identified more than a dozen federal health data collection programmes that had been scrapped or compromised. The government also withdrew $11.4 billion earmarked for state and local health departments, affecting staff and infrastructure built up during the pandemic and used to tackle broader infectious disease threats. Some of the funds were recovered through the courts, with varying outcomes between the states that had brought legal action and those that remained outside the litigation. The overall picture remains clear: the capacity to monitor the health of the population was treated as an administrative expense open to cuts.

Kennedy applied the same criterion to vaccination policy. In June 2025, he removed all seventeen members of the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices in a single move, explaining that their continued presence would have prevented the Trump administration from securing its own majority before 2028. The committee, which assesses the efficacy and safety of vaccines, was thus reconstituted through a selection process controlled by the secretary, who has for years contested the conclusions reached by vaccine research. In January 2026, the administration attempted to scale back the childhood vaccination schedule; a federal court suspended that decision along with the votes cast by the new committee, leaving the previous schedule temporarily in force.

Preparations for future epidemics have undergone a similar intervention. In August 2025, Kennedy ordered the cancellation or scaling back of twenty-two Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority investments dedicated to mRNA vaccines, justifying the decision with a general assessment of the platform’s inability to protect against respiratory infections. The evaluation of individual projects was replaced by a blanket rejection of the technology, resulting in a reduction in the options available when a new virus emerges for which speed of development will be a decisive factor.

During the CNN interview, Kennedy described this process as a battle for freedom and a return to true science. His idea of science, however, amounts to a personal authority that chooses which studies to recognise, declares organisations that reach unwelcome conclusions to be corrupt, and bases the evidence for his own arguments on documents cited out of context. When Dana Bash reminded him that the National Academy of Sciences maintains there is no causal link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy cited another report from the same institution and carried on as if the statement he had just heard did not exist. The tactic involves creating enough noise to cast doubt on every fact, leaving it to the most aggressive voice to declare itself the winner.

Infections are not covered by this treatment. Measles is transmitted when it encounters people without immunity; Cyclospora continues to circulate in food as long as cases remain unlinked; West Nile follows mosquito populations; and mpox crosses borders alongside infected people. The secretary’s words influence vaccination coverage and the organisation of institutions, whilst viruses and parasites respond to the biological conditions created by human choices.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can blame Fauci for the lockdowns, the Mennonites for the measles outbreak, and laboratories for the origin of diseases that have been known for decades. He can call the loss of thousands of staff ‘reform’ and present the replacement of experts with people hand-picked by political powers as a way of restoring trust. Meanwhile, cases continue to pile up in the statistics that have survived the cuts, revealing the cost of a public health system led by the country’s foremost purveyor of health misinformation. The verbal acrobatics come to an end where the transmission of an infectious agent begins; at that point, the ramblings of the chief liar of the American health system are worth exactly nothing.