Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- A man out of step with established science

Jul 16, 2025

Measles, a disease that once killed 400 to 500 children each year and was a significant cause of childhood blindness in America, has been virtually non-existent for the past one-third of a century in the U.S.

Until this year.

Thank you, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for working to clear the path for its return.

Yes, you had a lot of assistance, particularly from Andrew Wakefield. But without your celebrity stature, twisted facts, and relentless determination to erroneously brand the measles vaccine as the cause of autism, it likely would not have happened.

Thus far, more than 1,200 measles cases have been reported in the U.S. this year, with three deaths. The disease has struck in 38 states, including Iowa, where four cases were reported in June in Johnson County.

A key factor in the recent outbreaks in the U.S. has been the increasing resistance to the measles vaccine for children. The vaccine used today was introduced in 1971 and has been responsible for virtually wiping out measles in America.

Kennedy has been on a campaign to link autism to the measles vaccine for at least 20 years.

The foundation for such a link emerged in 1998 in a paper published by Andrew Wakefield in which he focused on 12 children with intestinal inflammation, which he believed could lead to autism. Eight of the children developed autism within one month of receiving the measles vaccine (technically known as the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella).

There were several issues with this study, and it was subsequently officially retracted. A key issue was the fact that the study did not include both vaccinated and unvaccinated children, an essential element in such a study. In addition, for intestinal inflammation to be a cause leading to autism, the inflammation would have to exist before autism develops. These children, however, were tested for intestinal inflammation only after they were diagnosed with autism.

A few years later, however, Wakefield published a subsequent study that attempted to connect the measles vaccine to autism once again. He and coworkers tested intestinal biopsy samples for the presence of the measles virus of children both with and without autism. The study showed that many more of the children with autism also had the measles virus in their intestines.

The study ended up invalid, however, because of several problems, including the fact that Wakefield did not match the two groups of children for immunization status.

On the other side of this equation, there have been numerous completely valid scientific studies concluding that there is no link at all between autism and the measles vaccine.

Moreover, the best science also seems to indicate that autism is a genetic disorder of the nervous system that develops early in pregnancy.

Kennedy continues to believe, however, that the cause of autism has to be something in the environment.

At a news conference in April, three months into his job as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he cited what he described as an autism epidemic in the U.S. as rates have soared from one in 10,000 births in the mid-20^th century to one in 31 births today. “We know it’s environmental exposure,” he said in an Associated Press news article. “It has to be.”

Well, not so fast, Mr. Secretary. In the mid-20^th century, autism was a rare diagnosis assigned to children who had severe problems in socialization and communication. Over the years, the diagnosis has broadened greatly to include children who may be on the fringes of what is described as a spectrum that includes many young people with only mild issues relating to communication or socialization. Diagnosis techniques also have improved greatly in recent years.

The problem with Kennedy’s approach is not only that he is wrong about there being a link between autism and the measles vaccine. More important are these issues:

· His belief appears to have discouraged people, especially in fringe religious communities, from getting their children vaccinated.

· Funds that might have gone toward new studies seeking to better understand the cause of autism have been diverted to studies designed to overturn the numerous studies that disprove the link Kennedy desperately wants to establish.

In March, for example, Kennedy was reported to have hired David Geier, a fellow leading proponent of vaccines as the cause of autism, to conduct a new study regarding a link between the two. There is little doubt where Geier stands. He and his father, Mark Geier, a physician, have published papers tying autism to vaccines. Note, also, that Geier has been disciplined by the Maryland Medical Society for practicing medicine without a license.

A few weeks later, Kennedy said he would find some of the causes of autism within six months.

More recently, Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which operates within his Department of Health and Human Services and provides counsel to the Secretary.

The committee was established by the U. S. Surgeon General more than 60 years ago and has operated continuously under both Democratic and Republican presidents. Its function has been to provide authoritative information regarding immunization practices and guidelines.

Kennedy said the firings were warranted because the panel members all had conflicting interests – even though the committee had an established process for identifying and managing any conflicts.

In any case, the replacement members Kennedy picked included known anti-vaxxers with their own obvious conflicts and biases and with little professional experience as vaccine researchers, according to the American Progress Center.

In Memoriam

This column is written in memory of three Iowa children, Leroy Nathan, 18 months, Herbert Lacy, 2, and Diamond Taylor, 10, all of whom died of measles within five days of each other in May 1912. It was the year measles was officially established as a reportable disease in America, meaning that the number of cases in the U.S. would be tracked every year.

Leroy, Herbert, and Diamond were orphans who lived at the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home (later the Annie Wittenmyer Home) in Davenport, Iowa, where they died. Diamond had been admitted to the home only 15 months earlier following the deaths of both her parents from tuberculosis.

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