Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, delivered a keynote address Thursday to the Children's Health Defense conference in Washington, D.C., assuring hundreds of anti-vaccine activists that the Trump administration was working to turn their priorities into policy — even as the country faces its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades.
"Let me be clear: you have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House," Kennedy told the gathering, his first appearance at the conference since taking office. Kennedy led Children's Health Defense, the prominent anti-vaccine advocacy organisation, for nearly a decade before stepping back when he launched his presidential campaign in 2023. His speech was promoted on official HHS social media channels, underscoring the degree to which views once considered fringe have gained a foothold at the highest levels of American public health governance. Kennedy boasted about administration moves to scale back childhood vaccination schedules and reshape a key federal vaccine advisory board — steps since paused by a court — and lauded President Donald Trump for an executive order calling for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be administered in spaced-out doses, against the recommendations of major medical groups.
The appearance comes amid a deepening public health crisis. The United States is experiencing its worst year for measles since 1991, with seven reported measles-associated deaths in the past two years — more than the combined total over the previous three decades. Pennsylvania authorities have recorded four deaths this year, none of the victims vaccinated. Kennedy addressed the outbreak only briefly, pivoting quickly to argue that vaccine injuries, which he linked to conditions including autism, asthma, ADHD, and diabetes, deserved equal attention. Widespread scientific consensus and decades of peer-reviewed research have firmly established no causal link between vaccines and autism. Andrew Wakefield, a former gastroenterologist whose medical licence was revoked after he fabricated research purporting to show such a link, also spoke at the event.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro condemned Kennedy's appearance, saying the HHS secretary "chose to spend his time today addressing the premier vaccine-denial conference in America" and had failed to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. Critics from major medical associations and advocacy groups echoed the concern, arguing that Kennedy's actions risk eroding public confidence in vaccines at a moment when that trust is already fragile following the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent polling indicates that roughly one quarter of Americans now harbour doubts about the MMR vaccine.
The conference illustrated how dramatically the landscape has shifted for a movement that, until recently, operated on the margins. Speakers celebrated their access to policymakers, outlined plans to challenge state-level school immunisation requirements, and discussed recruitment drives to expand the organisation's reach. Kennedy, who acknowledged he had to move carefully to make changes that would withstand legal scrutiny, offered reassurance: "We are doing this one day at a time." For public health advocates, the optics of a sitting health secretary headlining what organisers called arguably the largest anti-vaccine conference in the world — while Americans are dying from a vaccine-preventable disease — represent a serious warning about the direction of US health policy.