In 2019, amid a measles outbreak in New York, federal health officials uniformly preached the power of immunizations.
“Measles is preventable and the way to end this outbreak is to ensure that all children and adults who can get vaccinated, do get vaccinated,” said Robert Redfield, then the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Secretary Alex Azar echoed that, saying “the suffering we are seeing today is completely avoidable.”
President Trump, then in his first term, also implored people to get immunized. “They have to get the shot,” he said. “The vaccinations are so important.”
The new Trump administration, at least so far, is sending a different message.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump about the rapidly growing measles outbreak centered in Texas — with 124 confirmed cases, the country’s largest such outbreak since the New York one in 2018 and 2019 — and that has killed one child, who was unvaccinated. Trump passed the question along to his health secretary, and longtime vaccine critic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In his brief answer, Kennedy seemed to downplay the outbreak, saying it was “not unusual,” and apparently misstated how many people have died. (It’s one, according to Texas officials, not two, as Kennedy said.) He also did not take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of vaccination in protecting individuals and corralling the outbreak.
Though the reporter didn’t mention vaccines as part of the question, public health officials would typically know to use the opportunity before the national news media to stress the importance of immunizations. The vast majority of cases in the Texas outbreak are in people who weren’t vaccinated or whose vaccination status is known.
“You would have imagined any other secretary of HHS from the last 60 years saying, ‘This is why we recommend the vaccinations, and we’re supporting local communities with vaccination, and we encourage everyone to talk to their doctors about vaccination and to listen to their local health officials,’” said Wendy Parmet, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law.
Kennedy did say that the government had “put out a post” on the measles outbreak on Tuesday, but it wasn’t clear what he was referring to. HHS did not clarify when asked.
The CDC is supporting the response to the measles outbreak in Texas and in New Mexico, the latter of which has seen nine cases in a county that borders Texas. In situations like this, it’s generally state and local authorities who lead the effort, with federal help.
But experts said they would still expect the agency and other federal officials to reiterate the importance of vaccines in their public communications. The CDC, which is under interim leadership, hasn’t released statements or posted on social media urging vaccine uptake in light of the measles outbreak.
By contrast, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and the chair of the Senate health committee and fervent believer in the importance of vaccines, has stressed the importance of the shots while posting on social media about the Texas outbreak.
For people who expressed concern that Trump’s embrace of prominent anti-vaccine critics like RFK Jr. could usher in a period of greater skepticism of basic public health tenets, the lack of messaging from the executive branch was an early sign their fears could be coming true.
“What I’m struck by is the near total silence from CDC in communicating about this outbreak, talking about the importance of vaccination, providing its own perspective and voice on the outbreak,” said Jason Schwartz, an expert on vaccine policy at the Yale School of Public Health. “You would expect CDC to use this opportunity to talk about the risks of the disease and the importance of vaccines, and we’re just not seeing any of that.”
Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, agreed, saying “there should be a CDC spokesman out in front of the media because they’re very much involved in investigating these outbreaks.” The CDC could inform people about what was happening, he said.
On Wednesday, the CDC referred questions about its response to HHS, where spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement that the CDC is providing technical assistance, laboratory support, and vaccine supplies to Texas and New Mexico.
When asked why neither the CDC nor Kennedy were urging parents to get their kids vaccinated if they weren’t already, HHS replied with the same statement.
Notably, both states’ health departments have repeatedly stressed that the best way for people to protect themselves and their families is to ensure they’re vaccinated.
Experts acknowledged that the CDC is not always the most trusted messenger, particularly in the aftermath of a pandemic in which public health was an increasingly politicized issue and during which health agencies misstepped in some of their communications. In many cases, people who are dead-set against the idea of vaccinations would not be expected to change their mind upon seeing encouragement from the CDC. (Local officials and doctors can be more trusted resources in those situations.)
But Parmet said a lack of uniformity in the messaging — if the CDC isn’t echoing state officials, for example — “creates an opening for people to have doubt.”
Trump’s nominee to lead the CDC, Dave Weldon, has not yet had his confirmation hearing nor a major public presence. But it’s unclear what he would say on the outbreaks. Weldon, like Kennedy, has in the past voiced concerns about the safety of vaccines, including the measles, mumps, and rubella immunization, that repeated studies have shown to be unfounded.
Schwartz also took issue with RFK Jr.’s characterization of the Texas measles outbreak as run-of-the-mill, with the health secretary saying “we have measles outbreaks every year.”
Technically, that is true. In 2024, for example, there were 16 measles outbreaks. However, an outbreak is defined as only three or more related cases.
Schwartz noted the size of the outbreak and rapid increase in cases set the Texas situation apart, and raised alarms that it could keep growing without a stronger response. What also differentiates it is the death of a child — the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade.
“This is not just a typical flare-up of measles that gets put out,” he said.
Helen Branswell contributed reporting.