RFK Jr. responds to Shapiro over measles-related deaths

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shot back at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) on social media after the governor blamed him and the Trump administration for playing a part in the measles outbreaks that led to two deaths in his state.

Pennsylvania on Tuesday confirmed two deaths in unvaccinated individuals after they contracted measles, the first such deaths reported this year.

In a press conference, Shapiro blamed the Trump administration for spreading misinformation that led to declining vaccination rates.

“There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids,” said Shapiro.

Kennedy, one of the nation’s top vaccine skeptics prior to becoming secretary, defended himself and his previously stated claims on social media.

“During our phone conversation, Governor Shapiro also accused me of promoting vaccine misinformation. When I asked him for an example, he was unable to provide one, but this did not deter him from publicly repeating that accusation during his press event,” Kennedy wrote on the social media platform X.

“As I told him, HHS does not tolerate misinformation by any employee. I offered to point to hundreds of instances of vaccine misinformation by the Biden administration about which I had never heard him complain,” he added.

The secretary also repeated the claim that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine “contained fetal tissue,” pointing to previous testimony from Stanley Plotkin, the developer of the rubella vaccine.

As organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics have clarified, vaccines do not contain fetal cells. Some vaccines are developed by growing viruses in a cell line derived from two aborted fetuses from the 1960s, but as these lines are ongoing no more aborted fetuses are required for vaccine development today. The purification process removes fetal tissue from the final product.