Vaccine choice only works when government recommendations, evidence, and potential conflicts are communicated clearly and consistently with sufficient transparency. Recent and past comments by HHS Secretary Kennedy don’t meet these standards and likely exacerbate public confusion and polarization.
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THE TOPLINE
- In a heated CNN interview, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed measles vaccination.
- HHS should explain why it is pursuing separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines, what uncertainties remain around timing and sequencing, and whether policy changes reflect new evidence or different risk-benefit judgments.
- We need consistent, conflict-free vaccine policy focused on choice and disclosure, including transparency about manufacturers, federal funding or procurement, financial interests, and the evidence used to evaluate new vaccine options.
During a contentious CNN interview, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a clear endorsement of measles vaccination:
“Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97 percent of the cases. People should get vaccinated.”
ANH-USA has no objection to Kennedy explaining why he believes a vaccine is effective or recommending it to families. The issue is that this message sits alongside broader administration policies that raise questions about how vaccines are combined, timed, sequenced, and recommended.
President Trump’s recent executive order directs HHS to expand options for administering core childhood vaccines, beginning with measles, mumps, and rubella, as separate vaccines rather than only as combination products. It also calls for further examination of vaccine timing and sequencing. In June 2025, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, adding committee members who were proponents of choice. He oversaw a narrowing of COVID-19 and newborn hepatitis B vaccination recommendations and later attempted to overhaul the childhood vaccination schedule.
ANH supports many of these reforms. Our position is simple: parents and patients should be able to make informed medical choices without coercion or unnecessary government interference.
But for informed choice to be meaningful, the administration must communicate its position clearly and consistently. If Kennedy pulls policy in one direction in some instances and in the opposite direction in others, that whiplash risks confusing the public and undermining the administration’s ability to translate its agenda into political success.
There is no inherent contradiction between saying that measles vaccination can prevent disease and saying that parents deserve greater flexibility over how vaccines are administered.
The effectiveness of a vaccine can be usefully expressed as relative (rather than absolute) effectiveness for a given subsector of the population. Prevention or treatment against any disease is very rarely, if ever, completely effective. Even when there are adequate data to demonstrate relative or absolute effectiveness, separate questions remain about combination products, simultaneous administration, timing, and whether every child should follow exactly the same schedule.
Choice Requires Information
The administration should explain more clearly why it is pursuing these changes. If HHS believes separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines would provide families with useful alternatives, it should say why, supporting its statements with plausible scientific data.
If officials believe vaccine timing or sequencing deserves further study, they should explain what questions remain open.
If recommendations are changing, the public should understand whether those changes reflect new evidence, different risk-benefit judgments, or a reassessment of previous policy.
Where the science remains uncertain, officials should say so. Choice without information is not meaningful choice.
Kennedy’s own history makes this especially important. He has previously been highly critical of vaccine policy and raised concerns about MMR. His more recent statements have been far more supportive of measles vaccination.
Does Kennedy now believe the existing MMR vaccine is generally safe and effective? Does he support separate vaccines primarily because families deserve more options or will reduce the relative risk of adverse reactions? Or does he believe combination products raise unresolved concerns?
Transparency Must Go With Choice
If and when separate vaccines are developed or introduced, HHS should also be transparent about the manufacturers involved, any federal grants or procurement commitments, relevant financial or advisory interests, and the evidence used to assess new products.
That transparency is especially important because Merck, one of the two companies currently supplying MMR vaccines in the United States, has appeared in President Trump’s own financial disclosures. While there is no evidence that the administration’s policy was designed to benefit Merck—or that Merck will ultimately manufacture separate measles, mumps, or rubella vaccines—the potential for financial interests to overlap with future federal decisions makes full disclosure essential. Any grants, contracts, purchase guarantees, investments, or other ties involving manufacturers and administration officials should be made public.
Health freedom means giving people access to the evidence, meaningful alternatives, and the ability to make their own medical decisions.
The executive order is a positive step toward greater flexibility and choice. Kennedy should now make that philosophy clear and consistent if he wants to accomplish his policy goals while reducing public confusion and polarization.
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