Commentary: This One Measles Graph Obliterates the RFK-Hating Media’s Fear-Mongering

We the People have heard the subtext: President Trump chose a noted vaccine skeptic—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—to run the Department of Health and Human Services. The two are supposed to be connected. And so is the measles outbreak that started recently in Texas.

This from westernjournal.com.

Never mind the fact that RFK Jr. has called for children to be vaccinated against measles after the outbreak began, saying in a media release:

Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.

Never mind, too, that out of 146 confirmed cases since late January, there has been only one confirmed death—tragic, yes, but the first death in 10 years in the country.

Instead, Kevin Bass—an academic with a strong following on social media—destroyed the narrative of the measles outbreak being an emergency of significant proportions that Americans have to start going all Chicken Little about.

The facts from Science Alert:

On Feb. 26, 2025, Texas health officials announced the death of a child in a measles outbreak—the first measles death in the United States since 2015.

The outbreak was first identified in early February in Gaines County, Texas, where just 82% of kindergartners are vaccinated against measles, compared with 93% on average across the country.

The article went on to note:

[T]here have been occasional minor flare-ups [since the first commercially available measles vaccine came on the market in 1963], usually brought in by international travelers, but by and large, measles outbreaks have been rare. [Pay attention to that fact.]

Further from the article:

[T]he vast majority of people falling ill are unvaccinated.

This is technically untrue, according to HHS:

The DSHS reports that 79 of the confirmed cases involved individuals who had not received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while 62 cases had unknown vaccine status. At least five had received an MMR vaccine. [Emphasis added.]

There could be a number of reasons why someone had unknown vaccine status. That fact is not, however, unconnected to the first fact.

So clearly, the work of the propaganda media is to leave us believing this is all the work of treacherous anti-vaxxers—and, by extension, RFK Jr. Now, granted, RFK Jr. was a bit of an anti-vaccine crank—but he was not nominated for that fact, or the fact that he was a blind squirrel finding a nut with the efficacy of the COVID vaccine mandates, but because he had the temerity to challenge The Obiden Regime and has a wider health agenda that involves pushing back on big pharma.

Before this, “anti-vaxxers” were mostly yoga teachers and people who bought former Playboy model/MTV host Jenny McCarthy’s spiel about vaccines causing autism, generally not a conservative bunch. Back then, the Suburu owners of America were OK with these folks. But, as Bass pointed out, while we reached the point in the 2000s when there were about 80 cases of measles reported every year in the United States, America is now up to about 240 a year—and have been there for a while.

More importantly, though, looking at a 10-year rolling average of measles cases shows us there is no “comeback” happening, despite the outbreak.

And there’s more reason not to panic, as he pointed out:

In other words, there is no correlation between peak anti-vaxxerism and new peaks in measles cases or worse outcomes. So, what could be driving this?

Note Science Alert telling us that “international travel” is correlated with measles outbreaks. Note, too, that 62 of the cases in the current outbreak “had unknown vaccine status.” Why might that be? In a border state? In the wake of a border crisis?

Hmm. What are the odds? And remember, it was fine for illegal aliens to be unvaccinated during The Regime—but the COVID shot was mandatory, at least until the courts intervened.

Of course, this is not to say that they acquired measles south of the border and it was dormant until now, although we do not know how many new arrivals there are in the epicenter of the outbreak and we do not know why the vaccination status is unknown—but it is entirely possible this was driven by illegal immigration and not anti-vaccination sentiment.

The point is, there are plenty of ways to look at the data, not just through the lens of fear and loathing for RFK Jr.