Last Friday, the CDC reported that so far in 2026, there have been 2,318 confirmed measles cases here in the U.S., which already surpasses the 2025 total, and so the anti-Trump media is going to connect the dots aggressively to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and ignore any other factors in the trend.
That was certainly the case on CNN's The Lead With Jake Tapper, who not only went after Kennedy on Friday's show, but proudly played an old clip where he predicted RFK Jr.'s leadership would lead to a measles outbreak.
Tapper went right after Kennedy.
TAPPER: Measles cases just hit a 35-year high in the United States. 35 years. Despite the country declaring the disease eliminated in the year 2000. That was, of course, before a man with disproven views of vaccines and conspiratorial notions of doctors became head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Public health officials around the country are crying out about the level of incompetency that contributed to this crisis. .
COVID deaths were at their highest level in 2021, and nobody on CNN was blaming that on Biden, or on sainted Anthony Fauci. In this case, Tapper proceeded to brag about the fact that he had predicted trouble ahead, following Kennedy's nomination to his post, by playing a clip from November 14, 2024.
TAPPER: Well, in November 2024, you might remember the day RFK Jr.'s nomination was announced, I don't want to tell you I told you so, but well--
TAPPER CLIP: Well, America, I hope you like measles.
Sure, he didn't want to tell you he told you so. He's spiking the football.
But there are other factors contributing to the measles outbreak. I n 2020, the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, five full years before RFK Jr. assumed his position, the vaccination rate for measles started to decline. Many attribute that to the mandatory Biden era vaccine policies. In fact a CNN story from a year ago, quoting CDC stats, reported a record share of US kindergartners had an exemption for a required vaccination, including for measles, for the 2024-2025 school year. That schoolyear began before RFK became head of HHS.
But none of that mattered to Tapper, who then continued with details on the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, and the involvement of the CDC and the FDA, before tying that outbreak to RFK Jr.
Tapper: Both of these agencies report to RFK Jr's HHS. Kennedy, whose personal views on vaccines, medications, disease, food are impacting not only his department but thousands of Americans, their health, their livelihoods.
Tapper then turned to CNN's Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell for more Owning MAGA on the measles.
TAPPER: What are some contributing factors to the measles outbreak?
TIRRELL: The contributing factor is declining vaccination rates.
But Tirrell then proceeded to cite numbers that complicate Tapper's slam-dunk "blame RFK" narrative:
TIRRELL: If you look at where they have gone from before the COVID 19 pandemic, this is 2019, 2020. In kindergartners, we were above 95%. That's the threshold that public health experts say we need to be at for measles in order to achieve herd immunity.... throughout the COVID pandemic, we saw that number start to drop. Now it's down to 92.5% nationally.... And that's why we've seen these big outbreaks. And of course, they're mainly among school age children. And most of the cases, 93% are in people who are unvaccinated and whose vaccine status is unknown.
Tapper would eventually bring on Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology at Baylor College of Medicine, and Co-Director, Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, no stranger to ripping RFK Jr., and the diagnosis was of course, blame RFK Jr.
HOTEZ: One of the huge issues has been our Health and Human Services Secretary from the beginning, when we had the first big measles epidemic in early 2025... he put out a steady stream of disinformation..... And so not only do we not have leadership, in controlling measles in America, we actually have someone who is actually kind of egging it on.
"Egging it on"? Rooting for infectious disease?
Not only did Tapper himself ignore the obvious role of the recent decline in vaccination rates before RFK, he made no mention of the millions of illegal immigrants who entered this country under Joe Biden, with unknown vaccination status, and the measles outbreak earlier this year in the nation's largest largest immigration detention facility in Texas. This is CNN!
