Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, with a painting on the background depicting former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, on the day Kennedy is sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Service in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Social media lit up with fury Monday night in response to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggesting that diet may be to blame for a Texas child’s death of measles.
“It’s very, very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person,” Kennedy said, according to The New York Times. He later added that “we see a correlation between people who get hurt by measles and people who don’t have good nutrition or who don’t have a good exercise regimen.”
The prominent longtime conspiracy theorist then said of the specific child from western Texas who recently died of measles that malnutrition “may have been an issue.”
Social media critics had plenty of their own theories about the outbreak – and RFK himself.
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“RFK blames measles outbreak, easily prevented by the vaccines he disdains, on lack of good diet and exercise,” conservative commentator Amanda Carpenter, a former aide to two GOP senators, posted on Bluesky.
“Just noting this after RFK Jr said the child who died of measles should have eaten better and exercised,” HuffPost senior reporter Paul Blumenthal wrote on Bluesky.
“To be crystal clear:1. Measles is a nasty disease,” an epidemiologist who goes by the Bluesky hand @HealthNerd wrote. “2. You cannot treat measles with antibiotics or cod liver oil. 3. The measles vaccine is very safe and highly effective, as shown by the ELIMINATION OF THE DISEASE IN THE US FOR 25 YEARS. 4. RFK Jr. is an ignorant fool”
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie told his Bluesky followers what it boils down to “is just eugenicism.”
Journalist Jacqueline Sweet appeared baffled by the situation.
“Does RFK not realize if measles is gonna kill anyone it’s more likely to be a baby?” she asked on Bluesky. “Does he think babies should be getting swole to fight off measles? Did he forget babies exist? Idek which option is worst here.”
“The thing about food deserts in West Texas that RFK Jr. could have mentioned here is that the measles vaccine is proven safe and effective, it literally protects you for life,” Drew Harwell, a Washington Post tech reporter, posted on Bluesky.