Before the House Committee on Ways and Means on April 16, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Rep. Linda Sánchez of California that, on measles, "there's a global measles epidemic. We've done better at preventing measles than any country in the world." [1] Sánchez had just pressed him on the death of an unvaccinated school-aged child from measles during the 2025 West Texas outbreak, an outbreak that ultimately sickened more than seven hundred people and produced the first U.S. deaths from measles in more than a decade. [1] When Sánchez asked whether the measles vaccine could have saved the child's life, Kennedy replied: "It's possible — certainly." [1]
Mexico, which had no confirmed measles cases in 2024 before the West Texas outbreak crossed the border, has confirmed more than 36,000 suspected cases since January 2025; Kennedy cited that number in his exchange. [2] "Mexico has three times our measles, and they have one-third of our population," he said. "Canada has double the cases, and they have one-eighth of our population." [3] Kennedy's arithmetic converts the gap in absolute numbers into a per-capita claim. It does not address the structural point Sánchez was making — that the U.S. has had the largest percentage increase in measles cases among high-income countries, from roughly five hundred cases annually under President Biden to more than seventeen hundred so far this year and more than twenty-two hundred last year. [3]
The Texas numbers bracket the exchange. The 2025 outbreak began in a Mennonite community in Gaines County in late January, spread through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and into Mexico, and was declared over by Texas state officials in August. Three measles-related deaths tied to the outbreak include two unvaccinated school-aged children in Texas. [4] The 2026 count stands at 170 cases in Texas alone as of mid-March, concentrated at a federal detention facility in Hudspeth County managed by a private contractor. Nationally, the CDC had logged more than 1,575 cases by March 27 and more than 1,700 by the week of the hearing — a pace that will surpass the 2,285 the U.S. saw in all of last year. [5]
The other concession was procedural. Sánchez asked whether President Trump had approved Kennedy's decision to end the CDC's pro-vaccine public messaging campaign. Kennedy did not answer. Asked whether he thought the measles vaccine was effective, Kennedy replied that he thought it was "safe for most people." [6] The MMR vaccine, in use for more than sixty years, is 97 percent effective against measles after two doses. Mexico's vaccination rate has dropped below the ninety-five-percent herd-immunity threshold, which is why its 2026 campaign is now running at 2.5 million shots a week. [2]
The hearing was Kennedy's first congressional appearance of 2026. He testifies again this week before House Appropriations. [6] The "it's possible, certainly" admission is the first on-record acknowledgment by this HHS secretary that the MMR vaccine is the prevention tool. The "done better than any country" claim is the simultaneous framing device. Both statements are in the Ways and Means transcript. [1]
-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago