‘I Hope You Like Measles’: U.S. Measles Cases Hit Three-Decade High a Year After Jake Tapper’s Prediction About RFK Jr. Leading HHS

The U.S. surpassed 2,000 measles cases this year for the first time since 1992 under the public health stewardship of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

The ugly milestone comes a little more than a year after CNN’s Jake Tapper predicted the country would experience a surge in cases if Kennedy were to become the nation’s leading public health official.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that as of Dec. 23, the U.S. had 2,012 confirmed measles cases. Last year, the U.S. had just 285 confirmed cases.

Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who in February claimed that a measles outbreak in West Texas was “not unusual.” The HHS secretary alleged that the disease, whose symptoms may include fever, coughing, and a blotchy rash, could be treated with Vitamin A, which, according to actual doctors, is not a substitute for being vaccinated against the measles.

Shortly after the outbreak in West Texas, several children with measles needed to be treated for Vitamin A toxicity.

On Nov. 14, 2024, President Donald Trump nominated Kennedy as Secretary of HHS. The pick horrified virtually every public health official, and many laypersons, such as Tapper. On that day’s edition of The Lead, the host reacted to the nomination by saying, “Well, America – I hope you like measles.”

Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate 52-48 on Feb. 13

The parabolic rise in cases could mean the U.S. will lose its measles elimination status in 2026.

In 2019, a measles outbreak ravaged Samoa, where Kennedy had visited just months before. His nonprofit organization “helped spread misinformation that contributed to the decline in measles vaccination that preceded the lethal eruption.” Eighty-three people died in the outbreak.

In May, the CDC said it was no longer recommending vaccination against Covid-19 for healthy kids and pregnant women. Later, Kennedy ordered the CDC to remove language from its website stating that vaccines do not cause autism. Kennedy has baselessly maintained this to be the case. The secretary has also enacted massive personnel and research cuts at HHS. Moreover, in one particularly embarrassing episode, a “Make America Healthy Again” report cited several nonexistent studies.

Watch above via CNN.