RFK Jr. Hit With ‘Community Note’ Fact-Check Over Fox News Interview Claim About ‘Deaths’ From Vaccine

Trump Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gotten hit with a fact-check on X/Twitter over claims he made about vaccines in a Fox News interview.

RFK Jr. has tried to walk a line that obscures his history of clear anti-vaccine rhetoric and wildly false health claims while projecting an aura of openness to vaccines couched in “choice” language.

That was the case on Tuesday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Hannity, during which he told host Sean Hannity that he supports vaccines, but that people should be able to choose — and misleadingly claimed the measles vaccine causes deaths:

HANNITY: And you — and one thing Governor Abbott did emphasize, he said, you have made vaccines to whatever number they need available immediately to the state of Texas and any other state.

KENNEDY: Anybody who wants a vaccine…

HANNITY: Can get it.

(CROSSTALK)

KENNEDY: And we will make sure of that.

HANNITY: And you — they can get it for free?

KENNEDY: Yes.

HANNITY: OK.

And — but — because people wanted to create an image that you’re against that. You’re not.

KENNEDY: No, I think — I’m a freedom of choice person.

HANNITY: Yes.

KENNEDY: We should have transparency. We should have informed choice. And — but if people don’t want it, they shouldn’t be — the government shouldn’t force them to do it.

There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause the deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.

And what we need to do is give them the best information and encourage them to vaccinate.

HANNITY: Yes.

KENNEDY: The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.

HANNITY: I want everyone to just hear.

You said encourage them to.

KENNEDY: Yes.

HANNITY: And this — but that frustrates me, because I listen to people talk about you, and they don’t tell the truth.

KENNEDY: Right.

HANNITY: And that bothers me.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I don’t like when people don’t tell the truth. Encourage…

(CROSSTALK)

KENNEDY: You must walk around bothered all the time.

HANNITY: I walk…

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: They don’t tell the truth about me either.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: And I’m just a little old talk show host. What do I know?

A viral clip of that exchange was hit with a “Community Note” on X/Twitter that read “According to the CDC, MMR vaccinations are an effective and safe way to prevent measles. Adverse reactions are a rarity and are, more often than not, mild in nature.”

In fact, RFK Jr.’s carefully-worded claim about measles deaths is wildly misleading — there have actually been zero deaths from the vaccine among healthy people — and the deaths that have occurred have been in people for whom vaccination is already not recommended:

There have been no deaths shown to be related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people. There have been rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among children who are immune compromised, which is why it is recommended that they don’t get the vaccine.

The Tuesday night clip was the second of a two-part Hannity interview from a Florida Steak ‘N Shake.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s Hannity.

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