Reporter Snaps at RFK Jr. Aide Trying to Stop Measles Question: 'He's a Cabinet Secretary!'

Virginia Beach, Va. — A reporter shouted down an aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday after the aide tried to block a question about measles deaths in Pennsylvania.

The exchange came after Kennedy and Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-Va.) held a healthcare roundtable and stepped before reporters. A reporter began: “Do you believe that five deaths, potentially six, from measles in the state of Pennsylvania–” before an aide standing beside Kennedy cut him off.

“We’re also not going to talk about measles,” the aide said.

Kennedy interjected that he was “happy” to answer. The reporter then addressed the aide directly: “He’s the highest-ranking health official in the country! He can answer that question! He’s a cabinet secretary!”

Kennedy answered, saying the United States has “done better” at controlling measles than other countries. He attributed the global outbreak to vaccination gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Anthony Fauci had predicted such a consequence.

“We’re having a global measles outbreak right now,” Kennedy said. “It’s all over the world, and the measles outbreak is occurring because so many people went unvaccinated during the COVID pandemic.”

Kennedy gave case counts: 4,000 measles cases in the United States this year, compared with 20,000 in Mexico, 7,000 in Canada and 135,000 in Europe. He said Mexico has about a third of the U.S. population and Canada about one-eighth.

“We’re doing better at controlling it than any country in the world,” Kennedy said.

He then blamed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, for the state’s outbreak, accusing Shapiro of refusing CDC Epi-Aid.

Neither Kennedy nor the aide offered a direct accounting of the five or six Pennsylvania measles deaths during the exchange. The episode aired on C-SPAN and was first reported by Mediaite.

Read the original Yahoo News report.

Reporting by Yahoo News. Read the original report: Reporter Snaps at RFK Jr. Aide Trying to Stop Measles Question.