Washington D.C. – A Trump DOJ lawyer debuted a jaw-dropping argument in a Massachusetts District Court this week that Trump health secretary RFK Jr. “has ‘broad, unreviewable authority’ to alter vaccine policy and could, hypothetically, recommend people get measles to achieve herd immunity if he believed that best served public health,” as reported by Bloomberg Law.
It’s a bizarre and loaded argument to make as measles cases in the U.S. have now surpassed 1,100 so far this year, adding to the worst outbreak in over 30 years – a major public health crisis that long-time vaccine opponent Secretary Kennedy has contributed to and continues to ignore.
The Trump DOJ’s disturbing defense was made in response to a lawsuit from leading doctors’ groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, seeking an injunction to block the recent Trump-RFK Jr. CDC downgrade of the federal childhood immunization schedule that puts American children in harm’s way.
“It’s Science 101,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project. “The only way for the U.S. to reach measles herd immunity without vaccines is for Donald Trump and Secretary Kennedy to let millions of American kids get needlessly infected and suffer potentially fatal brain swelling – all while sending health costs to the moon. Trump lawyers now openly claim RFK Jr. has the right to encourage mass measles infection, probably because he’s already put that ‘theory’ into dangerous practice. Secretary Kennedy continues to wage a fear campaign against the safety of vaccines while not lifting a finger to address the raging measles crisis caused by anti-vax disinformation. And now Kennedy wants court approval to put millions more American kids at risk of several other preventable and harmful diseases with his unfounded downgrade of the child vaccine schedule.”
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