Reading mainstream media headlines over the weekend, one would think that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy has finally learned his lesson on vaccines. After a second child died in Texas due to a measles outbreak, Kennedy, a long-time opponent of the measles vaccine in particular, posted a statement on X declaring, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.” This was enough to trigger a cascade of laudatory coverage of Kennedy for meeting the bare minimum of common sense.
“Kennedy announces support for measles vaccine amid outbreak,” declared Politico’s headline.
Kennedy “advocated for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine during a visit to West Texas on Sunday,” Axios reported.
“RFK Jr. after Texas visit: MMR vaccine ‘most effective’ way to prevent measles spread,” blared the USA Today headline.
“Health secretary RFK Jr. endorses the MMR vaccine,” exclaimed the NPR headline, with the enticing promise that this is “stoking fury among his supporters.”
Big, if true!
But while Kennedy — or someone working for him — technically wrote those words down, those paying closer attention will notice that is not the message sent to the MAGA base by Kennedy’s visit to Texas. If one looks past Kennedy’s rote words to his actions, a much different picture emerges, and it becomes clear that he thinks vaccines are for weak, lazy parents. Superior parents, Kennedy suggests, toughen kids up by putting them through the measles instead. For one thing, Kennedy spent most of his time in Texas celebrating parents who refuse to vaccinate, highlighting how many kids they have who didn’t die.
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This follows efforts by Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group, misnamed Children’s Health Defense (CHD), to present parents of kids who die of measles as advocates for letting more kids die this way. After the first child died from this outbreak, CHD released an ad featuring the parents of the dead girl explaining why they’re happy with their choices, because they believe “she’s better off where she is now” and falsely claiming the disease made their surviving children stronger. (In reality, measles weakens the bodies — and especially immune systems — of its victims.) Kennedy continued the message by arguing that the Mennonites who refuse vaccination are “resilient, hardworking, resourceful, and God-loving people,” with the unsubtle implication that people who do vaccinate are less virtuous. Kennedy also spent the trip pushing “healers” as an alternative to prevention, even though the practitioners he cited use dangerous “treatments” that don’t work — such as overdosing kids with vitamin A — but are instead sending kids to the hospital with liver damage.
The MAGA audience understands that the pro-vaccine message is just what “they” are “forcing” Kennedy to say, and that his anti-vaccine gestures are his real message.
If this playbook sounds familiar, it should. Donald Trump, who appointed Kennedy to HHS, used the same two-faced strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the same purpose: to trigger headlines portraying him as a responsible steward of public health, while signaling to his followers that they should reject the advice of medical experts. For those who have memory-holed that traumatic period, a short recap: In official channels, such as the White House briefing room or during interviews with respectable news outlets, Trump would playact a science-respecting leader, urging Americans to follow social distancing guidelines and wear masks. But on social media and in his personal behavior, he would mock masks, tout fake “cures,” celebrate people who refused to follow public health measures and throw indoor rallies and parties. When he inevitably contracted COVID-19 pre-vaccination, he lied about how sick he was and dramatically flung off his mask on camera.
Trump is a profoundly stupid man, but he is clever at being two-faced — a lifetime of practicing fraud will improve anyone’s skills — so his strategy worked. The press dutifully reprinted his empty repetitions of the public health advice from experts. Meanwhile, the MAGA base heard his real opinion loud and clear. They dutifully followed his implied instructions to refuse all precautions. Even after he left office, the GOP base continued to show loyalty to Trump by risking sickness, usually by rejecting vaccinations.
There’s a sinister and probably accidental genius of this say-one-thing-do-another messaging strategy. Mainstream media, especially the kind that fancies itself “objective,” prefer words over actions. What someone says can be quoted directly. A person’s actions, however, can often have some plausible ambiguity that bad faith actors can exploit to muddy the waters. Kennedy’s Texas trip is a good example. MAGA spinsters will read this article, for instance, and insist that I’m falsely interpreting the message of Kennedy’s visit with the family, ignoring the fact that MAGA spinsters are in the mentions of that same post, praising his anti-vaccination message. But his empty pro-vaccine quote can be reprinted without getting into a quibble-fest with dishonest actors, making it a lot easier for journalists seeking that gold ring of “objectivity.”
The two-faced strategy also provides the advantage of allowing the MAGA leader to paint himself as a brave truth-teller being suppressed by the mysterious but all-powerful “deep state” forces out to get him. The MAGA audience understands that the pro-vaccine message is just what “they” are “forcing” Kennedy to say, and that his anti-vaccine gestures are his real message. That gives the anti-vaccine message an allure of “forbidden” knowledge, making it even more powerful than if he just came right out and said what he really thinks.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccination actions aren’t just about messaging, though that is bad enough. In his role at HHS, he’s been waging war on decades of federal efforts to maintain and improve vaccination rates. Kennedy-aligned leaders at the Centers for Disease Control suppressed a report showing vaccine refusals are behind the current measles outbreak. Programs at the Food and Drug Administration to roll out new vaccines — including one to make COVID-19 vaccines less painful — were cut. And Kennedy has ordered a “study” into the long-debunked claim that vaccines cause autism to be headed by a disgraced scientist who has peddled lies about vaccines for decades. Kennedy may not be able to take vaccines away entirely, but he can use his power to make them much harder to get.
Kennedy’s Texas trip is a terrible reminder of what a skilled propagandist he is. The message behind the trip was not “get vaccinated,” no matter what the headlines say. It was about romanticizing vaccine refusal as courageous resistance against decadent, weak liberalism, which is about as fascist a framing as one can find. It was about normalizing children’s deaths as necessary sacrifices for the MAGA cause. Whatever the mainstream media reports, the MAGA base gets Kennedy’s message: don’t vaccinate.
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