Former CDC official: RFK Jr.'s response to measles "not based on science"

While staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were racing to stop the worst measles outbreak since 2000 last year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies sought backward-looking data on measles and its vaccine, a former top CDC official said.

In an interview with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Wednesday, former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry, one of four senior CDC officials who resigned in protest last summer, said Kennedy and his allies were pushing out information "not based on science or reality, but trying to answer an agenda that was already in place."

More than 2,000 cases of measles were reported nationwide last year, including hundreds in a West Texas outbreak linked to the deaths of two children. During that time, Kennedy aides asked Houry for years-old data on people with measles who had died. Houry told them in an email that the "active measles response has to take priority," according to a trove of newly released emails that she provided to the Senate health committee.

"During all of that, we also get requests for 15 years of data on every single measles case and were there any other diseases that those people had, that died from measles," she told CBS News. "Same time, a former group of the secretary's put out a statement saying that some of the measles deaths weren't due to measles. So, to me, it seemed like they were looking through CDC data, these requests to answer some questions from other organizations, or potentially promote their beliefs."

At around the same time, Houry also expressed worry about statements by Kennedy — a longtime vaccine skeptic — on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Kennedy spoke positively about the vaccine at times, but also made inaccurate claims about its ingredients and promoted other treatments. In emails in spring 2025, Houry asked Kennedy's aides whether health officials could "help him with his talking points."

"He would say things like there's fetal parts in vaccines, and I had sent an email to correct that, and said, how can we help him?" Houry told "Face the Nation" about trying to provide Kennedy with "appropriate talking points." There is no fetal debris in vaccines.

CBS News has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

Houry said she was concerned because the spread of misinformation "impacts lives" and could convince people not to get the measles vaccine during an active outbreak. Some 93% of people who contracted measles last year were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to CDC data.

"We had children being hospitalized, we had children dying from measles," she said. "We needed people to respond during a measles outbreak and get vaccinated if they weren't. Instead, he talked about healers and treatments around, like, steroids and antibiotics, and even vitamin A."

In TV appearances and an opinion piece on Fox News, Kennedy declared that vitamin A was an effective measles treatment and pointed to a CDC statement recommending the supplement. He also claimed, "Studies have found that vitamin A can dramatically reduce measles mortality."

"We actually saw vitamin A toxicity cases in hospitals. People were taking too much vitamin A because there had been messaging that it was helpful for measles," she said.