{"id":9377,"date":"2026-05-15T18:43:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=9377"},"modified":"2026-05-15T18:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:43:42","slug":"kennedy-swaps-vaccine-rhetoric-for-story-time-but-cant-quite-change-the-subject","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=9377","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Swaps Vaccine Rhetoric for Story Time but Can\u2019t Quite Change the Subject"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Here in Washington,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0been hearing about tensions between the White House and one of its most controversial\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but,\u00a0at least\u00a0in\u00a0some\u00a0circles,\u00a0most\u00a0popular\u00a0\u2014\u00a0figures: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Polling of likely voters\u00a0indicates\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0Health and\u00a0Human\u00a0Services secretary\u00a0can be an asset to Republicans when\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0talking about improving the nation\u2019s food supply or labeling\u00a0ultraprocessed\u00a0foods. But when\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0talking about removing\u00a0recommendations\u00a0for\u00a0routine childhood vaccinations, he can be a detriment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">So, when I learned Kennedy would be taking his show on the road to my home state of Ohio,\u00a0where populist figures\u00a0tend to perform well,\u00a0I knew I had to be there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">How would a politician who\u00a0built his\u00a0reputation\u00a0seeding widespread doubts about routine childhood immunizations stay away from one of the core messages\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0preached for years?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Well, it turns out,\u00a0he\u00a0starts by reading a book about\u00a0a\u00a0trash truck\u00a0to\u00a0preschoolers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter  wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter--background-white\" data-type=\"kff-shared\/newsletter\" data-align=\"center\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter__container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter__content\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/kff-shared\/dist\/\/images\/newsletter-icon.png\" alt=\"Newsletter Icon\" class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter__img\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-newsletter__text\">\n<h4 class=\"newsletter__title\">\n\t\t\t\t\tEmail Sign-Up\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n<p class=\"newsletter__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to KFF Health News&#8217; free weekly newsletter, &#8220;The Week in Brief.&#8221;\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">The trip took us across northern Ohio, from a regenerative farm in Huron owned by two brothers who grow colorful vegetables to\u00a0the Cleveland Clinic, where Kennedy masked up\u00a0entering an operating room\u00a0of\u00a0a heart surgery patient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">In the end, though, Kennedy\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0escape the vaccine talk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, Kennedy raised doubts about the safety of\u00a0vaccines\u00a0that had been\u00a0\u2014\u00a0up until\u00a0last\u00a0year\u00a0\u2014\u00a0universally recommended to prevent\u00a0hepatitis B, an\u00a0incurable disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">He called for parents to \u201cbe given that choice\u201d on\u00a0administering\u00a0the vaccine\u00a0to newborns,\u00a0a remark that gave way to cheers and applause\u00a0from\u00a0half the room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">The other half groaned and booed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">When I sat down with the health secretary for\u00a0a few\u00a0minutes\u00a0in an\u00a0Ohio farmhouse, Kennedy ticked off his accomplishments during his first year in office;\u00a0redesigning federal nutrition guidelines and defining\u00a0ultraprocessed\u00a0foods for the American public were among them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">As his list grew longer, I thought about the mothers\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0talked to over the last year who had become increasingly\u00a0nervous\u00a0about taking their\u00a0infants\u00a0out in crowded places\u00a0amid a raging measles outbreak and the growing threat from other infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">What was his message for those parents, I asked?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">\u201cI would say everybody should be vaccinated\u00a0\u2014\u00a0against measles,\u201d Kennedy told me. \u201cBut we need to pay\u00a0more and more\u00a0attention to chronic\u00a0disease.\u00a0All of\u00a0the vaccine-preventable, infectious diseases put together kill\u00a0probably 10,000\u00a0Americans a year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The number of deaths is\u00a0closer to\u00a050,000,\u00a0according to scientific researchers.<\/p>\n<article class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-post-card--right wp-block-kff-shared-post-card--aligned  wp-block-kff-shared-post-card---variation-news-listing wp-block-kff-shared-post-card\" id=\"post-2237219\" data-image-size=\"3:2\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-post-card__thumbnail-wrapper\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/RFK-Visit_03.jpg?w=300&amp;h=200&amp;crop=1 1x, https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/RFK-Visit_03.jpg?w=600&amp;h=400&amp;crop=1 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 500px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/RFK-Visit_03.jpg?w=834&amp;h=556&amp;crop=1 1x, https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/RFK-Visit_03.jpg?w=1668&amp;h=1112&amp;crop=1 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 500px)\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" alt=\"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hugs a child at a childcare center.\"\/>\t\t\t<\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-post-card__main\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-kff-shared-post-card__description\">\n<p>He tested robotic hands on a heart surgery patient and chewed on microgreens in Ohio, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couldn\u2019t dodge questions about the Trump administration\u2019s more controversial policies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n#Kennedy #Swaps #Vaccine #Rhetoric #Story #Time #Change #Subject<br \/>\nKennedy Swaps Vaccine Rhetoric for Story Time but Can\u2019t Quite Change the Subject<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here in Washington,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0been hearing about tensions between the White House and one of its most controversial\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but,\u00a0at least\u00a0in\u00a0some\u00a0circles,\u00a0most\u00a0popular\u00a0\u2014\u00a0figures: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Polling of likely voters\u00a0indicates\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0Health and\u00a0Human\u00a0Services secretary\u00a0can be an asset to Republicans when\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0talking about improving the nation\u2019s food supply or labeling\u00a0ultraprocessed\u00a0foods. But when\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0talking about removing\u00a0recommendations\u00a0for\u00a0routine childhood vaccinations, he can be a detriment. So, when I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bunyad_sub_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3829,3317,3653,13,2124,711],"class_list":["post-9377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthy","tag-chronic-disease-care","tag-hhs","tag-midwest-bureau","tag-nutrition","tag-trump-administration","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}