Key Point: “As he mounts his unlikely third-party bid for the presidency, Kennedy is insisting that he is not antivaccine, just pro-vaccine safety. But his long history of promoting misleading claims that undermine public trust in safe, effective inoculations undermines that claim. And public records, news reports, and interviews show that during the measles outbreak five years ago, Kennedy and other key people in his orbit promoted the type of misinformation that public health officials say fueled the spread of the disease, and opposed some government policies intended to stem transmission.”

Boston Globe:  For RFK Jr., measles outbreak was key moment for career as vaccine skeptic. Now he’s downplaying his activism

By: Emma Platoff 

• The 2018-19 measles outbreak was a key moment in Kennedy’s career as a skeptic of vaccines and a crusader against mandates, a record that has sometimes proven inconvenient for the third-party presidential candidate as he looks to broaden his appeal to the general electorate.
  
  
• As he mounts his unlikely third-party bid for the presidency, Kennedy is insisting that he is not antivaccine, just pro-vaccine safety. But his long history of promoting misleading claims that undermine public trust in safe, effective inoculations undermines that claim. And public records, news reports, and interviews show that during the measles outbreak five years ago, Kennedy and other key people in his orbit promoted the type of misinformation that public health officials say fueled the spread of the disease, and opposed some government policies intended to stem transmission.
  
  
• Before the measles outbreak, New York state lawmakers had filed, but never passed, bills to end the religious exemption. In 2019, antivaccine-mandate activists feared that the outbreak would give the measure the political boost it needed to become law. Kennedy played a public role in fighting it. In May, he rallied a large crowd outside the State House in Albany. Some demonstrators merely argued that religious families should be allowed to refuse vaccines, but others went further, promoting discredited theories about the risks of inoculation.
  
  
• “He led rallies in Albany . . . [where] people were being deliberately misled,” Dinowitz said. “I know he says that he’s not against vaccines, but his actions and his words, in my opinion, tell a different story.”
  
  
• But being a Kennedy still meant access. Kennedy called top legislators and mailed them antivaccine books. He was a “key player” in battling the bill, said John Gilmore, executive director of the New York Alliance for Vaccine Rights.
  
  
• But Kennedy and his allies had been preparing for that potential loss for months, corresponding over email and phone calls as they worked on related lawsuits, Sussman said. After the bill passed, the discussions accelerated; they sometimes convened at the Queens home of prominent antivaccine attorney Aaron Siri, whom Kennedy has floated as a potential pick for attorney general. Less than a month after the bill passed, Kennedy and Sussman filed a lawsuit, arguing it amounted to unconstitutional religious animus.
  
  
• The criticism Kennedy has faced for his work on vaccines only underscores his devotion to the cause, Gilmore said. “There was nothing at all for Bobby to gain by coming to New York and doing that work. His work on vaccine-related issues has cost him dearly,” Gilmore said. “He’s doing this because he thinks it’s truth and it’s right.”