Under Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s watch, outbreaks of preventable diseases and foodborne illnesses are running rampant. RFK Jr. has promoted unproven and dangerous alternatives to vaccines and standard treatments, sowing chaos and confusion into our public health system.
Preventable illnesses that have either been eliminated or contained are now on the rise thanks to Trump and RFK Jr. Last week, the U.S. surpassed 3,000 measles cases in 2026, the highest number of measles cases in 35 years. In less than two years, Trump and RFK Jr. have presided over more measles cases since taking office than the previous 28 years combined. RFK Jr. has downplayed the seriousness of measles outbreaks, and even claimed the Trump administration has “done better at controlling the measles outbreak than any country in the world.” RFK Jr. previously visited Lancaster County, PA, where two children have died in an ongoing measles outbreak, claiming there that the cure for measles is chicken soup and Vitamin A.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued 46 food and drug recall notices this August alone, significantly surpassing the 26 recalls reported in August 2025 and the 24 in August 2024. Nationally, more than 11,000 cases of cyclosporiasis have been confirmed in 20 states tied to a single outbreak. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has gutted all three of the USDA’s key research projects studying cyclospora.
RFK Jr. has ties to an E. coli outbreak linked to dairy products from Raw Farm LLC that sickened nine people across three states earlier this year. RFK Jr. is a longtime customer of Raw Farm and reportedly drinks the company’s unpasteurized milk at home in California. Raw Farm’s founder Mark McAfee has said he was asked to be a policy adviser for raw milk at HHS under RFK Jr.
