An outbreak of measles that began among unvaccinated people in Texas has grown to over 1,000 cases across 11 U.S. states. So far, three people have died of the vaccine-preventable disease — two children and an adult — with dozens more hospitalized. On Monday, Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks filed a “no confidence” resolution calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to resign, in part because of Kennedy’s repeated false claims about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Alsobrooks filed the resolution after leading a rally on Saturday of hundreds of protesters outside the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda — many of them recently fired employees.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks: “Since Donald Trump has taken office, NIH has fired 1,300 employees and canceled more than $2 billion in federal research grants. How awful. How shameful. And he wants to cut the NIH by another 40%. Please know that these cuts would be carried out under the ridiculous leadership of RFK Jr., our asinine HHS secretary.”
Over the weekend, RFK Jr. revealed he took his grandchildren for a swim in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek, despite clear and longstanding public health warnings of high bacterial levels that make the waterway unsafe.