Calls are growing for RFK Jr. to be fired amid a surge in cases of a disease that was once pronounced 'eradicated' across America.
Measles is a highly contagious and deadly disease that was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. However, it appears cases of measles are making a terrifying comeback over a quarter of a century later.
According to the CDC, over 1,700 cases have already been recorded this year, following a total of 2,288 confirmed cases across 45 states in 2025. An outbreak in South Carolina only came to an end this week after 997 cases were recorded. Of those, 932 patients were unvaccinated.
For a disease that was effectively wiped out with successful vaccination, the resurgence has reignited a political debate about who is responsible.
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US measles vaccines have been falling
Experts have been pointing to falling vaccination rates as the key driver of the outbreak, while some politicians have blamed the Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“RFK Jr. should be fired immediately,” Reverend Raphael Warnock, the junior senator for Georgia, wrote on X Monday.
The criticism is grounded in a series of major policy changes made under Kennedy's tenure.
The health secretary slashed nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine development, dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and pushed to overhaul childhood vaccination recommendations. A federal judge partially reversed the changes in March following a lawsuit from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups.
Warnock pressed Kennedy directly during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, accusing him of making 'draconian cuts' to the Health Department.
RFK Jr. described as 'dangerous to the American public'
“You’ve come to Congress and justified destroying the CDC by saying you want to restore the CDC’s mission to focusing on infectious diseases,” Warnock said.. “Yet, you’re gutting the very offices that keep American families safe from disturbing and deadly infectious diseases.”
She added: “I think you’re dangerous to the American public. You ought to be fired. And, if you’re not fired, you ought to have the decency to resign.”
Warnock also voted against Secretary Kennedy to lead HHS, the agency that oversees the CDC.
However, Kennedy defended that measles outbreaks are a global issue and claimed the US handled the situation 'better' than any other country 'under his leadership.'
Meanwhile, disease experts are warning that the nation is dangerously close to losing its measles elimination status altogether.
“My best guess is we will lose elimination status,” Dr Andrew Pavia, a Utah physician and longtime CDC consultant, told The Associated Press.
As reported by the New York Times, Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer in Alabama’s Department of Public Health, added: “Measles is basically a canary in the coal mine for our entire system.
"When it surges like this, it signals that our vaccination programs are starting to fail, and that other diseases won’t be far behind.”