Dr. Oz Urges Vaccination Amidst Rising Measles Cases, Shifts from Prior Support of RFK Jr.’s Policies

“Get vaccinated, please! We have a solution to your problem!” The recent call for vaccination by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, marks a distinct departure from his previous support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial Secretary of Health.

The current surge in measles cases in the United States is prompting a change in messaging, at least temporarily. “Not all diseases are equally dangerous […], but measles is a disease against which you need to get vaccinated,” the cardiac surgeon stated a few days ago.

From a strictly epidemiological point of view, it is still too early to establish a definitive cause-and-effect link between the significant resurgence of measles in the United States – at its highest level since the early 2000s – and the decisions of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So far.

However, what is evident is that measles will serve as the “canary in the coal mine” among all diseases.

If vaccination coverage declines in the United States, it is likely that this disease will be the first to show it, because it is the most contagious and the one on which [Kennedy’s] decisions could have the fastest consequences, if not already.

– Dr. Nicholas Brousseau, a public health specialist at the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec

For other, less contagious diseases, “a certain number of years, five, six or seven years, will still be needed before a real resurgence is observed” that could be linked to current decisions, adds Dr. Brousseau.

Although the scientific community is concerned everywhere, in Quebec, Dr. Brousseau notes that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s discourse does not seem to have an impact. The proportion of children receiving the recommended vaccines remains particularly high – around 9 out of 10 children, notes Dr. Brousseau.

The Kennedy Effect and Counterpowers

In any case, the measles outbreak in the United States adds to the stones accumulating in the shoes of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. These days.

Last week, a federal judge suspended the overhaul of U.S. Vaccination policy launched by the Secretary of Health under Donald Trump.

In the decision (which Washington intends to contest), it is written that the U.S. Government “disregarded” science and that of the “fifteen members” currently on the committee responsible for vaccination recommendations, “only six appear to have significant experience in the field.”

Everything indicates that the states, which have some leeway in terms of vaccination schedules, did not wait for this decision: according to a survey by the non-governmental organization KFF, 30 states, including the District of Columbia where Washington is located, have decided not to follow the new vaccination recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and inspired by the policies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Counterpowers are therefore at work, but the Kennedy effect has had immediate repercussions on many parents in some places.

Last Thursday, Reuters reported that the rate of childhood vaccination (for the seven basic vaccines) fell by three percentage points in Michigan between January 2025 and January of this year, a decrease 13 times greater than the average annual variation over the past 18 years.

This corroborates surveys conducted in recent months in the United States on the loss of public confidence in vaccines, observes François Audet, professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal and director of the Canadian Observatory on Crises and Humanitarian Action.

It is not surprising, he continues. When an anti-vaccine discourse is carried by “a preacher-like figure,” it necessarily has an impact.

With the Agence France-Presse