Healthcare

RFK Jr. Offers To Send In Backup To Help New York With Measles Emergency

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke with a Democratic governor on Tuesday and offered to send in federal help to respond to the measles emergency she declared days earlier.

In speaking with Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the HHS secretary “offered the full support of HHS and CDC as New York responds to the measles outbreak,” an HHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The spokesperson confirmed that Kennedy “directly” connected Hochul with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Erica Schwartz and that both the HHS and CDC “teams stand ready to provide whatever assistance the state needs.”

“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, CDC has mounted an aggressive response to measles outbreaks across the country. Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin requested CDC Epi-Aids and worked alongside federal teams to help bring their outbreaks rapidly and successfully under control,” the spokesperson told the DCNF in a statement. “If New York requests an Epi-Aid, CDC stands ready to deploy epidemiologists and other experts to support the state’s identified needs.”

“No state can address this on its own, which is why the governor will partner with anyone who can support our efforts to protect New Yorkers,” Houchul spokesperson Nicolette Simmonds said, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Hochul has been outspoken in her approach to increase vaccination efforts in the state in order to fight against the disease. New York reported 108 measles cases as of Saturday.

“As New York State’s 57th Governor, I look forward to working together to rebuild our communities and continue to move our great state forward,” Hochul said in a statement sent to the DCNF. “Over the past seven years, I have traveled throughout the state and continue to be inspired by the strength, diversity, and perseverance of New Yorkers. I promise to do everything I can, every single day, to create a stronger, safer future for you, our families, and our communities and to make government a force for good once again.”

The governor’s Monday executive order declaring a state of emergency stated that “the MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] vaccine is the only reliable way to prevent measles.”

The federal government appeared to agree.

“Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Schwartz continue to recommend the MMR vaccine as the most effective way to prevent measles infection,” the HHS spokesperson told the DCNF.

However, amid reports that the Amish are disproportionately affected by measles because they have not received vaccines for the disease, a group of Amish families from upstate New York appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their religious belief to remain unvaccinated.

First Liberty Institute in partnership with a number of law firms, filed the petition to the Supreme Court in defense of Amish New York families, who are fighting an imposed vaccine mandate required for schools from 2019. In refusing to vaccinate their children, the Amish families have racked up over $118,000 in fines, an Oct. 2 statement on the legal group’s website says.

“Only the government could see the Amish as a threat,” Hiram Sasser, Executive General Counsel for First Liberty, told the New York Post. “If New York wins, the Amish may be forced to flee the state after peacefully living there since the 1830s.”

Some Amish families might be forced to leave their homesteads if the Court denies their appeal, the Post reported.