RFK Jr. Refuses To Declare Measles Outbreak A National Emergency When Asked Directly

At an event on Monday, Sec. RFK Jr. was asked about the measles outbreak in the United States.

Transcript

00:00Okay, we'll take a couple of questions for any of us, but Secretary Kennedy and Dr. McCary and I

00:05are open to it, and then we'll scoop some ice cream. Any questions? Yes, ma'am. And please

00:10announce who you're with as well. Thank you. Oh, great. My name is Julia. I'm with NBC News,

00:21and I have a question. I know we're making America sweet again with this announcement.

00:27Dr. Oz said earlier that Medicaid will be there for the American people when they need help, but

00:32they have to stay healthy themselves. So do you believe in the suggestion that Americans on

00:37Medicaid should stay healthy? Does ice cream fall into that category? And then Secretary Kennedy,

00:42while I have you, what do you make of lawmakers' calls for you to declare measles a public health

00:48emergency? Thank you. I'll address the measles issues first.

00:58There's an international measles outbreak right now. We are doing probably better than any,

01:05or certainly better than any of the other industrial countries in the world in controlling it.

01:10We've had about 1,300 measles cases in this country. In Mexico, just as one example,

01:16there's over 3,000, and they have one-third of our population. There's about 3,000 in Canada,

01:22and they have one-eighth of our population. In Britain or in Europe, there are, I think,

01:29over 12,000 cases. And so we've done a very, very good job at controlling it. We have all the places

01:38where there's outbreaks. The outbreaks are actually declining. We have CDC teams everywhere where

01:45governors have requested it. And we are also taking care of those populations that don't want to

01:51vaccinate. Most of the case are unvaccinated Americans. There are some populations that do not

01:59want to vaccinate. We're making sure that there are protocols for treating people who actually get

02:04measles. So, you know, if in the individual states, if there are issues, we are there for them. But

02:14we don't at this point consider it a national emergency.