RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Nonsense Has Helped Spread Measles to Mexico

The measles situation in the United States is so bad that the disease is spreading south of the border.

Answering a question from a reporter Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed that the sudden resurgence of measles in Mexico had originated from the U.S.

“It came mainly from the United States, that’s why it shows up in Chihuahua,” Sheinbaum said. “And in Chihuahua there are communities that don’t get vaccinated at all for any vaccine.

“So it specifically began there, where contagion is highest—among people who have not been vaccinated,” she continued.

Measles was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000 thanks to its corresponding vaccine. But 2025 challenged the viral extermination with a whopping 2,144 confirmed cases across 45 jurisdictions—the highest count since 1991.

And 2026 is already on course to beat that figure. In just the last month and a half, officials have confirmed more than 800 measles cases in 23 states, according to data from the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. So far, the outbreak in South Carolina has proven the worst, with at least 605 confirmed cases in the state. Texas, which suffered the bulk of the viral load last year, already has two confirmed cases.

The rising digits could put the U.S. at risk of losing its elimination status, reported U.S. News and World Report.

“A significant percentage of the population is vaccinated against measles,” Sheinbaum said in a statement following the press conference.

She then recommended—on the advice of her secretary of health—that young children, from 6 months to 12 years of age, receive appropriate doses of the measles vaccine for their age group.

“In Jalisco, Colima, Chiapas, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Tabasco, and Mexico City, people aged 13 to 49 who have not been vaccinated should attend,” Sheinbaum added.

Sheinbaum’s report contradicts what Donald Trump has been preaching to his supporters since he was on the campaign trail. In 2024, while Trump accused South American countries of sending all of its “criminals” and “terrorists” into the U.S., Trump also suggested that the Latinos entering the country were bringing with them “very contagious disease.” Yet, according to the Mexican leader, the exact opposite is true.

Measles does not have a cure. The highly contagious disease can spur a blotchy rash, pink eye, a high fever, white spots inside the mouth, full body aches, pneumonia, and severe dehydration, and can result in hospitalization or even death.

Fortunately, however, it is highly preventable thanks to a vaccine that was developed by a couple of American scientists in 1963. In 1971, researchers created yet another vaccine capable of preventing measles as well as two other contagious illnesses—mumps and rubella—thanks to miraculous developments in modern medicine. The joint shot was named the MMR vaccine, an acronym for “measles, mumps, and rubella.”

America’s diminishing herd immunity is due to a growing movement of anti-vax parents—currently championed at the federal level by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who refuse to provide their children with the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories that, at one point, linked autism to the jab.

The researcher who sparked the myth that vaccines cause autism did so with a fraudulent paper. As a result, he lost his medical license and eventually rescinded his opinion. Since then, dozens of studies, including one that surveyed more than 660,000 children over the course of 11 years, have proven there’s no correlation between autism and vaccines.

During the deadly measles outbreak in Texas last year, Kennedy advised that state residents take extra vitamins rather than receive the vaccine, and justified a local religious community’s decision not to receive the vaccine by claiming that the measles vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris” as well as “DNA particles.” Fact check: It does not.

Even Kennedy’s own officials have denied his health conspiracies, potentially at cost to their employment.

But the 71-year-old has a lot to gain from pushing disinformation about the jab: the more doubt and division Kennedy sows, the more money he’ll make. Ahead of his appointment, Kennedy disclosed that he made roughly $10 million in 2024 from speaking fees and dividends from his anti-vaccine lawsuits. He’s also made cash from merchandising handled by his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, which bungled anti-vax messaging in Samoa so badly that it started a 2019 outbreak that resulted in the deaths of at least 83 people, the majority of whom were children under the age of 5.

As a reminder: Since their invention, vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. The medical shots are so effective at preventing illness that they have effectively eradicated some of the worst diseases from our collective culture, from rabies to polio and smallpox—a fact that has possibly fooled some into believing that the viruses and their complications aren’t a significant threat to the average, health-conscious individual.