When asked about $11 billion in proposed cuts to local and state programs by the Trump administration, including programs addressing infectious diseases, mental health, addiction, and childhood vaccination, Kennedy said he wasn’t familiar with them.
“I’m not familiar with those cuts,” he said when asked if he personally approved them.
When presented with other studies that were cut, Kennedy said he wasn’t familiar, adding that other erroneously cut studies were later reinstated.
“I’m not familiar with that particular study, but there’s a number of studies that were cut that came to our attention and that did not deserve to be cut, and we reinstated them. Our purpose is not to reduce any level of scientific research that’s important,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kennedy encouraged everyone to get the measles vaccine.
His support for the vaccine came after two children died from a measles outbreak centered in Texas.
RFK JR. BACKS MMR VACCINE AFTER SECOND MEASLES-RELATED DEATH IN TEXAS
“My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief. I am also here to support Texas health officials and to learn how our HHS agencies can better partner with them to control the measles outbreak, which as of today, there are 642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas,” Kennedy posted on X.
He also said he redeployed Centers for Disease Control teams to Texas to help fight the outbreak.
