RFK Jr. is demanding that a scientific journal explain why it retracted a vaccine study he used to justify federal policy changes. The study was pulled for methodological failures. That sequence — policy first, retracted evidence second, pressure on the journal third — is the story.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician, publicly blamed RFK Jr. for the resurgence of measles and whooping cough. It is the clearest Republican accountability for a public health failure that was entirely predictable — and one senator's X post is not the same thing as a consequence.
A ProPublica investigation documents rising measles and whooping cough rates in states that weakened vaccine requirements following RFK Jr.'s recommendations — a public health crisis the administration refuses to acknowledge.