Robert F. Kennedy Jr. managed to clear the lowest bar imaginable when he acknowledged in a Fox News op-ed over the weekend that “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”

The health secretary has long pushed misinformation about vaccines and played down an outbreak in Texas that has led to the death of a child.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said the measles outbreak in west Texas is a “call to action,” as he encouraged parents to consider whether to get their children vaccinated. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, said the decision to vaccinate is “personal” but defended the efficacy of…

The Trump administration is at risk of its first major failure as the measles outbreak spreads. Donald G. McNeil Jr., a former New York Times global health reporter, is author of “The Wisdom of Plagues.”

Since then, Kennedy said that HHS was helping health officials in Texas respond to the outbreak and spoke approvingly of the measles vaccine, but has still stopped short of calling for everyone to get vaccinated, writing Sunday in a Fox News op-ed that “the decision to vaccinate is a personal one.”