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Kennedy advises parents to ‘do your own research’ on vaccines

(NYT) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advised parents of newborns to “do your own research” before vaccinating their infants during a televised interview in which he also suggested the measles shot was unsafe and repeatedly made false statements that cast doubt on the benefits of vaccination and the independence of the Food and Drug Administration.

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Kennedy made the remarks to talk show host Dr. Phil in an interview that aired Monday on MeritTV. He said, as he has in the past, that “if you want to avoid spreading measles, the best thing you can do is take that vaccine.”

But Kennedy also made clear, as he has in the past, that he believes it is up to individuals to decide. In suggesting vaccines are unsafe, he contradicted decades of advice from public health experts, including leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research,” the health secretary said, in response to a question from a woman in the audience who asked how he would advise a new parent about vaccine safety. “You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy’s comments came amid the largest measles outbreak in about 25 years in the United States, which has included the deaths of two young children and an adult.

Kennedy also suggested, without evidence, that measles shots cause a variety of ailments.

Kennedy’s other statements in the interview were also rife with inaccuracies. “New drugs are approved by outside panels, not by the FDA or the CDC,” he declared.

The Six Triple Eight battalion honored for World War II success

WASHINGTON (NYT) — The only all-Black, all-female Army battalion to serve in Europe during World War II was awarded Congress’ highest honor Tuesday, in a celebration of the type of diversity that has come under assault by the Trump administration.

The unit, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — known as the Six Triple Eight — deployed to England in 1945 to clear a backlog of 17 million letters and packages. The mail was considered critical to maintaining U.S. soldiers’ morale during some of the most grueling and bloody chapters of the war.

The members of the 855-woman battalion were given six months to complete the mission, knowing that if they failed, the future of Black women in the military might be doomed. They finished in three, working around the clock, processing up to 65,000 pieces of mail in each eight-hour shift and creating a card-based index of more than 7 million military serial numbers to ensure that mail addressed to people with similar names would go to the correct recipient.

Today, the battalion has only two surviving members: Fanny McClendon, 101, and Anna Mae Robertson, 104. While they watched from home, about 300 descendants of members of the battalion gathered in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall — named after the enslaved people who helped construct the building — to witness a ceremony honoring the unit’s legacy.