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It's Been a Minute

When adults reject vaccines, children pay the price

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.68.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you or someone you love been confused by the push to 'Make America Healthy Again'?

Then you, my friend, are in dire need of our new series: The Road to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). For the next few weeks, we're delving into some of the origins, conspiracy theories, and power grabs that have led us to this moment, and what it could mean for our health.

After visiting the families of measles victims in Texas, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated on X, "The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine." But his history promoting the anti-vaccination cause alongside questionable alternative medicines has public health officials, parents, and even the MAHA constituency on edge.

For the second episode in our Road to MAHA series, NPR's senior science and health editor Maria Godoy and NBC News senior reporter, Brandy Zadrozny, walk us through how anti-vaccine rhetoric has led to this moment in public health.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You have your job, but you also have a life, and you're not just one thing.

0:06.3

Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast.

0:09.2

Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about.

0:15.7

It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBR.

0:31.4

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,

0:36.3

a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

0:50.8

Have you or someone you love been confused by the push to make America healthy again?

0:56.9

If that's the case, then you, my friend, are in dire need of our new series.

1:05.1

The Road to Make America Healthy Again. Don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again? For the next few weeks, we're delving into some of the origins, conspiracy theories, and power grabs that have led us to this moment.

1:16.1

And what that could mean for our health.

1:22.1

You ever see anything like this before?

1:24.3

Nope.

1:26.1

Well, that just goes to show you how old I am. This looks like measles.

1:30.8

The pit on Max is one of the breakout shows of the year, putting a magnifying glass on our

1:35.9

complicated healthcare system. But it's penultimate episode, which features an unvaccinated

1:41.1

child with measles, hits closer to home as our country battles an ongoing

1:45.8

measles outbreak. Measles is probably the most contagious infectious disease known to mankind.

1:53.1

It's really kind of like the canary in the coal mine in terms of pointing out where the holes in the

1:57.2

public health system is. That's NPR senior Senior Science and Health Editor, Aria Godoy.

2:02.4

And on April 6th, after visiting the family of a child who passed away from measles in

2:06.7

West Texas, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wrote in a message

2:12.3

on X. The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.

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