Anti-vaccine group once led by RFK Jr circulates false assertions amid measles outbreak

Children's Health Defense using familiar playbook to defend health secretary as it downplays dangers of disease and exaggerate risks of vaccines, public health experts say

The non-profit group that Robert F Kennedy Jr built into a giant of the anti-vaccine movement is defending its old boss even as the US health secretary presides over the worst year for measles in more than 30 years.

Three people have died and 1,958 people have been reported infected with measles in the US this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In South Carolina, 224 people are in quarantine amid an outbreak that has sickened 144 people. Most are unvaccinated children.