Claim: “We’ve Done Better At Controlling the Measles Outbreak Than Any Country in the World”

Verdict: False and misleading.

We’ve done better at controlling the measles outbreak than any country in the world. [...] We’ve limited that last year to 2,200 cases. Mexico had 3 times that much with one third of our population. Canada had double that much, with one eighth of our population. Europe had 127,000 cases, the year before. We have a global pandemic. It is nothing to do with me. [...] I’ve done a better job at limiting it than any country in the world.

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RFK Jr. made this bold claim as part of his hearing at the Senate Finance Committee last week.

His claim could be interpreted in two ways:

1. The US has prevented measles better than any other country, shown by its lower per capita infection rate.

2. The US has handled the outbreak the best, by controlling the rise in cases. 

We’ll look at both in turn.

Does the US Have the Lowest Measles Cases Per Capita in the World?

RFK Jr. cites specific figures, and is generally accurate. The World Health Organization’s April 2026 Measles and Rubella Global Update says:

• The US had 2,283 cases in 2025 (6.68 per million population).

• Canada had 5,070 cases in 2025 (137 per million).

• Mexico had 6,434 cases in 2025 (49.5 per million).

• Europe had 127,412 cases in 2024 (171 per million).

However, there are countries with much lower rates per capita , such as Czechia (3.45 per million), Denmark (4.18 per million), Finland (0.36 per million), Spain (4.59 per million) and Sweden (3.49 per million), among others.

Has the US Handled the Outbreak Better than Other Countries?

This interpretation is even weaker. Johns Hopkins University’s Measles Tracker shows that by week 15 of 2026, there had been 1,811 cases in the US. At this time in 2025, there had only been 912 cases. So the situation is getting worse, if anything.

For comparison, despite having more cases in 2025, Canada is down to 603 cases so far in 2026.

Is the Outbreak “Nothing to Do With” RFK Jr.?

While RFK Jr. obviously isn’t personally responsible, it’s worth noting that research on the outbreak consistently points to vaccine hesitancy as a leading cause. RFK Jr. has certainly contributed to that.