Kentucky Governor Beshear Asks President Trump to Replace Health Secretary Kennedy, Citing Vaccine Misinformation and 211 Measles Cases
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced at his Team Kentucky update in Frankfort on November 12, 2026, that he has written to President Donald Trump asking him to immediately replace Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing Kennedy of spreading false information about vaccines.
Beshear said Kentucky has recorded 211 confirmed measles cases this year, tracked by the state public health department. With measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases resurging, he argued, disparaging remarks about vaccines from the nation's top health official directly undermine states' prevention work.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States, but clustered outbreaks have returned in recent years, with falling vaccination rates cited by public health experts as a leading cause. Kentucky's health department has issued repeated measles exposure notices this year and urged unvaccinated residents to get the MMR vaccine.
The letter was one item in Beshear's regular Team Kentucky update. The same briefing proclaimed November 16-20 as Family and Community Engagement in Education Week, November as Lung Cancer Awareness Month and November 14 as Lung Cancer Screening Day, and covered medical cannabis, riverport and rail funding, community development grants, the Team Kentucky Food Drive and a prescription drug take-back day.
Beshear's term ends next year. His office counts nearly 1,400 private-sector projects, more than $55 billion in investment and over 72,000 jobs announced statewide during his tenure. Neither the White House nor HHS had publicly responded to the letter.
Source: Office of the Governor of Kentucky
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons「Floral Clock-Frankfort-Kentucky State Capitol-Kentucky-USA-20180910.jpg」（Mhsheikholeslami 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0），图中为肯塔基州议会大厦园区的花钟，位于 Frankfort Image: Wikimedia Commons "Floral Clock-Frankfort-Kentucky State Capitol-Kentucky-USA-20180910.jpg" (by Mhsheikholeslami, CC BY-SA 4.0), showing the Floral Clock on the Kentucky State Capitol grounds in Frankfort
