Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the outbreak in West Texas last week as a “top priority.” But he did not explicitly encourage Americans to get vaccinated.
In a first test of the Trump administration’s ability to respond to an infectious disease emergency, its top health official has shied away from one of the government’s most important tools, experts said on Sunday: loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, was widely criticized as minimizing the measles outbreak in West Texas at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a social media post on Friday, he took a new tact, saying that the outbreak was a “top priority” for his department, Health and Human Services.
He noted various ways in which the department is aiding Texas, among them by funding the state’s immunization program and updating advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But on neither occasion did Mr. Kennedy himself advise Americans to make sure their children got the shots.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of H.H.S., did not send its first substantive notice about the outbreak until Thursday, almost a month after the first cases in Texas were reported.
“They’ve been shouting with a whisper,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, who is an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota and a former health department official.
“I fear that their hands have been tied,” he added.
C.D.C. officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.