The Mumps Came Back: What RFK Jr. Doesn’t Talk About—But Should

I had the mumps as a kid in the 1962. Like a lot of children back then, I also caught measles and chickenpox around that time. It was just part of growing up—pre-vaccine era, pre-awareness, pre-prevention. We got sick, we got through it, and we didn’t think much about long-term effects. But in 1978, while I was serving in the U.S. Air Force, I caught the mumps again—and what happened next has stayed with me for life. 

I had my kids vaccinated as infants—and they're perfectly healthy today in their 30s. They are very smart, very healthy, artistic, very productive. NOT the poster children RFK Jr. proposes they would end up.

Too many people anymore allow paranoia to override science, reality, incapable apparently of balancing it all mentally and too many easily falling for fear pushed by those chasing fame and power.

• Measles vaccine wouldn’t be licensed until 1963
• Mumps in 1967
• Rubella in 1969
• MMR combo not until 1971

After having three wisdom teeth removed at the base hospital dental clinic, my mouth swelled painfully for about a week. I had to sleep with my mouth swelled open and it was really annoying. I then returned to work thinking I was in the clear, but that night, the swelling came back. It got worse overnight. So the next morning, I went to the base hospital. 

The PA, the physician assistant examining me turned pale, excused himself abruptly, and left. I sat there perplexed. And worried. Soon after, a doctor walked in, introduced himself and began to examine me. He noticed my noticing the PA hiding awkwardly in the doorway, peeking around the edge at me in a rather comical, but serious fashion.

“He’s never had the mumps,” the doctor explained, “and it’s bad when it occurs in adults.”

I was confused—I told him I'd had the mumps as a child. That’s when he gave me a piece of information I’d never heard before: “We have six salivary glands that can get infected. It’s entirely possible to get mumps multiple times if some of those glands didn’t get hit the first time around.”

Humans have three pairs (six total) of major salivary glands that can be infected by the mumps virus:

1. Parotid glands – the largest, located near the ears

2. Submandibular glands – beneath the jaw

3. Sublingual glands – under the tongue

News to me...

I’d unknowingly been carrying an open invitation to a disease I thought I was done with. And in adults—especially men—mumps isn’t just uncomfortable. It can be devastating. Orchitis, the swelling of the testicles, can lead to infertility. I lived with the anxiety of the possibility of being infertile for nearly a decade, until my wife and I had our son in 1988. Until that is, she had gotten pregnant with him the year before.

At the prognosis and the order for me to stay home, I told my boss I’d been given another week off to recover. He said—not so jokingly—that I probably got mumps on purpose just to miss work. I asked him how I could even do that—I didn’t know anyone who had it. He said, “You just visit a kid with mumps.” I told him what the doctor told me: that’s a really bad idea for an adult. It can lead to lifelong consequences. And so I had another miserable week of trying to sleep with my mouth swollen open again.

And so, that’s exactly what makes RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine rhetoric so dangerous—and dishonest.

He’s fixated on the measles vaccine, pushing exaggerated fears and conspiratorial doubts. But when it comes to mumps—part of the same MMR vaccine—he goes silent. Why? Because mumps doesn’t fit his narrative. You can get away with calling measles a “mild childhood illness.” But you can’t spin testicular swelling, infertility, or adult meningitis as "natural immunity."

RFK Jr. knows mumps is serious—and if he doesn’t, he has no business talking about vaccines, let alone serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He should never have been nominated, and certainly never confirmed. His selective outrage exposes the truth: this isn’t about science or safety. It’s about branding conspiracy theories, toxic politics, and manufacturing doubt.

I had mumps twice. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone once. We vaccinate for a reason. And the reason is simple: prevention beats regret.

Compiled with aid of ChatGPT