🔥 How RFK Jr.'s Health Slashing Left Arizona Tribes Fighting the Bubonic Plague and Measles
RFK Jr.'s federal cuts leave northern Arizona fighting 14th-century plague and 21st-century measles
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
The government's top health official visited Native American communities in Arizona and promised to help with healthcare 🤝, but then he fired thousands of health workers 👨⚕️🚫 and cut billions of dollars from disease prevention programs 💸✂️.
Now Arizona is dealing with serious outbreaks of two dangerous diseases - measles 🤒 and the plague ⚠️ - that could have been better prevented and controlled if those health programs hadn't been eliminated. The people making these budget decisions are billionaires 💼 who have never had to worry about getting sick 🤷♂️ or accessing healthcare 💊, but their choices are putting regular families 👨👩👧 and especially Indigenous communities 🏜️ at risk. It's like promising to fix someone's roof then taking away their tools 🔧🚫 right before a storm hits 🌧️.
🗝️ Takeaways
🎭 Political Theater Exposed: RFK Jr. visited the Navajo Nation in April, promising health support, then implemented massive cuts that left the same communities vulnerable to disease outbreaks
💸 Billionaire Budget Brutality: Elon Musk's DOGE team designed the health cuts that eliminated 20,000 federal health workers and $11+ billion in disease surveillance funding
🦠 Double Disease Disaster: Northern Arizona now faces both plague deaths and measles outbreaks, with weakened federal response capabilities due to Kennedy's cuts
🏥 Indigenous Communities Under Attack: The cuts disproportionately impact tribal communities that already face healthcare disparities and rely on federal health infrastructure
📊 Staggering Numbers: 1,288 measles cases across 39 states in 2025, the second-highest count in 25 years, while plague returns to Arizona with reduced surveillance capacity
🔄 Colonial Patterns Repeat: Kennedy's health theater follows classic patterns of federal promises to Indigenous communities followed by abandonment and resource extraction
RFK Jr.'s Federal Cuts Leave Indigenous Communities Vulnerable to Plague and Measles
¿Qué pasó?
The irony would be laughable if it weren't so tragically predictable. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Secretary of Health and Human Services, made a highly publicized visit to the Navajo Nation in April 2025, talking about "holistic health" and "protecting tribal sovereignty."
Yet just months later, his massive federal health program cuts have left northern Arizona—including the very communities he supposedly came to help—dealing with both plague and measles outbreaks.
¿En serio?
This isn't just another case of political hypocrisy. It's a perfect storm of colonial violence masquerading as government efficiency, where the most vulnerable communities pay the price for billionaire-backed budget cuts while bureaucrats play dress-up as health champions.
The Colonial Theater of RFK Jr.'s Navajo Visit
In April 2025, Kennedy visited Window Rock, Arizona, meeting with Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and tribal leaders to discuss "urgent health priorities."
The photo ops showed Kennedy hiking around the Window Rock arch, talking about connecting "environmental wellness and community health in the Diné worldview."
But here's where the pendejadas begin: While Kennedy was performing his sunrise spiritual awakening for the cameras, his administration was already planning the massive federal health cuts that would gut the very infrastructure needed to protect Indigenous communities from disease outbreaks.
According to Native News Online, tribal leaders used the visit to advocate for "holistic and preventive care" and improved "health infrastructure." They spoke about the critical need for clean water access and expanded rural health clinics, especially for elders and people with disabilities. The Navajo Nation was literally telling Kennedy what they needed to stay healthy and safe.
¿Y qué hizo? He nodded, smiled for the cameras, then went back to Washington and implemented cuts that would make those very needs impossible to meet.
The DOGE-matic Destruction of Public Health
Let's talk about the numbers, because they're absolutely staggering. Kennedy has overseen the elimination of 20,000 federal health workers—that's nearly 25% of the Department of Health and Human Services workforce.
According to NPR's reporting, Kennedy himself admitted that these cuts came from Elon Musk's DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team.
Think about that for a moment.
The richest man in the world, who's never had to worry about accessing healthcare in his entire privileged life, is making decisions about which disease surveillance programs get to survive.
¡Qué chingadera!
The cuts include:
Billions in canceled grants to universities and public health departments
$11.4 billion in federal grants to state and local health departments
Mass layoffs at the CDC, including disease surveillance programs
Even Kennedy himself has admitted he's "not familiar" with many of the cuts, telling CBS News he was unaware of the $11 billion in rescinded grants to state and local health departments.
The man in charge of protecting America's health doesn't even know what programs he's destroying.
When Plague Meets Politics: Northern Arizona Under Siege
Now let's connect the dots to what's happening in northern Arizona, because this is where Kennedy's budget theater meets brutal reality.
The Plague Returns
Just days ago, a patient died from plague at Flagstaff Medical Center in northern Arizona. According to Northern Arizona Healthcare, the patient arrived at the emergency department and died the same day from pneumonic plague—the more severe, airborne form of the disease.
This isn't some medieval throwback.
Plague remains endemic to the rural Southwest, including Arizona, because of the ecological conditions that support rodent hosts and flea vectors. Health officials have also reported a prairie dog die-off northeast of Flagstaff, which often signals plague's presence in local wildlife populations.
But here's the kicker: the CDC programs that monitor these wildlife populations and coordinate rapid response? Many of those have been gutted by Kennedy's cuts.
Measles Mayhem Spreads
The measles situation is even more damning.
According to the CDC, as of July 8, 2025, there have been 1,288 confirmed measles cases across 39 jurisdictions—including Arizona. This is the second-highest annual case count in 25 years.
In Arizona specifically, the first measles cases were reported in Navajo County in early June 2025, involving unvaccinated individuals who had recently traveled internationally. Additional exposure occurred at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport when an infectious individual traveled through Terminal 4.
The cruel irony?
Kennedy visited the Navajo Nation just two months before measles cases started appearing in Navajo County. He could have used that visit to strengthen vaccination programs and disease surveillance on tribal lands. Instead, his cuts have left communities more vulnerable than ever.
The Science of Systemic Neglect
Let's break down why these diseases are spreading now and how Kennedy's cuts make everything worse:
Measles: A Perfectly Preventable Crisis
Measles is extraordinarily contagious—one infected person can transmit the virus to 9-18 unvaccinated people. The virus spreads through the air and can linger for up to 2 hours after an infected person leaves an area.
The key to stopping measles? High vaccination rates and rapid outbreak response. But Kennedy's cuts have eliminated many of the CDC programs that:
Track vaccination coverage in vulnerable communities
Provide rapid response to outbreaks
Support state and local health departments with technical assistance
Fund community health workers who build trust around vaccination
Arizona's MMR vaccination rates have fallen below the recommended 95% threshold in several counties, and that was before Kennedy's cuts eliminated programs that could help boost those rates.
Plague: An Ancient Enemy with Modern Vulnerabilities
Plague persists in the rural West because it's entrenched in the ecosystem, cycling between wild rodents like prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and chipmunks, and their fleas.
Climate change and shifting weather patterns can amplify rodent and flea populations, further increasing spillover risk to humans.
The CDC programs that Kennedy has gutted included:
Wildlife disease surveillance systems
Environmental health monitoring
Rapid laboratory testing capabilities
Coordination between federal, state, and tribal health authorities
The Indigenous Impact: Más Que Números
For Indigenous communities, these cuts aren't just statistics—they're another chapter in a long history of federal neglect and abandonment. The Indian Health Service has historically been underfunded, and tribal communities already face significant health disparities.
When Kennedy visited the Navajo Nation, tribal leaders specifically discussed the need for improved health infrastructure and the importance of the Gallup Indian Medical Center project. They emphasized how Navajo citizens often have to travel to cities like Albuquerque or Phoenix for treatment.
Now, with federal health surveillance weakened and state health departments struggling with massive budget cuts, those same communities face:
Reduced disease monitoring and early warning systems
Fewer resources for outbreak response
Cuts to community health worker programs that build trust
Elimination of environmental health programs that track conditions like those that support plague
The Billionaire's Burden: Musk's Medical Malpractice
The most infuriating part?
Kennedy openly admits that Elon Musk's DOGE team drew up the blueprint for these cuts. A man worth over $200 billion is making decisions about whether poor communities deserve disease surveillance programs.
This is disaster capitalism at its most grotesque.
While Musk plays with rockets and social media platforms, actual humans are dying from preventable diseases because the surveillance and response systems that could save them have been sacrificed on the altar of "government efficiency."
As experts told Fortune, the damage from these cuts "could haunt Americans for decades." The forced exodus of highly skilled researchers, scientists, and public health professionals from the federal government is "really just extraordinary" and "is going to take decades to rebuild."
The Measles Map of Shame
Here's what the current outbreak looks like:
Following the Money: Where Corporate Interests Trump Community Health
Kennedy's cuts reveal the true priorities of this administration. While eliminating billions in public health funding, the administration has been perfectly happy to:
Maintain massive military budgets
Continue corporate tax breaks
Protect pharmaceutical industry profits (despite Kennedy's anti-pharma rhetoric)
Fund border militarization projects
The message is clear: money for weapons and walls, pero nada for the health workers who prevent plague outbreaks and track measles in vulnerable communities.
The Resistance: ¡Ya Basta!
But here's where hope enters the story. Communities across the Southwest—including many Indigenous nations—aren't just sitting back and accepting this colonial violence disguised as budget reform.
Tribal health officials continue advocating for their communities despite federal abandonment. State and local health departments are finding creative ways to maintain surveillance programs. Healthcare workers fired by Kennedy's purges are organizing to demand their jobs back.
The Arizona Luminaria reported that tribal communities Kennedy visited are now seeing the very programs they discussed with him get eliminated. But rather than give up, they're building alternative networks of support and mutual aid.
What You Can Do: ¡A Organizarnos!
This isn't just about health policy—it's about challenging a system that values corporate profits over community survival. Here's how you can get involved:
Immediate Actions:
Contact your representatives and demand the restoration of federal health surveillance funding
Support local health departments and community health organizations
Get vaccinated and encourage vaccination in your community
Donate to Indigenous health organizations working on the ground
Long-term Organizing:
Join or support organizations fighting for healthcare justice
Advocate for increased funding to the Indian Health Service
Support candidates who prioritize public health over corporate welfare
Build mutual aid networks in your community
Stay Informed:
Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack to stay up-to-date on how these policies affect borderland communities
Follow local health departments for outbreak information
Support independent journalism that holds power accountable
Conclusion: The Plague of Politics, The Medicine of Solidarity
RFK Jr.'s photo-op visit to the Navajo Nation followed by devastating health cuts isn't just policy failure—it's a perfect metaphor for American politics in the Trump era. Grand gestures and empty promises while the real work of protecting vulnerable communities gets sacrificed to billionaire efficiency experts who've never worried about accessing healthcare in their lives.
But here in the borderlands, we know something about survival and resistance. We know that when the federal government abandons us—como siempre—we have to build our own networks of care and solidarity.
The plague and measles outbreaks in northern Arizona aren't just public health emergencies. They're warnings about what happens when we let corporate interests trump community health, when we allow billionaires to decide who deserves disease surveillance, and when we accept that some communities are expendable in the name of government efficiency.
¡No más! It's time to organize, to resist, and to build the healthcare systems our communities actually need—with or without federal support.
Three Sonorans writes from the borderlands of southern Arizona, covering the intersection of Indigenous rights, immigration justice, and environmental protection. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our Substack and help us continue holding power accountable.
We want to hear from you! Leave a comment below with your thoughts on these two questions:
How do you think Indigenous communities can best protect themselves from federal health cuts while building alternative systems of care?
What role should community organizing play in response to public health emergencies when federal resources are inadequate?
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Criminal!
Bubonic plague is biowarfare. Probably measles is also being used as such.
Measles is no problem if you have clean water and live in a clean environment, it goes out of the system within the month.
In Europe everyone got it once.
The other is a bioweapon, according to medical record is alleged to have originated after the use of corporal medicine “supposed medicine made with human parts and organs”.
Study have tied this practice to have been conducted by people which stoled the body parts from cemeteries and accidentally or not unleashed the pests.
In theory such diseases should have vanquished from the western world, but I guess, the tribes are always under attack.
Perhaps homeopathy can provide some natural remedies, I would not trust or wait for the current gov to start to save people.
One rule to defeat diseases is anyhow the one of clean water and clean environment.
Also, I advise you to research UVC, it is a real solution for destroying harmful bacteria and providing clean air.
Note, clinics which use it have in the average 90% less hospital infection cases.
I have used it for years and I can assert that it is a miracle lamp.
Vaccines are false science and are a Trojan horse designed to infect and kill.
Clean water and environment is the key, vaccines are killers.