'Anti-vaxxers' including RFK Jr. rally at Capitol (NYS)

ALBANY — Despite the rain, an energetic crowd of vaccine skeptics and their children gathered in West Capitol Park on Tuesday to rally against government mandates and hear from prominent figures in the anti-vaccination movement, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As the number of measles cases in New York continues to climb and lawmakers scramble to address the public health crisis legislatively, the movement opposing mandatory vaccination is gaining traction across the state.

Kennedy, an outspoken environmentalist, has traveled to statehouses across the nation lobbying against vaccination mandates, and promoting the widely discredited notion that the shots are to blame for autism and other conditions.

"How can we as a society, as a government, be mandating a product for our children when we can't tell them the risks?" Kennedy told the crowd.