In April 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced his presidential bid in Boston, promising to “Make America Wholesome Once more.” Since turning into President Trump’s secretary of Well being and Human Providers, Kennedy has made a mockery of this promise, undermining many years of public well being consensus.
His tenure just lately reached its lowest level, with the explosive departure of Director Susan Monarez from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. 4 different officers left the CDC over Kennedy’s management, with one accusing him of “weaponization of public well being.”
Kennedy’s gutting of the U.S. vaccine infrastructure is his most obtrusive failure. A longtime vaccine “skeptic,” Kennedy has spent a lot of his profession spreading vaccine misinformation regarding security and long-term unwanted side effects. In 2005, he printed an notorious article in Rolling Stone and Salon titled “Lethal Immunity.” The piece argued a typical anti-vaccine trope, supposedly figuring out a hyperlink between vaccines and autism. Although this piece was later retracted, the harm was executed.
Public well being consultants have been aghast at Kennedy’s latest assaults on mRNA vaccines and his determination to chop $500 million in funding for future mRNA initiatives. It’s uncommon in politics to discover a place that requires nearly no nuance; Kennedy’s coverage is guided by pure misinformation. As Michael Osterholm, the director of the Middle for Infectious Illness Analysis and Coverage on the College of Minnesota, put it, Kennedy’s rhetoric on vaccines is “merely not true.”
Kennedy has discovered nearly zero public well being professionals to assist his campaign in opposition to vaccines. As an alternative of reflecting on why this may be, in June, he fired all 17 members of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
ACIP was chargeable for creating U.S. vaccine coverage, offering the framework for routine vaccines. Kennedy mentioned the entire shake-up of ACIP was “essential to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.” The reality is probably going a lot less complicated; Kennedy deemed it essential to take away the certified consultants beforehand sitting on ACIP to free his hand on vaccines.
Kennedy’s new ACIP is busy vandalizing public well being. A convention on the finish of June on the influenza vaccine noticed the brand new ACIP vote to suggest that Individuals get flu vaccines solely in single doses, freed from a mercury-derived preservative referred to as “thimerosal.” Considerations round thimerosal are rooted in historic misinformation on a debunked hyperlink between vaccines and autism. Public well being consultants on the convention acknowledged as a lot; Dr. Jason Goldman, the top of the American School of Physicians, mentioned throughout the public feedback part of the convention, “Many statements have been made as we speak with out assist of science or proof however merely opinion.”
Vaccine confidence in the US has fallen because the COVID pandemic — primarily because of misinformation — and that is having an actual impact on communal immunity for preventable illnesses like measles. The proportion of U.S. school-age youngsters receiving the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine fell from 95% in 2019 to 92% in 2023. Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, a senior college editor at Harvard Well being Publishing, wrote just lately that the 92% determine is under the usual required to guard people and their communities from measles.
Kennedy has repeatedly undermined the MMR vaccine. In an interview with Fox Information in March, he falsely claimed that the MMR vaccine led to “deaths yearly” and unfold misinformation about how rapidly the safety from the vaccine fades.
Just a few weeks later, a second baby died in Texas after contracting measles. This prompted Kennedy to concern an overdue corrective: “The simplest option to stop the unfold of measles is the MMR vaccine.” As Texas officers declared the outbreak in Texas over in late August, Jennifer Nuzo, the director of the Pandemic Middle at Brown College, mentioned the outbreak was managed “regardless of” Kennedy.
From flu season to containing a measles outbreak, Kennedy has confirmed himself totally unfit to guide the division tasked with providing Individuals protected and clear recommendation on vaccinations. He and his unqualified ACIP will proceed to place their very own ideology above the huge scientific consensus. It’s nicely previous time for the adults to be introduced again to the Division of Well being and Human Providers; could Kennedy’s tenure be as brief as his presidential marketing campaign.
Mackenzie France is the director of technique on the Pinsker Centre.
