Ray Covarrubio, right, an immunization nurse at the Lubbock Public Health Department in Texas, prepares an MMR vaccination for Andrik Hawksley, age 6, in hat, in March.
Photo by Jan Sonnenmair, courtesy Getty Images
“If we’re able to address vaccine hesitancy, ease people’s fears, get them educated, get them access to vaccines, we know we could make a difference in future outbreaks.”
— Lori Tremmel Freeman
It is no secret to public health that the safety and science behind vaccinations has been undermined for decades by misinformation.
But when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — former chair of an anti-vaccination group that has spread mistruths — was confirmed in February as secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alarm horns began blaring across the health field.
Kennedy’s appointment as leader of the nation’s top health agency provides his fallacies about vaccine safety a much bigger — and more official — platform, which public health professionals worry may cause serious harm.
“You’re going to see an erosion in the public health infrastructure, which is going to mean not only an increase in preventable diseases, it’s going to be a decrease in knowing exactly what those preventable diseases are, where they’re happening and what you can do about it,” Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Nation’s Health. “You’re going to lose data.”
Prior to his confirmation, Kennedy had made waves for falsely linking vaccines to autism and spreading unproven and disputed science. In March, he attributed the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico to malnutrition and suggested using vitamin A to treat the disease, showing a continuation of his tendency to endorse dubious science.
The measles outbreak, the slow federal response and staff purges across health agencies are a sign of what could come for local health departments facing similar future outbreaks. Health departments that rely on federal funding for state immunization grants from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention for prevention — known as Section 317 funding — may have to instead rely on that money for emergency response for outbreaks, according to Amy Pisani, MS, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family.
“If you’re in a state that doesn’t have a lot of dollars set aside, I have no idea how they’re planning on responding to outbreaks,” Pisani told The Nation’s Health.
What could result is a regional patchwork of immunization policy across red and blue states, said Northe Saunders, executive director of the Science and Families Engaging Communities Coalition.
“I do think there’s going to be a red state-blue state divide where there are blue states passing state policies to protect immunization programs and immunization requirements, whereas the red states are going to accept what the federal government says and you’re going to see their immunization programs dry up or change,” Saunders told The Nation’s Health. “And then you’re going to see disease outbreaks in the red states. But these diseases don’t respect state borders.”
Meanwhile the future development of vaccines is in jeopardy. In just a few weeks since Kennedy’s confirmation, HHS agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and CDC had canceled meetings that determine what influenza strains to focus on for the new flu vaccine, and where members provide recommendations on vaccines for diseases such as chikungunya and meningitis.
Priscilla Luna and her daughter Avery Dahl, 3, read a vaccination book at a clinic in Texas in March. Hundreds of cases of measles in the state were linked to a lack of vaccination.
Photo by Jan Sonnenmair, courtesy Getty Images
The flu vaccine meeting is also an opportunity to discuss whether the previous season’s flu vaccine was effective, said Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, director the Colorado Children’s Outcomes Network and a liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We will have a flu vaccine next year,” O’Leary told The Nation’s Health. “The manufacturers are going ahead. But essentially, at least from my perspective, what that cancellation did was take a public discussion of what strains should be selected for next year’s flu season and moved it behind closed doors.”
Experts noted the irony of Kennedy’s comments about having transparency when it comes to vaccines when the Trump administration chose to close vaccine-related advisory meetings to the public or provide little to no context for committee members whom Kennedy considered to have conflicts of interest on vaccine policy.
The moves also do little to alleviate vaccine hesitancy, and a March decision to shut down National Institutes of Health research about the reasons some Americans do not trust vaccines is particularly dangerous in the wake of the outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“If we’re able to address vaccine hesitancy, ease people’s fears, get them educated, get them access to vaccines, we know we could make a difference in future outbreaks,” Freeman told The Nation’s Health.
Kennedy’s views also have the potential to do a lot of harm at the state level, Saunders said.
“In state legislatures, we’re seeing more anti-vaccine legislation than we did the prior year, twice as many pieces of legislation, mostly based on misinformation that has been perpetuated by people just like RFK Jr.,” Saunders told The Nation’s Health. “He has the bully pulpit now and has the ability to really impact vaccine policy.”
In the case of school vaccine requirements, Saunders noted a proposed bill in Louisiana last year that would require schools to notify parents that exemptions exist when they ask for their child’s vaccine information.
“That sows doubt in the need for parents to have their kids immunized and it makes it very easy for them to opt out,” Saunders said. “Even if they’re not anti-vaccine, it’s sometimes easier to sign a form than to get to the doctor to immunize your kids.”
Further sowing that doubt is a rehash of the myth that there is a link between autism and vaccines. Kennedy’s announcement in March of a new study investigating the link is a huge step backward, Offit said.
“All the evidence, frankly, is that you’re born with autism,” Offit said. “It’s at least 80% genetic. Let’s look at that. But no, we have to just keep blaming vaccines.”
When it comes to children, Pisani said most U.S. families support vaccinating their offspring. A 2023 Pew Research Center study found 88% of Americans believe the benefits of vaccinating children against measles, mumps and rubella outweigh the very small risk of vaccine reactions.
Pisani said her organization will continue to remind families of the consequences of not vaccinating on time. She said she is counting on policymakers across the country to educate their constituents about the importance of vaccination.
Science has disproven the myth that vaccines are connected to autism. Yet the new secretary of HHS announced a plan in March to revisit the claim, resowing doubt.
Photo by FatCamera, courtesy iStockphoto
“It’s really incumbent upon our policymakers to say, ‘Look, I’m responsible for my constituents,’” Pisani said.
For more information visit www.cdc.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
