RFK's War On Vaccines

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services serves as one of, if not the most important departments in all of America. Through its management and operation of thirteen separate agencies, including the FDA, CDC, and NIH, the HHS is responsible for the well-being of all Americans through public health programs, healthcare services, and research support. Trump's questionable decision in February to appoint former political adversary Robert F Kennedy Jr as Secretary of the HHS has led to even more questionable policies from the department, most of which directly go against all established research and evidence. RFK's policies have been characterized by leading scientists and doctors in the medical field as incompetent, predicated on bias and false information, and wildly harmful to the American public. The future of US health policy appears bleak, and it seems that yet again, citizens will be the one paying the price: not in dollars and cents, but in years off their life.

RFK has long been an ardent supporter of anti-vaccine discourse, evidenced by his multiple headlining antics and quotes in the past few years. His founding of the organization Children's Health Defense in 2016, which famously advocates conspiracy theories against vaccines; his controversial quotes about vaccines, where he has compared childhood vaccine programs to Nazi death camps; and his most famous crusade against vaccines, claiming they cause autism, despite all research pointing to the contrary.

As Secretary of the HHS, he has sought to further his goal of eradicating vaccines: he fired the entire CDC immunization committee and supplanted it with members more in line with his agenda, slashed hundreds millions in funding for mRNA vaccines and openly supported criticism of said vaccines, and continually ignores recommendations for safe administration of immunizers. His recent press conference in the Senate was at best worrisome: he made numerous erroneous statements about vaccines, could not name important statistics regarding COVID, failed to provide a reasonable justification for his gutting of the CDC board, and devolved into accusing opposing senators of accepting bribes from pharmaceutical companies, without providing evidence.

This saga comes amid the first measles outbreak in years after enough of the population did not receive measles vaccines, which was largely influenced from misinformation coming from the White House. Thousands of cases, the highest reported in 33 years, stemmed from RFK's actions and advocacies to reject science and medical professional advice. The current trend of health policy under Trump looks as if it will only put more American lives at risk in the future through weakening the medical care system and spreading erroneous information about medicine. In current times, where America is deeply polarized and cannot agree on much, all citizens should be confident in their government to protect and maintain the health of the nation, but RFK's policies threaten even that. More must be done to counteract his agenda in order to save thousands of American lives.