The flu season is upon us, with a more virulent strain than in seasons past. The current vaccine is not a match to this year’s strain. In addition, measles and whooping cough are spreading across the country. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has come perilously close to scrapping the nation’s long-standing list of recommended vaccines for childhood diseases. Worse, Robert Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, does not believe in the efficacy of vaccines and, as a consequence, has canceled hundreds of millions in federal investment in mRNA vaccines, including ones that would help us during the next flu season.
Adding insult to injury, he fired the entire 17-member advisory committee, which advises on which vaccines to recommend for whom, replacing it with idealogues handpicked by him, chasing away doctors and scientists from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had overseen policy for years.
Perhaps worst of all, he revoked the recommendation that the vaccines for measles, mumps, chicken pox and rubella be given to children under age 4 in one dose, leaving parents to question the efficacy of any vaccines, period. And, in a move that makes it harder to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he stopped recommending it for healthy persons under 65 and stopped the recommendation that babies get the hepatitis B vaccination at birth, despite the fact that hepatitis can have profound negative effects later in life. The vaccination-at-birth policy has reduced hepatitis B by 99%. None of Kennedy’s changes are based on any scientific evidence. We have beaten back smallpox, yellow fever, polio, measles, mumps, hepatitis, COVID-19 and meningitis, thanks to vaccines.
To conclude, Mr. Kennedy has subverted every process and protocol, granting political appointees sway over agency scientists, and has fired dissenters, including the CDC director. His views are not based on fact, and many will die as a result of his arrogant denial of science.
Julia Sperry
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
