The Health Secretary is quietly undermining America’s vaccination infrastructure.
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In the Trump administration, there seem to be restrictions on how anti-Vax is anti-Vax. Yesterday, the White House pulled out the nomination hours before Dave Weldon was scheduled to begin a Senate confirmation hearing for the CDC Director. Weldon, a doctor and former Republican Rep., has long questioned the safety of the vaccine. At last month’s meeting, he It is reportedly He told one senator that everyday childhood vaccines expose children to dangerous levels of mercury and could lead to autism. (Both claims are false.)
Weldon denied that he was anti-vaccination, but his view on the vaccine appears to have been his revocation. In a written statement he gave to me and the other outlets, he threatened that at least two Republican senators would vote against him, suggesting this was “clearly too much for the White House.” However, these two senators, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine, have confirmed that they will confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., avid vaccine critic who became Weldon’s boss, as health secretary. Perhaps Weldon’s biggest problem was that he yelled out the quiet part. During the confirmation hearing, Kennedy asked to clearly declare that the vaccine would not cause autism and to convince lawmakers to have Americans make their own decisions about the vaccine. “We support the measles vaccine. We support the polio vaccine. Kennedy told the senator.
Kennedy has already broken that promise. He has supported unproven treatments such as cod liver oil, just as the case of measles has appeared in states across the country leading to the death of America’s first measles for the first time in a decade. It’s Kennedy I said As the measles vaccine helps to “protect individual children from measles” and contributes to “community immunity,” he appeared on Fox News earlier this week to question questions that are also unfounded by its “risk profile.” (In very rare cases, vaccines can have serious side effects.) Kennedy’s vaccine overturn is often subtle, glaring at others, far beyond the outbreak of measles. The health secretary said “using the federal government will undermine vaccination in any way possible,” said Matt Motta, a vaccine communications researcher at Boston University. Weldon may have crossed the red line for lawmakers. But in just a month of work, Kennedy has taken more steps against vaccines than perhaps the other best healthcare providers in modern American history.
A wishful comment about Kennedy’s measles vaccine may convince more parents not to vaccinate their children. However, his other actions have a wider and longer-term effect on the overall US vaccination system. Earlier this week, the government ended its NIH research grant to look at how the government can deal with vaccine reluctance. Vaccine promotions may seem separate from access, but the two are intertwined, Motta said. Vaccine-promoting studies often investigate issues such as whether people know where to get shots, whether insurance covers them. (A spokesman for the health and welfare world did not respond to requests for comment.)
Meanwhile, the government is currently researching teeth Funding may help to seed more mistrust of the vaccine. CDC is It is reportedly We will begin research investigating the link between vaccines and autism, despite the connection being already thoroughly studied and exposed. A 2014 meta-analysis of over a million children found that there was “no relationship” between shots and states. Even if new research reaches similar conclusions, simply funding such research results, Jennifer Reich, a vaccine hasite researcher at the University of Colorado University of Denver, told me. She said new research from the NIH plays a “strong symbolic role” of Link “feeling it unstable.”
The myopia focus on the alleged link between vaccines and autism is exactly what some lawmakers feared to colour Kennedy’s term as secretary. During Kennedy’s confirmation, doctor Cassidy raised concerns that Kennedy and his Maha movement could undermine science by “always seeking more evidence and never accepting the evidence there.” Cassidy, who did not respond to a request for comment, may have immediate reasons for disappointment. He ultimately voted to confirm Kennedy based on a lot of promises and his beliefs, as he said in his speech on the Senate floor, as RFK Jr. said, “work within the current vaccine approval and safety surveillance system.” However, Kennedy has already hinted at changing these systems. “There’s a vaccine supervision system in this country that doesn’t work,” he recently wrote in Fox News, “Past CDCs have not done a good job quantifying vaccine risks. We’re going to do that now.”
Since RFK Jr. took office, health agencies have not waived all responsibility surrounding vaccinations. CDC officials are coordinating directly with their local Texas Health Department, located at the epicenter of the measles outbreak, including helping with the design of outreach materials to promote vaccinations, according to an internal email received as part of the disclosure request. For example, a letter to parents of local health authorities said, “We strongly recommend that you vaccinate your child as soon as possible.”
Perhaps Weldon’s defeat means Washington wants more vaccination efforts like that. But he makes a simple scapegoat: unlike RFK Jr., he lacks a dedicated fanbase that supports him. Kennedy doesn’t need Weldon to do real damage to America’s vaccine infrastructure. Any changes he has made so far are probably just the beginning. If Kennedy keeps this pace, the US vaccine system may appear radically different in one or two years. His position on Weldon changes nothing about it.
