Vaccines are one of the greatest successes of public health of all time. In the last 50 years, they have saved approximately 154 million lives. However, in the United States, both access to vaccines and public confidence in them are systematically undermined, not by conspiracyrs online, but from the highest spheres of the government.
In January 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., linked for a long time with the misinformation about vaccines, was confirmed as the Secretary of Health of the United States.
Despite the pressures received during his confirmation audiences in the Senate, Kennedy insisted that he did not oppose vaccines and promised to maintain scientific standards.
Seven months later, their actions tell a different story.
Kennedy has launched a radical attack against EU vaccines infrastructure: the supervision committees has dismantled, sown doubts about consolidated science, politicized the safety of the ingredients, limited access to vaccines and suspended research financing.
Its strategy does not imply absolute prohibitions, but the cumulative effect could be equally harmful.
In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) plays a fundamental role in vaccination policy, offering evidence -based recommendations on vaccination calendars. Until recently, its members were recognized experts in immunology, epidemiology and infectious diseases, all verified before public opinion and with clear responsibilities.
The struggle against vaccination
In May 2025, Kennedy annulled the recommendation of ACIP on vaccination against COVID-19 for pregnant women and young children. The following month, he dissolved the 17 members committee, claiming alleged conflicts of interest. Instead, he named a smaller panel that included people with well -documented anti -vaccine postures.
This broke decades of precedents: for the first time, the members of the ACIP were personally selected by the Secretary of Health without the proper verification, training or guarantees of independence. In July, the members expelled from the ACIP published a comment on The New England Journal of Medicinewarning that the recommendation process faced a “seismic breakup.”
In August, Kennedy prohibited respecting scientific societies to advise the ACIP, claiming partiality. This eliminated another brake on the independence of the panel.
Meanwhile, Kennedy has reopened long closed debates. He has asked for a “reevaluation” of the child vaccination calendar, of the standard ingredients of vaccines and even, as reported, has resumed the statement – completely discredited – that the triple viral vaccine is related to autism.
The latter has been refuted by multiple studies reviewed by peers, including a meta -analysis with more than 1.2 million children.
In the first meeting of the ACIP under the new direction, the Kennedy panel analyzed the Timerosal, a mercury -based preservative used in some flu vaccines. CDC scientists had to present their evidence, but were removed from the agenda. Instead, the only evidence presented from Lyn Redwood, criticism of the vaccines and co -founder of the Mercury World Project, an initiative that preceded the Kennedy Children’s Health Defense Group.
His presentation seemed to include at least one non -existent study, but the ACIP prohibited the use of thimerosal in flu vaccines, a decision that Kennedy then extended to all US vaccines.
Although the timerosal was already used in very few vaccines, the way it was eliminated – based in erroneous evidence and in limited contributions of experts – feels a dangerous precedent.
Kennedy has also criticized aluminum hydroxide, used in many vaccines to reinforce the immune response. Your review article contradicts the broad evidence reviewed by peers that supports your safety. Aluminum salts are present in hepatitis A and B vaccines, meningococcal and tetanus disease.
See: RFK Jr. Cancela 500 MDD in Federal Funds for the Research of HRNM Vaccines
Restriction of access and innovation
The repercussions of Kennedy’s changes go beyond supervision. In July, the ACIP announced that it would review the recommendations on children’s vaccines, hepatitis B at birth and the MMRV combined vaccine (a single dose that protects against measles, paper, rubella and chickenpox).
These guidelines determine which vaccines cover public insurers, such as Medicaid. Weakening them could cause vaccines to be unavailable to low -income families.
Kennedy has also questioned the vaccine compensation program, which offers compensation for rare adverse effects and protects the supply of litigation vaccines. He is considering expanding eligibility to include autism, despite the fact that scientific consensus refutes any link, and could allow more demands.
These changes could deter pharmaceutical companies from offering vaccines in the US.
Kennedy has insisted that all new vaccines should undergo placed controlled tests, ignoring that newly developed vaccines already meet this standard. Only modified versions of approved vaccines, such as annual against flu, are currently exempt from ethical reasons.
If Kennedy prohibits widely used ingredients, such as aluminum salts, companies could be forced to reformulate vaccines, which would trigger unnecessary complete clinical trials – the multi -phase process normally required for completely new vaccines – and would delay access to reinforcements.
In May, the modern manufacturer withdrew his application for a combined vaccine against COVID-19 and the flu, claiming regulatory difficulties. Days later, the Kennedy department canceled 700 million dollars in financing for a modern avian flu vaccine, which followed cuts in the investigation of HIV vaccines and on RNM platforms for cancer prevention.
Other countries can continue vaccine research, but the withdrawal of the US leaves a great void.
Destabilizing global trust
Perhaps the most worrying is the message. Kennedy has repeatedly questioned the need for children’s vaccines, has spread misinformation, has exaggerated the risks and minimized measles threat.
He has also attacked medical magazines, qualifying them as corrupt, and has threatened to prohibit government scientists from publishing in respected media as The Lancet y The New England Journal of Medicinetwo of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. Instead, it has proposed state alternatives. Its own review of aluminum hydroxide was published in a non -arbitrated medium.
In just a few months as Secretary of Health, Kennedy has transformed vaccine policy and public trust in the United States. He has repeatedly stated that the scientific and medical world is corrupt and that you cannot trust consensus. This rhetoric is especially dangerous at a time when vaccination is already low and continues to decrease.
But the consequences are not limited to national borders. When coverage decreases in a country, the risk of disease outbreaks increases globally, as observed in the recent measles outbreak in Canada.
Kennedy has demonstrated determination and ingenuity to undermine vaccines science, often through complex, opaque or difficult methods to publicly explain. Without issuing a single prohibition, he has weakened the foundations of availability and confidence in vaccines in the United States.
In the nineteenth century, the average life expectancy in the US was 40 years old. Many children died of preventable infections. At a time when the mortal realities of diseases such as measles have disappeared from collective memory, it is chilling to consider the possibility of returning to the prevacuna era.
*Christina Pagel She is a professor for operational research and director of the UCL Clinical Operational Research Unit; Sheena Cruickshank is a professor of immunology at Manchester University.
This article was originally published in The Conversation
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