In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
People across the political spectrum are alarmed. In recent days, Mr. Kennedy’s sister Kerry and his nephew Joe Kennedy III called for him to step down. Three former surgeons general, including Dr. Jerome Adams, who served during the first Trump administration, wrote in an essay for USA Today that Mr. Kennedy was jeopardizing the integrity of the C.D.C. and public health.
President Trump, who promised to let “Bobby go wild on health” — and who, like Mr. Kennedy, has rejected scientific evidence in asserting that vaccines are linked to autism — has not criticized Mr. Kennedy.
President Trump, who promised to let “Bobby go wild on health” — and who, like Mr. Kennedy, has rejected scientific evidence in asserting that vaccines are linked to autism — has not criticized Mr. Kennedy.
But Mr. Trump did contradict him and like-minded officials, such as the Florida surgeon general, who announced last week that the state would end all vaccine mandates, including for children. A memo from the Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward warned Republicans before the hearing that limiting access to childhood vaccines could hurt them politically, citing “sky-high” approval for routine vaccinations among swing voters.
“It’s a tough stance,” Mr. Trump said, when asked about Florida’s action. “You have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used.”
Seven months after they voted to confirm longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary, some Republican senators are having second thoughts.
“I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told Kennedy at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”
Barrasso’s warning, which Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) echoed at Thursday’s hearing, was the latest and perhaps most significant sign of growing GOP doubts about the merits — and political wisdom — of Kennedy’s agenda.
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Officials from Trump’s first administration are also increasingly condemning Kennedy in public remarks. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health in the first Trump administration, told The Washington Post on Friday that Kennedy’s decision to end nearly $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine development was “going to make the country vulnerable” and that the health secretary’s broader vaccine agenda was doing “tremendous damage” to public health.
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It is also not clear if the growing GOP concerns will have a material effect on Kennedy or his team’s agenda. But his recent moves have exposed the political fault lines over vaccine policy, which could be further exacerbated by the health department’s upcoming moves to issue an autism report and potentially further limit access to coronavirus vaccines.
