RFK Jr. Appointee: Make Vaccines Optional

 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.  He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

 

In December, Kennedy named  Dr. Kirk Milhoan to head the panel that advises the CDC on vaccine policy.

Apoorva Mandavilli at NYT:

Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have “concerns” that some children might die of measles or become paralyzed with polio as a result of a choice not to vaccinate. But, he said, “I also am saddened when people die of alcoholic diseases,” adding, “Freedom of choice and bad health outcomes.”

In the case of an infectious disease, a personal choice to decline a vaccine may also affect others, including infants who are too young to be vaccinated or people who are immunocompromised. But a person’s right to reject a vaccine supersedes those risks, Dr. Milhoan said.

“If there is no choice, then informed consent is an illusion,” he said. “Without consent it is medical battery.”

Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD Trustee, American Medical Association

“The American Medical Association is deeply alarmed by efforts to weaken long-standing evidence-based vaccine recommendations, including suggestions that polio vaccination should seemingly not be routinely recommended to patients.

“This is not a theoretical debate—it is a dangerous step backward.

“Vaccines have saved millions of lives and virtually eliminated devastating diseases like polio in the United States. There is no cure for polio. When vaccination rates fall, paralysis, lifelong disability, and death return. The science on this is settled.

“Moving away from routine immunizations, which involves discussions between clinicians and patients, does not increase freedom—it increases suffering. It puts children, families, and entire communities at risk and undermines the public health protections that generations of Americans depend on.

“The AMA strongly urges policymakers to follow the evidence and the expertise of physicians and public health professionals. Weakening vaccine recommendations will cost lives, and that is a price our nation should not be willing to pay.”