HOW ONE MAN COULD UNRAVEL DECADES OF VACCINE PROGRESS
- armantabesh
- Jul 16, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 17, 2025
When vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) was made Secretary of Health and Human Services, Congress took his promises to respect scientific integrity within the existing vaccine infrastructure. Instead, in the span of just a few months, he has unleashed a valiant effort to destroy evidence-based vaccine policy in the United States. RFK Jr.’s attack on water fluoridation was the topic of my first blog post. I doubt this will be my last post about his tomfoolery.
Unilateral Vaccine Rollbacks
In late May of 2025, Kennedy had pregnant women and healthy children removed from CDC’s immunization recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines. No new research led to this action. It was a top-down choice, not arrived at by the standard legal process for vaccine guidance modification—i.e., through the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the gold standard for immunization policy since 1964.
Without an ACIP recommendation, the majority of insurers are no longer required to offer COVID-19 vaccines for free, as required under the Affordable Care Act. It also jeopardizes programs like Vaccines for Children because they depend on ACIP recommendations to provide free vaccinations to families who need it.
Clinics all over the country have already expressed that it was difficult to obtain COVID vaccines for pregnant patients. Studies consistently show that pregnancy increases the risk of COVID-19 complications and that vaccination reduces those risks. Kennedy’s new upheaval gives providers less direction and patients less options.
Elimination of the ACIP
Kennedy also embarked on an unprecedented purge in early June, firing all 17 members of ACIP. 13 of them were appointed by Biden in 2024. They were removed on unsubstantiated accusations of "conflicts of interest". You can read about 8 of the new appointments here. All of them have strong scientific and medical backgrounds. However, it’s difficult not to think Kennedy Jr. chose these individuals for their allegiance to Kennedy’s policy plans. In this way, ACIP seems like it has been transformed from a scientific advisory committee to a political tool. However, the organization has always worked like this, giving a lot of power to the Secretary of the HHS to control the agenda. This complete purge of APIC is an unprecedented move. But it is also unprecedented to put a man like RFK Jr. into the country’s most important position for public health.
Undercutting Trust in Doctors
In a highly publicized interview, RFK Jr. stated that pediatricians push vaccines aggressively for their own financial gain, suggesting that they receive huge bonuses for high vaccination rates and that vaccines make up a large percentage of their practice.
Those claims were found to be baseless. On the contrary, immunizations tend to be expensive for small practices. Doctors need to pay for vaccines in cash, incur expenses on proper storage (e.g., premium refrigerators), and manage complex billing procedures. Reimbursements from insurance firms often fall short of costs, especially for small clinics that do not have the negotiating power for the cost of vaccines.
A few clinics, like those in rural or underserved communities, can’t afford it, and have to stop directly administering vaccines and instead refer patients to health departments or pharmacies. In fact, a 2017 study found that nearly a quarter of family medicine providers and 12 percent of pediatricians stopped purchasing vaccines because of the costs behind it.
Further, the suggestion that doctors profit financially from vaccines misses the reality of value-based care contracts. While some pediatricians receive modest bonuses for meeting a variety of different measures of care, vaccination status is but one of many criteria considered. The payments are often very modest, accounting for just a small share of what insurers pay to a given clinic. Moreover, it’s rare that doctors wouldn't lose any money from insurers for lower vaccination rates.
Threats to Health Equity
Arguably the worst impact of Kennedy's policies is on health equity. Under existing law, those vaccines that are ACIP-recommended are required to be covered by insurance at zero patient cost. By removing vaccines from the list of formal recommendations, Kennedy jeopardizes this safeguard. To illustrate, a two-shot MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine series is more than $250 without insurance. COVID-19 boosters and adult vaccines are similarly expensive when uninsured. Even if ensured, insurance companies now have the freedom to charge whatever they like, potentially dissuading people to get important vaccines. Vaccination has been one of the most powerful health care levellers of the twentieth century. Damaging it would roll back the progress.
Growing Disease Risk
The erosion of vaccine policy and RFK Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is already being felt in public health data. In 2025, the U.S. saw its highest number of measles cases in two decades(which I wrote about). Outbreaks of pertussis (whooping cough) have also surged, including fatal cases among unvaccinated children.
Researchers estimate that from 1994 through 2023, childhood vaccines prevented more than 508 million cases of disease, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1 million deaths in the United States alone. These are figures that display decades of investment in immunization infrastructure, science, and trust.
Disruption at NIH and FDA
Kennedy's policy-making has not only affected vaccine policy, but it has also upended scientific research. On his first day at the NIH, he scrapped studies of mRNA vaccines, vaccine skepticism, and pandemic readiness(another topic I wrote about). At the FDA, the head of the FDA's vaccine division, Dr. Peter Marks, was forced to step down by Kennedy. Marks criticized the new leadership under RFK Jr., stating that he believed Kennedy was not interested in "truth and transparency" regarding vaccines and instead sought "subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.
Increasing Resistance
Leading health organizations have filed a federal lawsuit to reverse the changes in the COVID-19 vaccine schedule and challenge the legitimacy of the ACIP firings. Open letters calling for the resignation or firing of Kennedy have been signed by thousands of healthcare professionals. Demonstrations have taken place outside CDC headquarters, and momentum is gaining for new federal legislation to immunize vaccine policy from political interference.
Congress also is weighing the Family Vaccine Protection Act, which would extend legal protection to the ACIP, preventing the HHS Secretary from unilaterally overriding ACIP's recommendations. States are also going ahead. Colorado has passed legislation to protect state-level vaccine policy, and other states are exploring regional vaccine advisory councils.
The Path Forward
We are living in an unprecedented moment that will have an important effect on America’s future of public health. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has used his position to advance his conspiracies over the people and to subvert the very agencies that have safeguarded millions of Americans from disease. Unchecked, his policies will create a world where easily avoidable epidemics are commonplace, confidence in health professionals falls further, and health inequity increases.
But it is still possible to intervene. Congress, states, healthcare workers, and American citizens must demand accountability, transparency, and evidence-based leadership. Public health demands it.
Sources:
