Nearly 20,000 American doctors are warning that the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services secretary would be hazardous to our nation’s health.
Although Kennedy may try to deny previous controversial statements or claim he is simply calling for “more research,” Kennedy’s conspiracy-theorist record speaks for itself. He has actively embraced an agenda that would reverse decades of progress in dramatically reducing disease, thereby putting children at risk and damaging systems that protect our communities.
Having previously stated that no vaccine is safe and effective, Kennedy, as he seeks Senate confirmation, is now rebranding his opposition to vaccines as “pro-vaccine safety.” His seemingly harmless calls for more evidence on vaccine safety and effectiveness are disingenuous. That evidence is clear, robust and has been publicly available for decades. What is of grave concern is that Kennedy appears unwilling to learn from the evidence and research we already have.
Routine childhood immunization is one of public health’s greatest success stories, preventing millions of deaths. One recent study estimated that vaccines have saved 154 million lives globally since 1974. That is comparable to a rate of six lives per minute. The overwhelming majority are among children under five years old. Routine vaccinations have prevented 1 million deaths and 32 million hospitalizations among children born in the last three decades alone. That also translates into trillions of dollars in economic savings on hospitalizations, special education programs for children harmed by vaccine-preventable diseases, lost wages due to disability and lost parent wages.
Diseases like polio and measles once caused widespread death and permanent disabilities, including brain damage, paralysis, infertility, hearing loss and more. Before the polio vaccine became available in 1955, the disease killed thousands of American children every year. In 1955 alone, almost 14,000 American children were paralyzed by the disease. However, by 1961 more than half the U.S. population was fully vaccinated against polio, and by 1965, only 61 new cases of paralytic polio were diagnosed — a 99.6 percent decline in the span of a single decade.
Kennedy also willfully ignores the extensive testing required for vaccine licensure in the U.S., which has among the strictest evaluation protocols in the world. Because of the rigorous standards that go into vaccine approval, children are far more likely to die from an infectious disease if left unvaccinated than to experience serious side effects from vaccines.
Take, for example, the MMR vaccine. For every 10,000 unvaccinated people who get measles, 10 to 30 children will die, 2,000 people will be hospitalized and more than 1,500 children will experience serious illnesses, including the potential for long-term disability.
In contrast, for every 10,000 people who get the MMR vaccine to protect against measles, fewer than four will experience a fever-related seizure or allergic reaction. To put this risk in perspective, the lifetime risk of being struck by lightning is about four times greater than the risk of experiencing an allergic reaction to the MMR vaccine.
Kennedy is again disingenuous when he calls for greater vaccine data transparency and accountability, implying that data affirming vaccine safety is somehow hidden. On the contrary, Americans have had full access to extensive data and research on vaccine safety for decades through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Anyone, including Kennedy, can access the website, which provides step-by-step instructions and helpful videos to make it easy to navigate.
Senators should not be fooled by Kennedy’s posturing and should demand straight answers from him, because our children’s health depends on it. The questions they should ask are clear. There should be no room for platitudes.
What specifically does Kennedy find lacking in the vaccine approval process? If he is not satisfied with data from thousands of patients — which vaccine approval requires — then what kind of evidence is he looking for? What would it take for him to abandon his conspiracy theories and accept that vaccines are safe and effective? If he rolls back vaccine mandates, how is he prepared to handle the outbreaks of infectious disease that would occur among unvaccinated children? These questions apply not only to vaccines, but also to Kennedy’s other discredited beliefs about the safety of raw milk, fluoride and a host of other issues.
Neither senators nor the American public can afford to be conned by Kennedy’s insincere pretense of “just asking questions.” The risks are too great. If he’s confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, it will be our children who pay the price.
Jill Rosenthal is the director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress. Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
