Fantasies and Delusions

Spectator

Every department of the federal government is led by a political appointee trying to implement, where possible, the policies of the president who appointed them. It means political shenanigans can be the norm rather than the exception. We accept those shenanigans change depending on the resident at the White House.

The exception has typically been the health component of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has traditionally relied on science and fact-based research regardless of what party or individual might be in power. It has given us the most robust medical research industry on the planet and led to untold breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of myriad ailments. The development of vaccines has likely been the single most significant life-saving action ever. We have always been able to count on our research scientists to find a way to protect us from whatever new horror crops up.

Nature keeps track of such things and claims 154 million lives have been saved because of childhood immunizations, including more than 93 million from measles alone and another 28 million from tetanus. Children are not the only beneficiary of vaccines. According to the Behavioral and Cultural Insights Hub (BCIHub), when comparing the death toll before and after the smallpox vaccine, that vaccine has saved approximately 200 million lives. The variola virus, which causes smallpox, was officially declared eradicated in 1980 and is now considered extinct in nature, the first time we have successfully wiped out a virus.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) claims vaccines have increased life expectancy from the 40s before vaccines proliferated to the late 70s today. (Other factors, like the creation of sanitary sewer systems, also contributed to life expectancy gains.)

Vaccines and life-saving equipment are submitted to and approved by departments within HHS. They make their decisions based on the scientific results after what can be years of peer-reviewed research. Their decisions are typically rigorously fact-based. Of course, they don't get it right 100 percent of the time—thalidomide approved for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness leaps to mind—but the track record of our regulators at HHS is remarkably good.

We might look back on everything prior to 2025 as “the good old days” at HHS, as Robert Kennedy, Jr. has taken over with a different approach to good health and good health maintenance, and it might not involve vaccines or facts. Kennedy claims he is not an anti-vaxxer, but he has a long track record as a vaccine skeptic and has fed the nonsense about a connection between vaccines and childhood ailments. It feels like recent HHS decisions are based on Kennedy whims, not research or facts.

The proof is in Kennedy’s actions in his first six months. He fired the person in charge of overseeing vaccines and tried to fire Susan Monarez as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after a month on the job when she refused to agree with his negative approach to vaccines. (Turned out Kennedy couldn’t fire her, so President Trump happily did so.)

That wasn’t a one-off. Kennedy has fired more than 600 CDC employees, including hundreds of research scientists. He also fired the entire 17-person Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with his own picks, some of whom have little scientific background but most of whom are vaccination skeptics. Most of the CDC leadership team then subsequently resigned, including the chief medical officer, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.

As a bonus, Kennedy has also slashed funding for programs for research on cancer and heart disease, America’s two leading causes of death.

Much of this vaccine skepticism started from a single study released in 1998 that tried to connect childhood vaccines to autism. The “research” was quickly debunked as flawed and manipulated using unacceptable methodology. The author, a doctor, lost his medical license as a result.

Since then, there have been hundreds and hundreds of studies on the effects of immunizations, none of which have found a link between childhood vaccines and any neurodevelopmental issues. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) reviewed 1,000 studies and could find no connection. Then, in 2021, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality evaluated 338 separate studies and found no significant adverse effects.

Carefully reviewing any potential new drug or treatment is something our government has traditionally done very well. Those decisions were always science-based, a consensus of the experienced researchers. Now those decisions appear to be based on Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s fears, fantasies, and delusions; science has been left behind.

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