Pediatricians worry RFK’s vaccine skepticism will influence Trump health policy : Shots

President-elect Trump said he plans to make Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “make a fuss about his health.” RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccination comments have many pediatricians worried. When Joseph Ladapo, a fellow vaccine skeptic, took over as Florida’s Surgeon General, some Florida doctors said vaccine hesitancy worsened.

“That’s because people in power, like our Surgeon General, for one, are pushing this anti-vaccine message,” he says. Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagenprofessor of pediatrics at the University of Florida School of Medicine and president of the International Society of Pediatrics.

Vaccine hesitancy is growing in Florida. Currently, the routine immunization rate for kindergarten children is 90.6%. This is the lowest rate in more than a decade and is well below the threshold needed for herd immunity against highly contagious diseases like measles.

Dr. Lisa Gwynn, Miami-Dade County Pediatrician, She says she spends a lot of her time countering vaccine misinformation. “Probably 50 percent of our job in pediatrics right now is explaining to parents the importance of vaccinating their children,” she says.

Earlier this year, Gwynne saw firsthand the consequences of not getting routine childhood vaccinations.

In nearby Broward County, “we just had a measles outbreak right near my daughter’s elementary school,” she says. “There were five children who had measles, but they were not vaccinated.”

If a measles outbreak occurs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents to keep unvaccinated children home after exposure to measles to prevent the spread of the disease. But Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s advice was quite different. He told parents of unvaccinated children that it is up to them to decide whether to send their children to school or keep them at home.

That guidance “violated every premise of how to deal with measles,” Goldhagen said.

Vaccine hesitancy was on the rise in Florida long before Ladapo became Surgeon General. But Goldhagen says combating the problem is becoming increasingly difficult. “It accelerated during COVID-19, it accelerated after COVID-19, and it accelerated even more because of this Surgeon General’s anti-vaccine stance,” he says.

Ladapo is often the target of criticism that his stance on vaccines goes against established science. Last year, the CDC and FDA I sent a letter to Ladapo. He was reprimanded for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine and stirring up vaccine hesitancy. Ladapo is currently being mentioned as a candidate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Same goes for RFK Jr.

Pediatricians say anti-vaccine attitudes that have grown during the pandemic, especially regarding COVID-19 vaccines, are now impacting all childhood vaccinations.

And it’s not just Florida.

Routine childhood immunizations Vaccine exemptions have been raised in most U.S. states, even as vaccination rates have fallen.

Gwynne worries that if people in charge of national health policy question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, uptake rates will decline further. “Like every pediatrician across the country, I’m very concerned,” she says. “As pediatricians, one of our primary roles is to keep children safe, and vaccination is the most effective way to protect children from preventable infectious diseases.”

Dr. Lana Alissa Florida Chapter President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She says vaccine hesitancy is complex and cannot be blamed on one person. But she says the politicization of vaccines during the pandemic, in which people’s attitudes toward coronavirus vaccines have become a kind of litmus test for political leanings, hasn’t helped.

Vaccines are one of the most effective tools health care workers have to prevent disease, she says. “The vaccines in the United States are 21 deadly diseases . ”

The success of vaccines means many people don’t remember how serious some diseases are. This could lead some people to make incorrect risk calculations about the value of vaccination, Alissa said.

“People think it’s easier or safer to get the disease than the vaccine. I don’t know where this comes from,” Alissa said.

Reports indicate that the United States is already seeing an increase in vaccine-preventable childhood diseases Dr. Adam Ratner, He is a pediatric infectious disease expert in New York City and the author of a forthcoming book on the resurgence of measles and the growth of the anti-vaccination movement.

He notes that the United States is seeing an increase in measles outbreaks and cases of chickenpox and pneumococcal infections.

“It’s very frustrating to see children being admitted to the hospital with these complications that can be prevented or at least reduced risk through the use of vaccines,” he says.

As vaccine hesitancy continues to grow, Alissa and other pediatricians worry that other serious childhood diseases like polio may return.

Alissa says many people have lost trust in public health science and the country needs leaders who can help restore trust.