How Measles, Whooping Cough, and Worse Could Roar Back on RFK Jr.’s Watch - KFF Health News
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Inoculation campaigns that protect children and adults from dangerous diseases rely on a delicate web of state and federal laws and programs. If senior officials cast doubt on vaccine safety, the whole system might collapse, especially in red states.

Summary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as the top U.S. health official under Donald Trump has alarmed public health experts, who fear his anti-vaccine stance could lead to outbreaks of diseases like measles, polio, and meningitis.

Kennedy has promoted debunked vaccine-autism theories and may weaken federal vaccination programs, delay new vaccines, and undermine immunization requirements.

Vaccine-preventable illnesses are already rising, with 16 U.S. measles outbreaks this year.

Experts warn that declining vaccination rates threaten public health, while drug companies and vaccine advocates brace for significant challenges under the new administration.

    • @[email protected]
      46•4 days ago

      Antivaxxer may do antivax things. Not a huge logical leap. And the article states preventable diseases are already on the rise lately with more people refusing to vaccinate.

      Failing to use simple logic. Now that’s a slogan, just for you :)

    • GingaNinga
      34•4 days ago

      dude the raw milk thing alone is going to skyrocket preventable death and illness. Theres a reason pasteurization exists.

    • @[email protected]
      22•4 days ago

      Oh hey, this was your same response to LGBT people being worried about Trump taking office. Meanwhile the Project 2025 crowd is champing at the bit to ban medical transition for adults.

      You going to eat crow, or just be glad when it happens?

    • Ioughttamow
      13•4 days ago

      Yeah, haha, we definitely shouldn’t extrapolate based on what someone has done and said in the past. That would be silly. And apparently germ theory can’t hurt you if you don’t believe in it

      Edit: and if you actually are old, his policies are going to kill your first. So nice knowing you. If it gets you soon enough you might even get a headstone before we all start getting unmarked paupers graves

    • @[email protected]English
      5•4 days ago

      It’s called evidence-based preparation based on the things they literally fucking promised they would do.

    • @[email protected]
      -2•4 days ago

      For real. We already saw this with the first Trump presidency. An insane amount of speculation and fearmongering about what could happen and then turns out the vast majority of it in-fact did not happen and the people spreading these speculations pay zero reputational cost for being completely wrong. People are so incredibly addicted to drama it’s insane.