By KIM BELLARD
You know, it’s gotten to the point when I just try to tune out the things Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says. “Schizophrenia can be cured with a keto diet”? Sure, whatever. “The war on protein is over”? Who even knew there was such a war? The carnivore diet is a great way to lose weight and gain “mental clarity”? It sure doesn’t show.
His most dangerous statements, though, are probably those related to vaccines. He was known as a vaccine skeptic – no, make that critic – long before he was named as HHS Secretary, but being Secretary put him in position to put his anti-vaccine views into action. He has revamped the committee that make vaccine recommendations, putting people on them that share his skepticism.
The committee has already made significant changes to childhood immunization schedules, and they’re not done yet. The head of the vaccine advisory committee isn’t just skeptical of measles vaccines, he’s not keen on mandating the polio vaccine either. His committee is expected to go after COVID vaccines next.
One particularly outspoken committee member, Dr. Robert Malone said: “I’m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the Covid vaccine mRNA products off the market. All I can say is, stay tuned and wait for the upcoming A.C.I.P. meeting. If the F.D.A. won’t act, there are other entities that will.” He told The New York Times that scientists or regulators who claimed COVID vaccines were safe are “either being disingenuous, or they are not considering the context or are ignorant.”
Meanwhile, RFK Jr.’s nominee for Surgeon General is, shall we say, big in the MAHA movement but not so much in medical professional circles, having placed her medical license in “inactive” status. Her own website brags that she “is considered controversial because her work challenges the economic and cultural foundations of U.S. healthcare, agriculture, and food systems.”
The impacts of these attitudes are neither academic nor far in the future: we’re already in the midst of an unprecedented measles outbreak that many attribute to the vaccine skepticism that RFK Jr. and his ilk have spawned and encouraged.
What caused me to write about this is a new poll out from KFF: Trust in the CDC and Views of Federal Childhood Vaccine Schedule Changes. Top-line finding: “the public’s trust in the CDC remains at its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic.” Well, you can’t be surprised by that.
“Six years ago, 85% of Americans, and 90% of Republicans, trusted the CDC. Now less than half trust the CDC on vaccines,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said. “The wars over COVID, science, and vaccines have left the country without a trusted national voice on vaccines, and that trust will take time to restore.”
What I found particularly interesting is that, as Dr. Altman said, pre-COVID trust in the CDC was both high and across party lines. Republicans, though, lost trust during the pandemic and basically have never recovered. It took the Trump Administration to get Democrats to lose their trust – but, in fact, their trust still remains higher (55% versus 43%). Independents hover slightly above Republicans, but well below Democrats.
Specifically, about trust in childhood vaccine recommendations only about 44% have some or a lot of faith in federal agencies such as the CDC and FDA, and that doesn’t vary much by either party ID or support for MAHA. E.g., 47% for MAHA supporters versus 43% for Not MAHA Supporters. What does it say about MAHA that believers don’t have faith what the creator of MAHA is doing?
There is more if a difference when it comes to the specific new schedule of childhood immunizations: 83% of Democrats think it will negatively impact kids, versus 54% of independents, and only 23% of Republicans. The new recommendations made drastic impacts on trusting the CDC and FDA for Democrats and Independents, but not Republicans (who, as I’ve said, already didn’t have much trust).
Confidence in the polio and MMR vaccines is both high and across party lines, drops and begins to diverge for the Hepatitis B and flu vaccines, and has a huge partisan split for the COVID vaccine — 79% of Democrats have confidence, but only 28% of Republicans, and even only 45% for Independents.
Of course, this is not happening in a vacuum. A December Pew Research Center survey found that trust in the federal government is at an all-time low, with only 17% saying they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%). A year ago it was 22%. It is split by party: only 9% of Democrats trust the federal government, versus 26% of Republicans. The year before, when President Biden was in office, the trust was reversed, with 35% of Democrats expressing trust but only 11% of Republicans.
But let the lesson not be lost: the vast majority of people do not trust the federal government, and it has been on a downward direction for over two decades.
Lack of trust doesn’t stop with the government. Gallup’s Ethics Ratings of Professions found declines pretty much across all professions. Nurses (75%), doctors (57%), and pharmacists (53%) continue to lead the rankings, but each are trending down. Members of Congress tie with car salespeople at near the bottom (7%), just ahead of telemarketers (5%).
Too bad Gallup doesn’t ask about CDC.
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We live in a world of misinformation, where facts are not shared across information bubbles and everyone is told to trust their own judgement more than “experts,” a term that has somehow become pejorative. It benefits those in power and those with the most money, but it hurts everyone else.
Neither the CDC nor the FDA were perfect organizations, and even the NIH had its issues. But the gutting of expertise, the replacing science with personal opinions and prejudices, is damaging what trusts remains in those organizations, and will end up hurting all of us.
You may be dismissing the measles outbreak as something that doesn’t impact you, or your kids but it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented Tincture.io, and now regular THCB contributor
