Kennedy’s vaccine shake-up could leave Trump’s America pay the price

US Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr promised to make America healthy again, but his actions are laying groundwork for an unhealthy future.

With every decision, Kennedy has added to the anti-vaccine sentiment in the United States and made vaccines inaccessible by taking decisions that are not just likely going to increase costs but also affect availability.

During his Senate confirmation, Kennedy had said that he supported vaccines, but he has pandered to the anti-vaccine movement that is quite popular among the far-right ‘Make America Great Again’ movement of US President Donald Trump. He has not just falsely linked vaccines to autism but has also ended the recommendation that pregnant persons and healthy children should get Covid-19 vaccines.

Kennedy threatens mass access to vaccines with one move

Kennedy has fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) and replaced them with handpicked vaccine skeptics who share his views. For decades, Acip has recommended which vaccines Americans should get and when.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all insurance companies are required to provide all vaccines for free that are recommended by Acip.

With vaccine skeptics at the helm, free access to vaccines is no longer assured, meaning that many Americans could see vaccines becomes expensive.

“If we have a system that has been dismantled — one that allowed for open, evidence-based decision-making and that supported transparent and clear dialogue about vaccines — and then we replace it with a process that’s driven largely by one person’s beliefs, that creates a system that cannot be trusted,” said Helen Chu, one of the ousted Acip member and a professor of infectious disease at the University of Washington School of Medicine, as per The Hill.

Once free vaccine mandate from Acip recommendation is no longer there, Covid-19 vaccine could cost up to $150, the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine could cost anywhere between $95 and $280, and the HPV vaccine could cost more than $300.

In the coming days, new Acip members are scheduled to hold votes on recommendations for vaccines for Covid-19, meningococcal, HPV, flu, and RSV for adults and maternal and pediatric populations, according to The Hill.

Many ways Kennedy is undermining vaccines

Kennedy has taken following actions that undermine vaccines:

• The cancellation of National Institutes of Health (NIH) programmes for the discovery of new vaccines to prevent future pandemics.

• The end of CDC’s advertising campaign for flu vaccines.

• The cutting of billions of dollars to state health agencies, including for the modernisation of childhood vaccination.