The last century saw the advent of miraculous treatments called vaccines. These discoveries not only increased our lifespans but significantly reduced childhood mortality. For decades there was a general consensus that vaccines were safe, effective, and should be widely distributed. Then Covid hit.
Covid was a new, highly contagious, and potentially lethal disease. Experts struggled to find effective treatments but also struggled to find all the answers. Into this vacuum emerged anti-vaccine “experts” promoting their unsupported theories and fears about vaccinations. The result has been a vaccine consensus breakdown. The culmination of this was the 2024 election of Donald Trump and the appointment of vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
RFK Jr. is the point person for the Administration’s war on vaccinations. His anti-vaccine policies are rippling through the government including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Research grants studying vaccine development have been halted. Insurance companies and drug manufacturers are reacting to these shifts. Further, the Administration is significantly reducing access to healthcare with the reductions in Medicaid and possibly Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding.
Under RFK Jr. there is a seismic shift in approach to public health and specifically vaccinations. Kennedy has packed the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his anti-vaccine allies. One of their first initiatives was to vote against immunizing babies against Hepatitis B at birth. This undoes a policy enacted in 1991 which lowered pediatric cases of Hepatitis B from 18,000/year to 20. Why did they enact this change? No definitive explanation was given. The only explanation can be that Kennedy and his allies look at vaccines as sources of harm and not as lifesaving tools.
RFK Jr. and his ACIP panel also recommended dropping the Covid shot for healthy kids and pregnant women. This recommendation conflicts with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that all children ages 6 months to 23 months receive an updated shot. Those older than 2 years in certain high-risk groups should also receive the shot. According to the CDC, there have been 185,000 pediatric hospitalizations for children with Covid ages 0-17 years nationwide since 2020. The vast majority of these kids were not vaccinated.
In August 2025, HHS canceled $500 million in contracts that funded mRNA vaccine development. mRNA was the newly discovered platform used to develop the Covid-19 vaccine which saved millions of lives worldwide. In announcing his decision, RFK Jr. stated that, “The data shows vaccines fail to protect effectively against infections like Covid and flu.” That statement is totally incorrect. So now this new, promising tool is being thrown out with no evidence that vaccines produce adverse outcomes.
In December 2025, HHS was ready to announce significant reductions in the number of vaccinations recommended for children. The White House delayed the announcement fearing lawsuits because the reductions being proposed were without any scientific merit.
Other vaccine impediments are on the horizon. The work requirements for Medicaid eligibility and the elimination of the Affordable Care Act Covid subsidies will increase the number of people without health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that at least 8-9 million people may become uninsured as a result of these policies, including children under 18. This lack of access to care will inevitably lower vaccination rates putting even more children at risk.
Drug manufacturers and insurance companies are also eyeing these new anti-vaccine policies and asking themselves questions like: Why should our insurance company cover immunizations not recommended by the CDC? Or why should we consider insurance coverage for new vaccines? Drug companies may also limit development of new vaccines knowing that they will likely not receive a favorable review from the FDA.
One result of these anti-vaccine policies has been the 2025 measles outbreak in the US. Measles had been eliminated in the US in 2000. There was, however, a reemergence last year due mostly to the anti-vaccine sentiment. In 2025, more than 2000 cases were reported across 42 states including three deaths. Yet, despite this outbreak, CDC dramatically scaled back its social media posts on vaccinations. This created a vacuum which was filled by the news media and less credible voices. Without federal leadership we can expect more of these kinds of outbreaks and deaths.
Unfortunately, this anti-vaccine grand experiment conducted by this Administration will ultimately be measured by the number of children’s lives lost. Unless there is a huge outcry or a shift in policy, we can expect outbreaks and deaths to continue. And the sad fact is that it is so preventable.
Tom DeLoe is a resident of Gettysburg and a member of the DFA Healthcare Task Force and the DFA Government Accountability Task Force.