Senator: We're Already Seeing Consequences of RFK Jr's Vaccine Skepticism

Newsweek

15-07-2025

As summer winds down, thousands of families across my home state of Delaware are starting to look ahead to the new school year. Parents are making their back-to-school shopping lists. Students are finishing their summer reading. But perhaps most importantly, families are checking to see what vaccines their children need to be safe and healthy come fall.
Children receive over 30 vaccinations from the day they are born until they turn 17 to protect them from deadly diseases like the measles, the flu, and even COVID-19. But how do we know what vaccinations our children need? Enter the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP.
For more than half a century, ACIP has met multiple times a year to deliberate on the efficacy of vaccine selection for millions of Americans.
This committee makes recommendations for the routine administration of vaccines for children and adults alike. These recommendations inform our broader public health system, ensuring the vaccines we need are affordable, accessible in our communities, and covered by insurance. ACIP is made up of doctors, scientists, pediatricians, and parents, often appointed following a rigorous public nomination and vetting process. They work above the political fray. There is no "D" or "R" next to any of their names—they let the science guide their work to keep our communities safe.
That is, until last month, when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, a known vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, made an unprecedented, dangerous, and unilateral decision. Under the guise of trying "re-establish public confidence in vaccine science," he fired the entire committee in the middle of its members' staggered terms. He got rid of the qualified experts and replaced them with vaccine skeptics, conspiracy theorists, and scientists with little applicable experience. One member has already withdrawn due to a financial conflict. This is not how we build trust in our public health system.
As a former statewide health official and member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I questioned Secretary Kennedy during his confirmation process. I met with him and considered his nomination, as I did all the other cabinet members that came in front of our committee, on the basis of his ABCs: his ability to do the job, his background, and his character.
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, speaks at a press conference alongside other Senate Democrats outside the US Capitol on Priorities for the 119th Congress in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025.
Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, speaks at a press conference alongside other Senate Democrats outside the US Capitol on Priorities for the 119th Congress in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025.
ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP/Getty Images
As a new member of the Senate with an extensive record of bipartisanship from my time in the House, I was hoping to find common ground with Mr. Kennedy. He raised some legitimate concerns about the functionality of our health care system and the harm the food industry is causing Americans. I share some of these concerns, as do public health advocates across the country.
I knew I would disagree with Mr. Kennedy's conspiratorial views on vaccines. But I was struck by the nominee's fundamental lack of knowledge about what the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does for the American people. I felt that his lack of understanding, and frankly, lack of curiosity, about the basic responsibilities of HHS made him not only an unqualified choice to lead this critical agency, but a dangerous one. And unfortunately, we are seeing the consequences of his highly partisan confirmation.
In Delaware, a place with more chickens than people, illnesses like the Avian flu are a serious concern. American communities are dealing with the biggest Measles outbreak in decades. Meanwhile, Secretary Kennedy undermines the efficacy of vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, for children and pregnant women.
Now is not the time to let conspiracy theories guide our health decisions. We need leaders who understand the importance of public health and allow science to inform their decision making.
I'm not alone in my critiques of Secretary Kennedy. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association recently filed a lawsuit against him, alleging his changes to the vaccine schedule violate federal law. Their suit underscores the problems I've seen with Secretary Kennedy's leadership from day one.
In just six months, Secretary Kennedy has postponed ACIP meetings, closed research labs, delayed clinical trials, laid off more than 1,000 NIH officials, and ignored congressional inquiries on CDC leadership. He even went back on a promise to our committee's well-respected chairman, senator and physician Bill Cassidy (R-La.), to "maintain" the 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices "without changes." The health and safety of our communities should not hang on the whim of a political ideologue. That is why I am working on legislation to reverse Secretary Kennedy's dangerous decision to fire ACIP members, reinstate the original committee, and ensure no future secretary can fire ACIP members without cause.
Parents rely on ACIP for insurance coverage for the childhood vaccines students need to attend school. Children and caregivers rely on ACIP to ensure their parents can receive shingles vaccines free of charge. Many Americans who received a COVID-19 shot or were vaccinated against Polio have ACIP to thank. Firing ACIP's members will create confusion for insurers, confusion for doctors, and confusion for patients looking to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
ACIP worked so well for so long because politics did not factor into its decisions. We must restore this standard of integrity again. If Secretary Kennedy truly wants to restore confidence in our public health system, then he should let the science speak for itself.
Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, serves as junior U.S. senator from Delaware.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.