Children and adults in Lewis County will die unnecessarily if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed by the Senate to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Trump Administration.
Lewis County is fertile ground for conspiracy theories. During the COVID-19 pandemic, resistance to the vaccines was high in Lewis County.
Kennedy says he is not opposed to anyone getting a vaccine “if they want one,” while casting doubt on their efficacy. He also states that vaccines that have been proven for years to be safe and effective such as the Salk polio vaccine should undergo double blind studies. Studies in which half of the study pool of people are given the vaccine and half are not, and then they should be studied for 20 years.
It is considered highly unethical to not give a vaccine to everyone when it has been known for decades to be effective such as measles and polio.
American Samoa had not had a problem with measles until 2018. Two infants died there in 2018 after receiving what was thought to be the measles vaccine.
Kennedy, who led a group called Children’s Health Defense, visited American Samoa in June 2019. He and his group used the tragic mistake to amplify their anti-vaccination message. Though investigations concluded that two nurses had tragically and mistakenly substituted muscle relaxant for the measles vaccine, measles vaccination rates in American Samoa steadily dropped from the 70% range to 31%.
In November 2019, a measles outbreak visited American Samoa, population about 47,000. (Lewis County has about 82,000 people). The vaccination rate having plummeted, encouraged by Kennedy after the two infant deaths, the outbreak turned deadly. Eighty-three people, mostly children, died from measles, a wholly preventable disease.
Kennedy has lied and dissembled about his role in the measles tragedy in American Samoa and about many other things. Little wonder public health officials view his nomination with alarm, and the Kennedy family is furious with him.
George Washington understood the importance of vaccination and herd immunity and he issued a “vaccine mandate.” He mandated that to serve in the Continental Army you had to be vaccinated for smallpox.
As with so many of Trump’s ideas like tariffs and mass deportation, RFK Jr.’s casting of doubt, in an official role, on the efficacy of vaccines of long standing will cause the most serious harm to rural America, home of Trump’s most fervent MAGA supporters.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
