RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policies Spark Alarm Among Public Health Experts

On this episode of the NoiseFilter Show, Dr. MarkAlain Dery and co-host David Roston express deep concern over significant policy changes to U.S. vaccine strategy following Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Despite presenting himself as a vaccine advocate during confirmation hearings, Kennedy has since overseen the defunding of NIH research into vaccine hesitancy, cancellation of new vaccine development projects, and slashing of billions in state health funding. The CDC has withdrawn flu vaccine promotion efforts, and key FDA meetings on flu vaccine formulation have been canceled or moved behind closed doors. These actions, coupled with Kennedy’s rhetoric questioning the integrity of federal health agencies, risk undermining public trust and rolling back decades of progress on vaccine-preventable diseases. Dr. Dery highlights the potential consequences, including increased outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio, while reiterating the safety and importance of vaccines.

MarkAlain Dery:  Hello, welcome to the NoiseFilter Show. My name is MarkAlain Dery. I’m an infectious diseases physician, and with me today is our co-host and producer, David Roston. And let’s just jump right into it. Today we’re going to be talking about a major story shaking up the world of vaccines and of public health in America. On April 13th, the New York Times reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now serving as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services is already making waves, but not in the way that many public health experts had hoped to. Despite presenting himself as a vaccine advocate during his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy’s actions since taking office are raising serious concerns about the future of immunizations in the United States. So let’s start with what’s changed. The NIH under Kennedy’s direction has stopped funding research into vaccine hesitancy. Let me say that again. The NIH, which is our nation’s most important scientific entity under Kennedy’s direction, has stopped funding research into vaccine hesitancy, research that was crucial for understanding why some people are reluctant to get vaccinated and how to address their concerns.

Even more alarming is that the NIH has also canceled projects aimed at developing new vaccines to prevent future outbreaks. That means less innovation and fewer tools to fight the next pandemic. David, before I throw to you, let me add real[ly] quick, the CDC [is] also one of our premier, in fact, one of the world’s jewels in terms of infectious diseases and management of also chronic diseases, [and] has also abandoned major promotional campaign for the flu vaccine. Kennedy has publicly cast doubt on the integrity of the CDC, scientists claiming that they have serious, serious conflicts of interest. He used the word serious twice. They have serious, serious conflicts of interest when it comes to vaccine recommendations. Public health experts warn that this kind of rhetoric can erode trust in vaccines, making it harder to maintain the high immunization rates needed to keep diseases like measles and polio at bay. David, thoughts?

David Roston: Well, I’m curious to hear your perspectives on the immediate effects that you’re seeing right now as the federal government is effectively taking away these vaccine efforts and putting it on the states. And you being in Louisiana, what you’re seeing as an infectious disease doctor, and talking about how this is already having an effect on people living in states that are effectively abandoning such mass vaccination efforts.

MarkAlain Dery: So the health commissioner for the State of Louisiana moments, literally moments after RFK became designated, was designated or confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services released a statement that went to the Louisiana Department of Public Health. And in the statement he actually, that was public, actually stated that from this point on under the governorship of Jeff Landry, who is a red state republican governor, I’ll just keep it at that from here on out, that the Department of Health is to no longer promote seasonal vaccines or to have vaccine drives. I will remind everybody that prior to decadence weekend here in New Orleans, which happens over Labor Day weekend. Is it Labor Day or Memorial? I always get them… It’s Memorial Day.

David Roston: Around Labor Day. Yeah.

MarkAlain Dery:  It’s Labor Day. That’s the fall, right?

David Roston: Labor Day. Kind of end of summer.

MarkAlain Dery: End of summer. The three-day weekend is a large gathering for the LGBT. The entirety of the Gulf south of the LGBT communities come out. Certainly everybody who’s in the LGBT community, but really you have a large community from the LGBT and it’s a very, very, three days of just pride and party and a lot of folks. And at that time in 2022, we were in the midst of a[n] MPOX outbreak.

And what had happened was that in conjunction with the CDC, in conjunction with the Department of Health and the city health department all got together and did a mass vaccination campaign that was wildly popular or wildly successful in terms of actually one month ahead of decadence because we were seeing MPOX starting to come through, we had multiple cases here in New Orleans, that mass vaccination campaign come decadence weekend where we expected to see a super spreading event. We saw a zero spreading event because of that mass vaccination campaign. The vaccine prevented individuals from transmitting MPOX from person to person. That was a wildly successful campaign. And to see the fact that we are unable to do this moving forward is problematic in this state.

David Roston: Well, it’s extremely distressing to hear that if we find ourselves in a similar situation going forward where there’s an epidemic like MPOX facing the nation or a pandemic that we are essentially out of luck. And this-

MarkAlain Dery:  Or bird flu.

David Roston: Or bird flu would be another topic.

MarkAlain Dery: There’ll be many topics on this show.

David Roston: Yeah. But it’s quite scary. As in what I think COVID-19 showed us is that this type of infectious disease preparedness is essential and we are facing a world now without any armor, without any ammo in terms of protecting ourselves from the next big one. And yeah, it’s quite scary.

MarkAlain Dery: So, what’s worth [it] even is that the Department of Health and Human Services has also slashed, again, this is under RFK’s leadership, has slashed billions of dollars from state health departments. These cuts directly impact programs that help upgrade childhood immunization systems and ensure vaccines reach the communities that need the[m] most. In recent televised discussion, Kennedy claimed that he was unaware of these cuts despite widespread coverage and concern from state officials. So before you react to that, let me also add the FDA, and this is something that, it cuts so deeply, it’s so important. So, at the FDA public meeting about flu vaccines [that] was canceled and later held behind closed doors. Let me tell you about these vaccines. These flu vaccines, essentially they were supposed to happen somewhere at the beginning of the year. They were supposed to happen again sometime in March, and they had been canceled. And it’s at this meeting-

David Roston: These meetings you’re talking about, yeah.

MarkAlain Dery: These meetings where scientists, both government scientists, and we love our government scientists, thank you for all the work that you do. And public scientists or in the private sector get together and they come up with what the formula is going to be for the next flu vaccine. And it is crazy that that is no longer able to [be] do[ne]. Ultimately what ends up happening is that we’re going to likely, and the pharmaceuticals are likely going to take their flu vaccines from what the WHO recommends, but even still, it cuts deeply because it just goes to show that this disregard for vaccines is going to be so impactful. And just even me just talking about my personal experience, I’m in a hospital with a large amount of elderly individuals. In fact, all hospitals have elderly individuals.

That’s why there are hospitals, people who are elderly end up in the hospital and we see a lot of it with flu, with RSV and with COVID. So the fact that these meetings are canceled is terrible. The review process for the new COVID vaccine from Novavax has also been halted, and Kennedy has even made the inaccurate that vaccines developed with similar methods don’t protect against respiratory viruses, a statement that contradicts decades of scientific advance.

David Roston: Yeah, it’s this weird waffling of if you’re projecting that the U.S. is eventually going to get this formula from the WHO after we’ve effectively left the WHO. So we are posing as we-

MarkAlain Dery: And not funding.

David Roston: And not funding, but taking from and also saying that these vaccines aren’t effective, but then no, maybe they are effective. You should get vaccinated. It’s this dangerous communication strategy of going forward, of saying, we don’t want to do this. We believe that this is ineffective and a waste of money, and yet still keeping our toes in the water a little bit, it’s dangerous and also quite discombobulating to comprehend.

MarkAlain Dery: Yep. Yep. Just to kind of wrap this up, experts say that policy shifts like these can lead to lower vaccination rates and more outbreaks of preventable diseases and a loss of public confidence in one of medicine’s greatest achievements. The CDC’s own data shows that when people lose trust in vaccines, coverage drops and diseases we thought that were once under control, can come roaring back. And I just like to remind everybody that some of the main reasons why we as human beings are able to live beyond 40, 50 to expected age rates of 17 and 80 years old are largely to two things, which is clean water and plumbing and vaccines.

And the fact that we are going to lose the vaccines element or a major part of it, or it’s going to be significantly hampered. I think in the next five to 10 years, we’re going to see a very different country and society within the U.S. with respect to vaccine preventable deaths and the vaccines or the diseases that children are going to suffer. Like we’re seeing right now with measles, we’re going to likely see with other things that we thought were long gone, chief among them is going to be polio.

David Roston: All these efforts that we’ve undergone over decades feel like they’re just going to be squandered as we can just see as we are just not doing our due diligence to protect young people and elderly folks from very preventable deaths. It’s quite distressing. So yeah. Anything else?

MarkAlain Dery: Yeah, I just need to let everybody know, speaking on behalf of medical professionals all over the world, vaccines remain safe, effective, and are essential for protecting our communities.

David Roston: Amen. Thanks for watching NoiseFilter Show.

MarkAlain Dery: Subscribe and like this video. Leave a comment below. It helps the algorithms.