Science over Politics

​I wish we didn't have to revisit the subject of vaccines so frequently, but the situation continually worsens. Yesterday President Trump signed an executive order directing a major overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.


The order would reduce the number of vaccines routinely recommended at the federal level from 18 to 11 and calls for the MMR vaccine to be separated into three individual shots. Doctors and public-health organizations are warning that the changes could create confusion, delay vaccinations and increase the risk of preventable disease.


And the timing could hardly be worse.


As of August 6, the U.S. has recorded 2,465 confirmed measles cases in 2026 — already more than the entire 2025 total of 2,289. About 7% of those patients have required hospitalization. This is the highest annual number since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.


This isn't an abstract argument about vaccine policy. We are already seeing what happens when vaccination rates fall: outbreaks, hospitalizations and children becoming sick from diseases we have the tools to prevent.


And we should be asking an obvious question: Why are vaccine recommendations being shaped by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?


Kennedy is not a physician, epidemiologist or infectious-disease specialist. He has spent years promoting vaccine claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence, including the discredited suggestion that vaccines cause autism. Yet his views are now influencing national vaccine policy.


Measles doesn't care who signed the executive order. It just needs an opportunity.


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