Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Exclusive: RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that
NEW YORK | Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that a 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.”New documents obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian refute that testimony. Kennedy, then a prominent anti-vaccine […]
EDITORIAL: Treacherous anti-vax bilge in Colorado, everywhere endangers all our future
The return to school and a potential public health disaster last week in Pennsylvania underscore why Colorado must end its perilous philosophical exemption to mandatory immunization. Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania “residents” died after being infected with measles, the first U.S. deaths this year related to the contagious virus, the Associated Press reported this week. The state […]
US school vaccination rates inch down yet again and exemptions reach record high
NEW YORK | U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Monday. The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That’s an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the […]
Trump’s vaccine plan would require millions of individual shots last used decades ago
WASHINGTON | Public health experts have been quick to condemn an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S., but the biggest obstacles may be the unprecedented financial and logistical challenges it would impose on parents, health providers and drugmakers. Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for separating […]
FACT FOCUS: Trump makes false claims as he signs order urging revisions around childhood vaccines
While issuing an executive order on Monday aimed at getting states to revise childhood vaccine recommendations, President Donald Trump and others in his administration repeated several false claims about those vaccines, as well as their relationship to autism. The order recommends separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots and […]
Trump’s vaccine order hands some MAHA voters a win. It also gives Democrats an attack line
NEW YORK | President Donald Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits. After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional […]
Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against medical groups’ guidance
NEW YORK | President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits. The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all […]
Fauci contempt vote reflects the enduring politics of COVID
NEW YORK | Dr. Anthony Fauci is sitting before Congress, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on TV debating COVID lockdowns and Americans can’t agree on what science to trust. You might think it’s 2020 again. Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t […]
New kind of flu shot is on the way as the FDA approves Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine
WASHINGTON | The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new kind of flu vaccine for older people, the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturer Moderna said. The shot, named mFlusiva, is intended for adults age 50 or older. Other brands of flu shots already […]
CDC nominee says she won’t betray science — and also backs Kennedy’s actions
The Trump administration’s latest nominee to lead the nation’ top public health agency drew frustrated reactions from some U.S. senators on Wednesday when they pressed her on whether she would protect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from political meddling. Dr. Erica Schwartz told the Senate health committee she “will never betray the science” […]