From KERA News:
Texas public health officials say they’re used to setting the record straight about vaccinations and other scientifically sound treatments – but some are bracing for even more challenges under President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for top cabinet posts.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, has raised alarms for policy experts across the country. More recently, Trump announced Dr. Mehmet Oz as his head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Terri Burke, who leads The Immunization Partnership, said under Kennedy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration could lose funding; health and immunization guidance for school districts could weaken; and misinformation — already widespread after the pandemic — could worsen.
“All of this could have a chilling effect on innovation and development,” she said during a Texas Vaccine Policy Symposium last month. “Will vaccine manufacturers want to produce vaccines if the market is smaller? Will academic institutions approach vaccine research and development in a challenging climate?”
Much remains unclear about how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plans for the Health and Human Services secretary post will play out. Kennedy, who has repeated baseless claims that vaccines cause autism and other false information, has teased a plan called “Make America Healthy Again.” The plan’s central goal is to eliminate chronic disease.
He previously told NPR that federal health authorities under his leadership would not “take vaccines away from anybody.” He also expressed doubt in existing vaccine safety research.
While Kennedy cannot ban vaccines, he can change the incentives for school districts to require vaccinations, according to Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president for the health policy nonprofit KFF. Kennedy will also oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues recommendations to local governments on which vaccines to mandate for school-aged children.
“They’re just recommendations, so the states still have to choose to follow those or use them in different ways,” Kates said. “But it matters what the public health agencies say. It matters if they come out with a recommendation or not.”
State exemptions, restrictions
Terri Burke, who heads The Immunization Partnership, said Kennedy’s “conspiracy-tinged notions” are not new to the state.
“The future of the nation runs through Texas,” she said.
In addition to bans on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, state laws and provisions also prevent state health department-funded agencies from promoting the vaccines.
That hesitancy has trickled from the COVID-19 vaccine to vaccinations that have existed for decades, according to Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services director.
Huang points to the percentage of K-12 students whose parents have sought exemptions based on “reasons of conscience” such as religious beliefs. The percentage of students with conscientious exemptions has risen from 1.35% in 2013 to 3.63% in the 2023-2024 school year.
“We’ve been a victim of our own success with (vaccines) .. When was the last time you saw a polio case?” Huang said. “It’s because of vaccinations and people forget that. And it’s so successful that then, you know, people now start thinking, ‘Well, do we still need these’ that they forget what it was like before.”
