Robert F Kennedy Jr’s anti-vaccine stance is dangerous for the world - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Terry Riordan, Ottery St Mary, Exeter.

The saying ‘When America sneezes the world catches a cold’ normally relates to the global ripples of economic shocks in the USA. However with Trump’s appointment of Robert F Kennedy Jr. as Health Secretary it could now tragically apply to infectious diseases.

Kennedy has a long history of promoting misinformation about vaccines. In 2005 he wrote an article claiming a link between autism and thimerosal, an antiseptic used in some vaccines. Even at the time the evidence didn’t support this and, despite overwhelming evidence that has accumulated against the link, Kennedy continues to endorse it. . In 2019, Kennedy, via his organisation Children’s Health Defense, suggested that a measles outbreak in Samoa was due to a defective vaccine. He also publicly supported Samoan vaccine sceptics. The outbreak caused nearly 6,000 cases with 83 deaths in a population under 200,000. Control was achieved only when vaccine uptake was massively increased.

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During the Covid pandemic, Kennedy frequently promoted misinformation about Covid vaccines calling them the “deadliest vaccines ever made”. However, with breath-taking hypocrisy, guests invited to a holiday party at his home in December 2021 were told to be vaccinated or tested for Covid-19. RFK Jr claims that he’s not against vaccines per se but has also said that there’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective.

A woman about to get a flu vaccine. PIC: Alamy/PA.A woman about to get a flu vaccine. PIC: Alamy/PA.
A woman about to get a flu vaccine. PIC: Alamy/PA.

In reality vaccines have saved millions of lives and avoided an even greater amount of misery from serious complications of infectious diseases. No vaccines get introduced into the UK immunisation programme without the most careful expert scrutiny by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation.

It’s horrifying that Kennedy now has an official platform from which to amplify his dangerous and dishonest messages with potentially dire consequences around the world.

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