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Kennedy�����Ƶ�s anti-vaccine views are in line with the completely discredited 1981 study of only 12 children by a British physician, who working with an unethical attorney, provided false data showing that the mumps, measles, rubella (MMR) vaccine was correlated with autism. The Wall Street Journal editorial board recently wrote �����Ƶ�Why RFK Jr. is Dangerous to Public Health.�����Ƶ� The article notes he �����Ƶ�made millions from referring clients to trial lawyers and he advocates mass tort litigation that would ruin the vaccine industry.�����Ƶ� A recent opinion column in the New York Times by Paul Offit, M.D., notes that �����Ƶ�more than a dozen studies in seven countries on three continents involving thousands of children�����Ƶ� show there is no relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism.

If by some unlikely chance, RFK Jr. does not become the Secretary of Health and Human Services, another science-doubting anti-vax individual will be chosen, as most Republicans in Congress lack guts; they fear offending Trump more than not making intelligent decisions and not protecting American children.

Most Americans alive today do not recall life before the polio vaccines. I do; it was frightening. Can you imagine living in an iron lung machine? In 1994, polio was declared eliminated in our country, but that could change without vaccinations. So far, the wild polio virus is only found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

If American parents decide that all vaccines are unacceptable and that natural immunity is better, perhaps provided by consuming raw milk, as Kennedy advocates, than we can return to the days of my childhood when measles, mumps and rubella and chickenpox were common. Measles is highly contagious and can have serious long-term effects including encephalitis, which can lead to vision and hearing losses, intellectual disabilities and even death. Rubella (German measles) in pregnant women can cause miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects.

Anti-vax sentiments are nothing new. In the early 1800s, people objected to the smallpox vaccine for religious and political reasons. About 300 million people died from small pox in the 20th century. After massive vaccination campaigns, the smallpox vaccine was universally accepted; the disease was considered eradicated in 1980. Despite the need, new vaccines are not readily accepted; COVID-19 made that clear.

We Americans want to believe our health care is the world�����Ƶ�s best. It has some exceptional specialized medical services, but our nation�����Ƶ�s health rating is lower than many other well-developed countries largely because of the opioid epidemic, obesity, maternal and infant death rates, suicide and gun deaths. The last thing we need to do is reduce vaccination rates for highly communicable diseases. We do not need to make America, and its children, sicker again.