Vaccines were a key talking point for RFK Jr. throughout his abbreviated presidential campaign, and he has a worrisome (to put it lightly) history of spreading vaccine misinformation, most notably supporting the myth that vaccines cause autism, which multiple studies have debunked: per Newsweek , RFK Jr. told Fox News host Jesse Watters in 2023, “I do believe that autism comes from vaccines.” RFK Jr. also founded the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which “promotes anti-vaccine material such as the recent documentary ‘Vaxed III: Authorized to Kill,’” per CNN.
The presumptive nominee for head of HHS has also specifically targeted childhood vaccines, Newsweek reported. In December 2023, he told CNN that he “would be against mandates” for children in public schools; in 2021, he told people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should be vaccinated. Going farther back, to 2015, RFK Jr. “equated vaccination to the Holocaust at a California screening for an anti-vaccination film,” the site reported.
Yet, more recently, RFK Jr. has made a concerted effort to walk back his history of disinformation. “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines. I’ve never been anti-vaccine,” he told MSNBC after Trump’s election, per Newsweek. In an interview with NPR the same day, RFK Jr. said, “[O]f course, we’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody. We are going to make sure that Americans have good information right now. The science on vaccine safety particularly has huge deficits, and we’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations.”
Though he’s couching his rhetoric in more palatable terms, it’s hard to believe it when Trump himself hasn’t ruled out a vaccine ban. As noted by Newsweek, in an NBC News interview in November, Trump answered a question about banning certain vaccines with a worryingly vague and open-ended response: “Well, I’m going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but [RFK Jr.] is a very talented guy and has strong views.”
And RFK Jr.’s anti-vax history has already had deadly consequences. His involvement in spreading vaccine information in American Samoa led to a drop in measles vaccinations on the island and a subsequent outbreak of the disease, according to an analysis by FactCheck.org. Over 5,700 people got sick and 83 died in the outbreak, most of them young children, per The Lancet.
So it’s no wonder that doctors across media and social media are urging followers to get vaccinated now, before Trump takes office and can push RFK Jr. to the top of the nation’s health department.
“I’m a doctor and, I cannot stress this enough, I recommend making sure you are up to date on all of your vaccines as soon as possible,” one physician wrote on X.
Nathan Boonstra, MD, a pediatrician for UnityPoint Health in Iowa, recommended one vaccine in particular. “I would especially make sure my kids were up to date on HPV vaccine, which can be given as young as nine years of age,” he wrote on X. “I would not be surprised if that vaccine is one of the first targeted, and it is one of the most lifesaving vaccines we have.”
For context, HPV stands for human papillomavirus, a common sexually-transmitted infection. According to the CDC, nearly everyone will get HPV at some point in their lives, with most infections resolving themselves within two years. The strains that don’t resolve, however, can lead to cervical, vaginal, vulvar, penile, anal, and head/neck cancers, as well as genital warts. The HPV vaccine (Gardasil-9, in the US) specifically targets those strains, and the CDC recommends kids receive two doses of it — ideally between the ages of 11 and 12, though as Dr. Boonstra notes, they can be given starting at age 9. Older teens can also receive the HPV vaccine, though they may require an extra dose, per the CDC. (The same goes for adults.)
While RFK Jr. hasn’t said anything specifically about the HPV vaccine, a peek into Dr. Boonstra’s comments reveals why it might be under threat. One commenter calls the HPV vaccine “the one vaccine I refused for my daughter,” while others are busy peddling STI stigma left and right. (One sample: “Why is your 9 year old getting a vaccine against STDs? Is this the new sex Ed they are teaching in schools?” FYI: the vaccination series can start at 9 because that tends to be before most people become sexually active. You’re supposed to get vaccines before you’re exposed to viruses. That’s… kind of the whole point.)
But Gardasil isn’t the only vaccine to consider getting for your kids, if they’re eligible. It’s worth taking time to review your child’s vaccination record and compare it to the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule. It provides guidelines for exactly when to vaccinate your child, starting right at birth, when your child is eligible for the RSV vaccine and the first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine. For parents of teens, the CDC recommends the meningococcal, HPV, and tetanus vaccines in particular — and of course, don’t forget about the flu and COVID-19 vaccines for all ages. You can also talk to your pediatrician about the best way to catch your child up on any vaccines they may have missed.
We can and will continue to hope that, if he does become head of the Department of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. won’t push for a total ban on vaccines. But already, Republican lawmakers are indicating a willingness to roll back vaccine mandates, which would target the vaccines children are required to have to start public school: long-used vaccines for diseases like Hepatitis B, measles and mumps, diptheria, and polio. Without those kinds of mandates, all children would be less safe — even the ones who are vaccinated. “The risk of viruses mutating into more deadly forms increases when they are allowed to spread,” Dr. Lucky Tran, director of Science Communication at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, explained on X. “Individuals ignoring public health practices harms everyone.”
Meanwhile, we can’t overstate the dangers of handing the country’s most powerful health post — and the platform that comes with it — to a well-known vaccine denier. Vaccine misinformation has boomed since the pandemic, with real-world consequences: routine child vaccination rates are down from pre-pandemic levels, per the CDC, while vaccine exemptions increased in 41 states. Cases of measles — for which we have a highly effective vaccine — are up 20 percent worldwide, according to a CDC report.
And vaccine bans are already happening at a local level. One county in Idaho, for example, passed the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine ban earlier this month, affecting six counties.
These things are happening, right now, and that’s before a known anti-vaxxer has the power to really “go wild” on health, as Trump has said RFK Jr. will. It’s a frightening prospect, and as good a reason as any to make sure you and your family are up to date on every vaccine you can access.