This uninformed zealot is putting our children's lives at risk. We all should be shouting it from the rooftops.
I began a newsletter on LinkedIn, "The Death of Cancer Research," at a time when Elon Musk and his DOGE crew were bulldozing federal funding for cancer research. The work of DOGE, combined with the administration's continued assault on universities, has severely damaged our nation's position as a global leader in cancer research.
Funding cuts have greatly reduced the number of individual grants awarded by HHS, thereby limiting research studies in many areas of medical science, including cancer. The results have been devastating to patients hoping for breakthrough treatments while also harming our research institutions. The cuts are driving a "brain drain," and leading to the collapse of our global leadership in medical science research (as many predicted in early 2025).
The New York Times, December 2, 2025, "The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine"
The senseless destruction and wanton policy stupidity in regard to our nation's health has not been limited to research cuts. The country is now experiencing a completely unnecessary, yet predictable, surge in measles -- something not seen in the U.S. in more than 30 years -- thanks to the anti-vaccine efforts of our current HHS leader and his band of conspiracy theorists, a number of whom are now in positions of power within HHS:
Doctors bear the burden as 'medical freedom' fuels worst US measles outbreak in 30 years
Putting a conspiracy-addled, anti-science, anti-vaccine extremist in charge of our national health was insane from the start. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. lied in his confirmation hearing regarding what he would do with the childhood vaccine schedule:
In two hearings in January 2025, Kennedy repeatedly assured senators that he supported childhood vaccines, noting that all his children were vaccinated.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Kennedy about the money he’s made in the private sector from lawsuits against vaccine makers and accused him of planning to profit from potential future policies making it easier to sue.
“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said during the Senate Finance Committee hearing. “Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep cashing in.”
Warren’s statement prompted an assurance by Kennedy.
“Senator, I support vaccines,” he said. “I support the childhood schedule. I will do that.”
Days later, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, declared Kennedy had pledged to maintain existing vaccine recommendations if confirmed. Cassidy, a physician specializing in liver diseases and a vocal supporter of vaccination, had questioned Kennedy sharply in a hearing about his views on shots.
So what did Kennedy and his anti-vax cohorts do last month? They upended and undermined the scientifically-sound and medically-proven vaccine schedule, not based on any science or evidence, but based on their own conspiracy-driven, debunked, disproven lies about vaccines and vaccine safety.
Kennedy allies in the anti-vaccine movement now feel empowered, and are seeking to overturn state vaccine mandates for school-aged children. Experts (and people with common sense) believe gutting these mandates will lead to more outbreaks of preventable diseases among children.
Longtime allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, have launched a new effort to repeal laws that for decades have required children to be vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases before they enter day care or kindergarten.
A newly formed coalition of vaccine activists is targeting laws that are considered the linchpin of protection from deadly diseases. States have long mandated childhood immunizations before children can start day care or school, though some exemptions are available.
...
The moves to overturn state laws have alarmed pediatricians and other vaccine supporters, who maintain that there is widespread acceptance among parents and the public of immunizing young children.
Eliminating school requirements is viewed by public health experts as a sure way to reduce vaccine coverage, resulting in a surge of measles and whooping cough cases, followed later by potential outbreaks of rubella and polio. The consequences are on display in South Carolina, where a measles outbreak has affected more than 900 people, including at least 19 who were hospitalized with complications including pneumonia and brain swelling.
At several schools in the center of the outbreak, fewer than 80 percent of students had received all of the required childhood immunizations, well short of the 95 percent needed to stem the spread of measles, a highly contagious virus.
Anti-vax activists (and Secretary Kennedy) need a history lesson on polio, among other communicable diseases prevented by vaccines. Prior to development of the first polio vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk, licensed by the federal government in 1955, many of those afflicted with the disease suffered paralyzed breathing muscles that left them living in iron lungs.
Before the polio vaccine, the disease had been a major cause of disability in children. About 16,000 cases of polio (paralytic poliomyelitis) occurred each year in the U.S. in the 20th century compared with none in 2023.
Insanity is the best word to describe the madness that is ongoing with vaccines.
The medical community is fighting back. On February 13, medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, filed suit to "block the Trump administration from implementing new guidance cutting the number of vaccines routinely recommended for children and bar Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked vaccine advisory panel from holding its next meeting." The health organizations claim in their suit that "health officials acted unlawfully to fulfill Kennedy's goals by upending national immunization policies in ways that would harm public health and reduce vaccination rates." The case is pending before U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston.
The question we all should be asking is, "Where are our political leaders?"
Putting our children's health at risk should be a cause that unites leaders of all political stripes. Our leaders -- and all of us -- should be shouting this from the rooftops: Our children are not guinea pigs, and their health and safety should not be imperiled or compromised by a small group of ill-informed, anti-science, conspiracy-addled zealots, the Secretary of Health and Human Services among them.
This is not a complicated message. Compassion, empathy and concern for the health and safety of our children must be foremost in all of our minds, and we must act to ensure that health and safety is secure now and for future generations.
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Past editions of my "Death of Cancer Research" newsletter at LinkedIn can be found here.
