Offensive in US to Avoid Vaccines Against Measles, Polio and Other Diseases

Long-standing allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.the US health secretary, have launched a new initiative to repeal laws that for decades have required children to be vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases before entering kindergarten.

A newly formed coalition of activists is attacking laws considered fundamental to protection against deadly diseases. States have long required childhood vaccinations before children can start daycare or school, although some exemptions exist.

“What we have to do is break the barrier,” Leslie Manookian, the sponsor of a law that banned medical mandates in Idaho, told supporters on a recent call.

Manookian leads the Medical Freedom Act Coalitiona new umbrella group of at least 15 nonprofits advocating for an end to state laws that codify what they call medical mandates, which primarily concern vaccines.

So far, bills have been introduced in at least nine states that would eliminate all or nearly all school requirements, from Democratic states like New York, where there is no chance of passage, to states like New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa and Idaho, where the proposals have gained some traction.

Many vaccine advocates see the state initiative as a second stage in the dismantling of the vaccine infrastructure of the country, based on the significant reduction of federally recommended vaccines proposed by Mr. Kennedy.

While not entirely new, the strategy demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how to try to unravel more than 100 years of progress in protecting children from deadly pathogens, said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor emeritus of health law at George Washington University and a former health official in the Clinton administration.

“They are drunk on their apparent power, because they have one of their own in the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” Ms. Rosenbaum said, referring to Mr. Kennedy’s position at the Department of Health and Human Services. They think it’s time to take a risk and just eliminate the requirements altogether.

Groups in the new coalition include Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Mr. Kennedy co-founded, and two others created to support his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) initiative. One of them, the MAHA Institute, works on state policy and claimed to be hiring staff to support the agenda.

Minister Kennedy’s withdrawal from long-standing federal vaccine recommendations has sparked a flurry of activity at the state level. As its policies become more consolidated, Some Democratic-leaning states have created their own alliances to reject the new guidelines federals on vaccines, while some Republican-led states have chosen to enshrine them.

At a Heritage Foundation event with Mr. Kennedy this month, Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense, said a high priority would be undoing state requirements.

“Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate mandates,” stated Mack Rosenberg.

“Especially when you tie those mandates to school attendance, it creates an incredibly difficult situation for families,” he added.

When asked at an event in Tennessee earlier this month about the effort to repeal school entrance requirements, Kennedy said he was not involved in the effort. But he added: “I believe in freedom of choice,” prompting applause from the audience. He said he supported people making decisions about vaccines together with their families and doctors.

Manookian said the coalition’s effort seeks to end what she considered coercion related to all medical interventions. “It’s about giving power back to the person,” he declared in an interview.

Proposals to eliminate vaccination requirements for school entry have had mixed results: Some efforts have stalled in Oklahoma and Indiana, and others are pending, including in West Virginia. A bill in Arizona is also pending, but is expected to face a veto by the governor, a Democrat, and one in New York is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled state legislature. Coalition backers hope a bill will be introduced in Louisiana next month.

In Florida, despite state officials’ stated intention to end childhood vaccination mandates, a bill that would eliminate school admissions rules has not been introduced. However, one proposal would allow an exemption for “conscience” or personal beliefs that would make it easier for parents to forgo vaccines.

Efforts to repeal the state laws have alarmed pediatricians and other vaccine advocates, who say there is broad acceptance among parents and the general public of vaccinating young children.

Public health experts consider eliminating school requirements a sure way to reduce vaccination coverage, resulting in a sudden increase in measles and whooping cough casesfollowed later by possible outbreaks of rubella and polio. The consequences are evident in South Carolina, where a measles outbreak has affected more than 900 people, including at least 19 who were hospitalized with complications such as pneumonia and brain inflammation.

In several schools at the epicenter of the outbreak, fewer than 80% of students had received all required childhood vaccines, far below the 95% needed to stop the spread of measles, a highly contagious virus.

However, a powerful barrier has emerged against weakening vaccination mandates. Several polls show that voters would penalize lawmakers who favor eliminating school requirements. In a recent survey conducted by The Wall Street Journalvoters gave Democrats a 9% lead over Republicans when asked which party is best suited to manage vaccination policy.

Two polls commissioned by vaccine advocates and conducted by Republican-leaning companies found that voters in Florida and Tennessee would not support lawmakers who want to eliminate school vaccination mandates. A poll by Fabrizio Ward, a company trusted by President Trump, found that undecided voters in close congressional races would take about 20 percentage points off a Republican candidate critical of vaccines.

“Vaccine skepticism is bad policy,” Fabrizio Ward’s memo said.

Vaccine advocates remain concerned about proposals in New Hampshire, Iowa, Idaho, Georgia and possibly other states that could eliminate or sharply limit vaccination requirements for school entry.

“Before vaccines, one in five children did not reach their fifth birthday”said Jennifer Herricks, advocacy director for American Families for Vaccines, a nonprofit that receives part of its funding from vaccine manufacturers. “These policies have served to protect children at a time when they are most vulnerable to these diseases.”

In New Hampshire, vaccine skeptics dominated a lengthy hearing on a bill that would eliminate mandatory vaccinations for schools but was amended to maintain the polio vaccine. Health department officials said the proposal would fail to meet federal grant requirements and cost several million dollars annually to vaccinate low-income children.

If the bill is passed, “uncontrolled widespread disease” could occur, declared Megan Petty, head of the New Hampshire Office of Infectious Disease Control.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general, was in Tampa last March. In the fall, he announced that the state wanted to eliminate vaccination requirements. Credit…Chris O’Meara/Associated Press

Idaho passed a law in 2025 that eliminates medical mandates for vaccines or other interventions, but it did not specifically address or modify vaccination requirements for daycares or schools, Ms. Manookian said.

He added that he planned to support a new proposal in Idaho that… Some Idaho school districts have held firm on vaccination requirements despite the current law’s blanket ban against medical mandates, he said.

“The more schools and daycares meddle,” he said, “the more they hurt themselves.”

Chris Anders, a Republican lawmaker from West Virginia, introduced a bill this month that would eliminate school vaccination mandates, including a requirement that county health departments offer free vaccines to low-income children. He added that other lawmakers were unlikely to push for the measure.

“If people decide not to get vaccinated, that’s their decision,” he said. “Just like if they decide not to wear a seat belt, motorcycle helmet or anything else. If they decide that, they suffer the consequences.”

Last year in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott quietly signed a bill that opened the door to lawsuits against vaccine makers advertising in the state.

In Florida, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced last fall that the state would eliminate vaccination requirements. In the absence of a proposal in the legislature to make this happen, a scaled-down effort to change state rules is moving forward.

Florida authorities seek to repeal the requirement that children be vaccinated against chickenpox, hepatitis B, pneumococcal bacteria and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), a disease that can be fatal.

The state held a contentious hearing in December on the plan. Among the witnesses was Jamie Schanbaum, who had her fingers and lower legs amputated after becoming seriously ill with meningitis, a disease prevented by the pneumococcal vaccine. He has widely advocated for the vaccine and in December asked Florida leaders to keep its vaccination requirements in place.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said in an interview, “to see and experience the current reality and have our most important and respected medical guidelines not taken seriously.”

Fuente: The New York Times