Freethought-Now

The new Congress will have its hands full but it must act to rein in so-called “Health” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

There’ll be a lot on the agenda of the fresh Congress come January — from ending the Iran War and tariffs to fixing Obamacare enrollment and investigating corruption. However, the tragic, senseless deaths, disinformation and havoc wreaked as a direct result of Kennedy’s dogmatic anti-vax campaign and irresponsible public health policies cannot be allowed to continue.

Here’s cause for indignation: Last week alone, three babies died of measles, including one in FFRF’s home state of Wisconsin. That infant was from the core region of the outbreak area involving Amish or Mennonite communities. Wisconsin has surpassed 400 measles cases to date. All but three of Wisconsin’s cases have occurred in unvaccinated persons.

A 7-month-old Amish boy died last week in New York state — the first such death in 30 years — and another baby died of measles in Pennsylvania. This was the second measles death in Jefferson County, Pa., where measles cases have surpassed 1,400 this year. That outbreak is likewise tied to the large Amish community. Although the sect doesn’t ban inoculations, fewer than one-third of its adherents are immunized against measles, mumps and rubella.

Kennedy-promoted ignorance and disinformation, not only about the safety of vaccines but additionally minimizing the many complications from the highly contagious measles — pneumonia, deafness, brain damage and death — are fueling resistance. The Guardian interviewed some local Amish members who insisted they were “stronger” for having survived measles. Yet one in four who contract measles need hospitalization and 1 in 1,000 die. Measles insidiously can erase previous immunities, a phenomenon known as “immune amnesia,” and the infection in rare cases can fester and ruthlessly kill years later.

Kudos to the many state officials who have taken over from the Kennedy’s do-nothing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to inaugurate educational campaigns and open vaccination clinics. Medical associations have stepped up to try to fill the void. But this is not enough — the new Congress must act.

The MMR inoculation, which is 97 percent effective, should be encouraged not only to protect loved ones, but as a civic duty to get our nation to the necessary 95 percent vaccination rate required for the herd immunity that protects immunocompromised adults and infants too young for the shots. (In Wisconsin, worried health officials are urging vaccination now at six months rather than the usual one year.) It’s a national shame that the measles vaccination rate overall is only 84 percent right now.

The blame lies squarely on Kennedy for the fact that the United States has seen more than 5,000 measles cases in 2026, the most in 35 years. The spread of measles is only part of the story. In Kennedy’s quest to spread misinformation and distrust over the United States’ successful public health policies to protect children, he has also dissed the recommended vitamin K shot for newborns.

The vitamin K injection, which is not a vaccine but which nevertheless raised Kennedy’s ire, helps prevent sudden blood clots and uncontrolled bleeding. A JAMA study found that 3 percent of newborns went without a vitamin K shot in 2017. By 2025, it had more than doubled. With Kennedy’s blessing, these babies face double the risk of sudden brain bleeding. (See this new ProPublica exposé about what happened to one 11-day-old bleeding baby in the ER.)

Add corruption to Kennedy’s sins. Most recently, it was revealed that four of the eight persons appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in September own stock in companies that manufacture drugs or other products the group’s decisions will affect. The conflicts of interest involve a panel that reviews evidence on services about colonoscopies, HIV prevention and depression. This follows Kennedy’s unconscionable firing of all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June 2025, replacing them mainly with anti-vaxxers or unqualified individuals, and the subsequent advisory to remove six childhood vaccinations from formal recommendations.

Equally unforgivable is Kennedy’s termination of 22 mRNA vaccine projects, defunding the cutting-edge medical breakthrough behind Covid vaccines that saved millions of lives. The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins warns these cuts will set research back years, not to mention the DOGE layoffs that brought so much medical research and technology to a halt, and the National Institutes of Health’s cancellation of more than 700 other grants, creating a national brain drain. (President Trump’s war against international students will add to our nation’s decline in science and medical research.)

Are you indignant yet?

Americans must demand that the new Congress prioritize putting a stop to Kennedy’s and Trump’s war against evidence-based preventive health care and research before more babies die and America’s brain drain gets worse. We don’t even need to wait for the 120th Congress to get that Kennedy impeachment bill some traction.

Disclaimer: The views in this column are of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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