US vaccine recommendations are in limbo, access to vaccines is suffering, and some of the uncertainty may continue for years following major blows to vaccination by the Trump administration, experts say.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has made sweeping changes to vaccination policy, cutting childhood immunization recommendations by a third and replacing experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own handpicked allies.
A judge’s order halted these changes because they were not done correctly, but Kennedy has not nominated any new ACIP members – which means there are no new vaccination recommendations coming from the committee, even as new vaccines are approved.
H5N1 is going to tear through this country, and the US will be the only place that doesn’t have a vaccine. That is intentional. Part of the ongoing Republican effort to kill anyone they label as weak.
Ironically, it will probably be them that die in greater numbers.
With no vaccine, we will all be on the menu.