Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed Feb. 13 as the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the department that oversees, among other things, food and medicine regulations in the U.S. This appointment came after Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, where he had promised to let Kennedy — who previously led an anti-vaccine organization and promoted conspiracy theories such as the conspiracies that WiFi causes cancer and that antidepressants lead to school shootings — “go wild on health.”
Since taking office, Kennedy has dramatically changed healthcare policy: firing the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and all members of the CDC’s advisory vaccine board to replace them with vaccine skeptics, restricting access to vaccines and promoting unfounded conspiracy theories.
“Vaccines are a means to help prevent illnesses,” said Kristen Worrell, health science teacher at Athens Drive, “It’s helpful because not only does it protect themselves from being sick, but it protects their loved ones.”
Study after study has proven vaccines to be the safest and most effective way of preventing diseases. Despite this, many, including Kennedy, still worry that there may be unwanted side effects, or may not know how vaccines work or what a vaccine does. A vaccine is functionally a training program for the body’s immune system, where a dead or weakened form of an infectious agent is injected into the body, so that it can learn how to better defend itself against the infection if a live virus or bacteria tries to infect it later on.
“Through research, they have found a way to provide a weakened form of a virus into the body so that the body can learn how to fight it,” said Worrell. “It increases the chance that an individual will either not get sick at all, or if they do get sick, it will be less severe for a smaller amount of time.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricted access to new COVID-19 vaccines Aug. 27, changing official recommendations so that only those who are either 65-years-old or older, or who have a specific underlying health condition, can receive the newest COVID-19 vaccines. Later, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) declined to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting that people instead consult with their doctors and receive a prescription before choosing to get vaccinated, rather than being able to just go to a pharmacy.
N.C. Governor Josh Stein issued a state-wide standing order shortly before ACIP’s meeting to strengthen access to the COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina, allowing anyone in the state to continue to be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine without first receiving a prescription by simply going to a pharmacy.
“Students need to stay up to date [with their vaccinations,]” said Jennifer Hulsey, director of the Health Sciences Career Academy at Athens Drive, “I think it’s responsible; as a responsible parent, I want my kids and myself to be vaccinated against any type of Covid, the flu, and those kind of things.”
When a vaccine is being created, it undergoes a rigorous testing process before it is available to anyone. Before any tests can be done on even a single person, a vaccine will typically go through around a decade and a half of research, with some tests on lab animals, to ensure it is safe and effective. Afterwards, the researchers will submit their vaccine to the FDA, which will then either approve the vaccine for clinical trials, or deny the vaccine until improvements are made.
During clinical trials, according to the CDC, a vaccine is first tested on a group of tens of people, then a group of hundreds of people, and finally a group of thousands of people. If all these tests show positive and safe results, the vaccine will be approved for the general public, but the government will continue monitoring it to make sure it is still safe. The COVID-19 vaccine went through this process rapidly, due to extra funding and the urgency of the pandemic.
“Any medication that is being used on a human has to go through clinical trials” said Worrell. “In general, medications and vaccines go through the same process: it takes 12–15 years on average — it could take longer, it could take shorter.”
The modern anti-vaccine movement began in the early 2000s, after the publishing of a discredited, fraudulent study by a now-former doctor, Andrew Wakefield, who claimed that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine caused autism in children, and that people should receive separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, rather than the combined vaccine.
During the creation of the study, Wakefield manipulated and falsified data, falsely claimed his study’s experiments were approved as ethical, and failed to disclose conflicts of interest, such as how he planned to sell fake autism-diagnosis kits and a separate measles vaccine, and would thereby financially benefit greatly from people choosing to receive separate vaccines. Subsequent studies since the paper’s retraction have shown no causal links between vaccines and autism, but many individuals continue to worry about it.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and fear that some vaccinations can cause disorders and illnesses,” said Worrel. “[If] somebody shows up and says, ‘hey, you have to take this vaccine,’ and you don’t even know what that means or what it does; I think there’s a little bit of uncertainty there.”
During a news conference held by Trump and Kennedy Sept. 22, the pair claimed that Acetaminophen (commonly called by the brand name Tylenol,) when used during pregnancy, can lead to children being born with autism spectrum disorder. This claim was made in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, including a Swedish study published 2024, which analyzed 2.4 million children, and found no evidence that Tylenol causes autism, ADHD, or any other mental disabilities.
“This [news conference,] honestly, was the first time I’ve ever heard that there is a link [between Tylenol and autism,]” said Worrel, “It’s been studied by individuals who are well-versed in this.”
Vaccines are the most effective way of preventing illness, not just for an individual, but for a community. For this reason, all seniors are required to get the meningococcal vaccine, and all students are recommended to stay up-to-date on their vaccinations. Without access to vaccines, deadly but preventable diseases like measles are at a much greater risk of spreading and causing unnecessary deaths. COVID-19 vaccines remain available without needing a doctor’s prescription in North Carolina due to Governor Josh Stein’s standing order.
“I get frustrated in the sense that these statements are being made kind of on a whim,” said Worrel. “It’s your personal responsibility to do your own research; to look at both sides of the situation; to come up with whatever works best in your personal life; [and] to make that decision for yourself or for your family. I wish that the leaders of our country would also do their homework.”
