The latest surge in vaccine-skepticism is not conservative. It’s reactionary.
The latest surge in vaccine skepticism is not conservative. It’s reactionary.
In a press conference yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the latest measles outbreaks — which have taken the life of a child — are nothing “unusual.” “There have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So it’s not unusual.” He continued, “we have measles outbreaks every year.” This is the first child fatality from measles in 22 years.
The health secretary then misquoted the number of deceased victims of the disease. He said, “There are two people who have died, but we’re watching it.” So far, only one death has been reported. The White House has not addressed the discrepancy.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported the first death from the ongoing measles outbreak in the state’s South Plains and Panhandle regions. A school-aged child who was not vaccinated died after being hospitalized for the disease.
At least 124 cases in Gaines County, Texas, have been reported since late January, and nine more in a neighboring New Mexico county. According to local news, “An additional 17 patients have been hospitalized during the outbreak, the majority of them children suffering from measles-induced pneumonia and severe breathing difficulties.” All of them are unvaccinated.
The outbreak has surged in a Texas county with a large Mennonite community. According to the Associated Press, “While it’s unclear which specific Mennonite community has been affected, Gaines County is home to a group with a distinctive migration history called the Old Colony Mennonites. The county has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates among school-aged children in Texas.”
The Old Colony Mennonites are especially insulated from the modern health system — vaccines included.
According to the most recent data from 2024, nearly 18 percent of kindergarten students in Gaines County were unvaccinated (they did not have at least one standard vaccination) because their parents filed “conscientious exemptions.” Texas law allows for an exemption from immunizations for reasons of conscience, including religious belief. From 2013 to 2024, only 7.5 percent of Gaines County kindergarteners had such exemptions.
The rate of these exemptions (among states that offer them) was steadily increasing before Covid-19 but has since accelerated.
The surge in vaccine exemptions dovetails with what appears to be vaccine skepticism within the HHS.
Just yesterday, as reported by the Washington Post, the Food and Drug Administration notified members of its vaccine advisory committee that an important meeting scheduled to take place next month had been canceled. Attendees were to help select the makeup of next winter’s influenza vaccine. Why the cancellation? “No reason was provided. The email warned members against forwarding the email. It suggested members decline to answer questions from media.”
This is the second vaccine-related meeting canceled unexpectedly during RFK Jr.’s tenure as health secretary. Before his confirmation to HHS, RFK Jr. built a monetized brand for himself as an “anti-vaxxer.”
Since Covid-19 turned American life upside down, vaccine skepticism has been in vogue among the online Right. As I wrote earlier this week, Make America Healthy Again mom influencers who rage against seed oils and hawk beef-tallow products also have a penchant for vaccine skepticism.
For anti-vaxxers, their general opposition to all vaccines is the real failure. Parents ought not to conflate their understandable skepticism of the value of the Covid-19 vaccine for healthy children with ungrounded skepticism of these routine vaccines.
Not all vaccines are equally effective. Not all vaccines are equally necessary. Not all vaccines are worth their potential side effects, depending on the patient’s own circumstances. (The measles vaccine, however, is both effective and necessary and carries minimal risk of serious side effects.)
This country, of course, was founded on “conscientious exemption.” There should always be deference given to a devout conscience. But parents who reject routine vaccines in the same spirit as Covid-19 defiance are doing their children and their communities a real disservice.
For a grotesque parallel: If a hospital offers “gender-affirming surgery (GAS),” conservatives who want to gas the GAS department shouldn’t burn down the pediatric cancer unit with it.
Conservatives who flaunt vaccine skepticism should return to the central virtue of conservatism: gratitude. We’re so glutted by the benefits of modern medicine that we’ve become blind to them.
Not everything modern is bad, and most vaccines are man-made miracles.