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\n As Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. intensifies his drive<\/a> to reverse decades of vaccine policy, the medical profession joins a growing list of fields and institutions facing unprecedented threats from the federal government under President Donald Trump. But this time the administration may have chosen an adversary with more capacity to fight back than the law firms, major universities<\/a> and media organizations it has targeted so far.\n <\/p>\n \n To many medical professionals, Kennedy\u2019s hostility toward vaccines represents the greatest threat to the nation\u2019s public health system in memory. Medical groups fear that Kennedy\u2019s wide-ranging actions \u2014 such as firing all the members of a prestigious advisory committee that advises the federal government on vaccine policy<\/a>; narrowing access to the latest Covid vaccine<\/a>; and pledging to soon release<\/a> a study that will probably reexamine the widely debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism \u2014 will trigger a resurgence of deadly diseases, particularly among children.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming; it\u2019s a complete frame shift,\u201d said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. \u201cIt\u2019s not only that people are declaring their own scientific truths; it\u2019s that science is losing its place as a source of truth. I could never imagine that something like this would ever happen. It\u2019s a war on expertise.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Medical groups are expressing increasing alarm that Kennedy\u2019s rhetoric and actions will increase the already-growing number of parents demanding medical or religious exemptions<\/a> from state vaccine mandates for school attendance and potentially encourage conservative states to repeal those mandates altogether. That concern became much more immediate last week after Florida\u2019s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced their intent<\/a> to eliminate all state vaccine mandates, including those for school attendance. If implemented, that will make Florida the first state<\/a> to do so.\n <\/p>\n \n Other institutions that Trump has targeted have struggled to mount an effective resistance to his efforts. But the medical profession may have more advantages than most.\n <\/p>\n \n Although confidence in medical professionals has declined since the Covid pandemic, particularly among Republicans, they still enter the debate over vaccine access with a much deeper well of credibility with the public than many of the other groups Trump has targeted, polls show. Surveys also consistently show that most Americans believe the major childhood vaccinations are safe and should remain a requirement for children to attend school. Taken together, those attitudes could make Kennedy\u2019s crusade against vaccines riskier for Trump than the president\u2019s actions against other constituencies.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAt the moment (Trump) seems to be enjoying it but \u2026 how important is it for him to keep the fringe part of his base happy?\u201d said Drew Altman, president of KFF, a nonpartisan think tank focusing on health care issues. \u201cWhy does he care so much? At some point this (will) turn off a large segment of the American people, and he may decide this is no longer in his interest.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The key question in how this debate unfolds may be whether the disparate and often fractious medical interests can unite effectively in common action.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe need the organizations that represent America\u2019s physicians to stand up, both for the sake of (influencing) policy and for the sake of giving guidance to their patients,\u201d said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care, a liberal advocacy group that focuses on health care access. \u201cThis is no time to sit on the sidelines.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Many of the institutions Trump has targeted most aggressively in his second term present a similar profile. Elite universities, such as Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania; media organizations such as ABC, CBS and the Wall Street Journal ; and law firms such as Covington & Burling are all wealthy, influential and accustomed to circulating through the elite circles of political power.\n <\/p>\n \n But all operate in sectors of the economy that face substantial skepticism from the general public and antagonism from the Republican base, which tends to view them as pillars of the liberal establishment. Polling by the Gallup Organization over the past few years captures those dynamics.\n <\/p>\n \n In an annual Gallup poll that tracks the public\u2019s assessment of various professions<\/a>, just 17% of adults last year said lawyers demonstrate high standards of honesty and ethics, and only 13% said the same about TV reporters. Even fewer Republicans expressed trust in those groups: just 12% for lawyers and 5% for TV reporters. College teachers performed better in a 2023 survey<\/a>, with 42% of the public overall expressing trust in them. But the share of Republicans who expressed trust in them was only about half that, at 22%.\n <\/p>\n \n That backdrop may help explain the strategy adopted by institutions in the industries Trump has targeted for funding cuts or other sanctions. Several negotiated settlements<\/a> with the administration. A few have fought him in court, with some law firms<\/a> and Harvard University winning strongly worded lower court<\/a> decisions invalidating Trump moves against them. But none of Trump\u2019s early targets have launched a campaign to mobilize public opposition and pressure Congress to stop his moves altogether.\n <\/p>\n \n Medical professionals may be in a better position to try.\n <\/p>\n \n The share of Americans who view doctors as honest and trustworthy in Gallup polling has fallen since the Covid pandemic. Confidence in the overall \u201cmedical system\u201d \u2014 a more expansive and amorphous concept \u2014 has also declined somewhat since Covid. But in the latest Gallup survey,<\/a> 53% of all Americans still expressed trust specifically in doctors, including 44% of Republicans. Nurses received even higher grades for honesty.\n <\/p>\n \n The public is especially inclined to trust medical professionals on issues related to vaccination. In an April national poll<\/a>, KFF found that about four-fifths of Americans trusted their own doctors as a \u201creliable source for information about vaccines.\u201d Among parents, about four-fifths said they trusted their pediatricians for such information. By contrast, only about two-fifths of all Americans said they trusted either Kennedy or Trump for vaccine guidance.\n <\/p>\n \n KFF surveys have also found that the vast majority of Americans remain convinced that the major childhood vaccinations are safe<\/a>, and about four-fifths of parents (including three-fourths of Republicans) continue to support<\/a> the requirement that students receive vaccinations to attend schools.\n <\/p>\n \n Robert Blendon, an emeritus professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the backlash among Republican voters against public health decisions during Covid, such as vaccine and mask mandates, created a constituency within the GOP for challenging federal vaccine policy \u2014 but that medical professionals still have standing to sway it.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cRepublicans hold a belief (that) real mistakes were made by the CDC and public health authorities, and that has really opened up this opportunity for Kennedy,\u201d Blendon said. But \u201cwhen I was terribly sick (during the pandemic), who did I go to? It was my physician. It was the people running the units at my local hospitals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Blendon said the key for medical interests will be to focus their message on personalizing the potential impact of Kennedy\u2019s policies \u2014 particularly for influencing voters in Trump\u2019s electoral coalition.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey are not going to be that influenced when scientists say it\u2019s really bad for the world,\u201d Blendon said. \u201cBut they could be interested in practicing physicians who say it could endanger the health of your own family.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It remains uncertain, though, how forcefully medical groups will press those arguments. One reason universities, law firms, media organizations and even the clean energy industry failed to unite in robust opposition to Trump\u2019s actions is that many preferred to stay quiet for fear the Trump administration could retaliate by threatening other federal funding, licenses or contracts.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump holds similar leverage over medical professionals with his ability to influence federal reimbursement rates, particularly for Medicare \u2014 which Kennedy has already signaled he hopes to reexamine<\/a>. Pediatricians and other physicians \u201cwill be incredibly more trusted by parents than these various government people,\u201d Blendon said. But the question remains \u201cwhether or not they are going to be nervous about threats to payment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Early in Trump\u2019s presidency, the medical professions seemed to follow the same accommodating strategy as universities, law firms and media companies. The leading medical industry and professional associations mostly kept mum during Kennedy\u2019s contentious confirmation hearings, Trump\u2019s moves to slash federal funding for medical research, and even during congressional passage of the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d that will revoke health insurance from more Americans than any single bill ever<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n But medical groups are now issuing more urgent alarms about the flurry of anti-vaccine actions from Kennedy that culminated in last month\u2019s dismissal of Dr. Susan Monarez, the recently confirmed director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has said she refused to rubber-stamp Kennedy decisions that could reduce vaccine access.\n <\/p>\n \n Probably the most aggressive group has been the nation\u2019s pediatricians. When Trump dismissed Monarez and triggered the resignations of other top CDC officials, Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued a stark statement<\/a> declaring, \u201cThis is a dangerous moment for our country and for the health of every family in every community.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Together with other medical groups, including the organizations representing public health officers, the pediatricians sued in July<\/a> to overturn Kennedy\u2019s decision not to authorize the latest Covid booster for healthy people younger than 65<\/a>. The pediatricians have also launched a website<\/a> to rebut Kennedy vaccine claims and published their own recommendations for childhood vaccination<\/a>, which continues to encourage the Covid vaccine for young people.\n <\/p>\n \n Other groups that have pushed back especially forcefully against Kennedy include organizations representing immunologists, public health professionals<\/a> and nurses<\/a>. The most important evolution has occurred at the most prominent of the medical groups, the American Medical Association. Its members are more vulnerable than pediatricians to possible changes in federal payment systems because pediatricians would not be directly affected by reimbursement rates for Medicare, which serves seniors. And early on, the AMA appeared especially leery of confrontation with Trump.\n <\/p>\n \n But, as documented in a recent Politico story<\/a>, the group faced mounting dissent over its hands-off approach that culminated in an open rebellion at its June annual meeting from critics demanding more forceful pushback to an array of Trump policies. Since then, the tenor of the AMA\u2019s statements has moved closer to those of the other major medical organizations; the AMA president called<\/a> Monarez\u2019s dismissal \u201chighly alarming\u201d and a threat to public health.\n <\/p>\n \n A senior executive at one of the leading medical professional trade associations, who asked not to be identified while discussing internal conversations, said that all the leading groups are trending in that direction.\n <\/p>\n \n Early in Trump\u2019s term, the official said, \u201cpeople were trying to find their footing\u201d and \u201cfigure out how to play a constructive role in health policy and also stand up to the things that are really out of bounds.\u201d In addition, the official added, groups were hesitant about engaging because \u201cthis administration has a history of punishing people that disagree with them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Now, though, the official said, \u201cthings are shifting\u201d because Kennedy\u2019s actions have grown so alarming. \u201cGroups are going to feel \u2026 that they can\u2019t sit it out anymore,\u201d the official said. In a measure of the change, a coalition of medical groups on Thursday issued a joint call for Kennedy\u2019s resignation<\/a>, writing, \u201cWe are gravely concerned that American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of (his) policies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Medical professionals may have retained more public trust than other experts, but all forms of expertise have lost ground with the public in recent years, noted Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Young people, particularly men, are drawn to a kind of DIY ethos around decisions where they might once have deferred to credentialed experts, Cox said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis younger generation has grown up with access to all the information that they could ever want or need and that feels more natural and comfortable to them\u201d than relying on experts, Cox said. \u201cThey feel: \u2018I don\u2019t need a college degree, I don\u2019t need experts to tell me how to live or what to do. I can find what\u2019s right for me online and \u2026 look for people who have a lifestyle that I aspire to. And those are the people I can put my faith in.\u2019 \u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Those libertarian-ish attitudes have seeded the ground for Kennedy\u2019s Make America Healthy Again movement and created the energetic constituency he brought into Trump\u2019s electoral coalition. But as Offit pointed out, such attitudes directly collide with the core tenet of public health, which is collective action to protect the most vulnerable.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe current zeitgeist is medical freedom: \u2018I\u2019m going to do my own research, I\u2019m going to make a decision that is best for me and my child,\u2019\u201d said Offit, who was recently blocked from participating in a federal vaccine policy advisory committee<\/a>. \u201cThat is in direct conflict with public health. In public health, you care about your neighbor.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Those competing instincts are now colliding most consequentially in the nation\u2019s classrooms and playgrounds. Public health experts say that to achieve herd immunity against the most dangerous childhood diseases, such as measles, about 95% of all schoolchildren must be vaccinated. But the share of newly enrolled kindergarten students who have received the MMR vaccine covering measles, mumps and rubella has fallen well below that level (to 92.5% in the school year that began in September 2024) as the share of parents requesting an exemption has steadily increased, according to CDC data<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n These trends mean the vast majority of parents who continue to believe in vaccines cannot fully protect their children if enough people around them choose not to vaccinate their own. That threat will only rise if Kennedy takes further actions that encourage more parents not to vaccinate their children \u2014 or inspire more red states to consider rescinding their school mandates.\n <\/p>\n \n In that way, the risks that Kennedy\u2019s decisions could impose on average families are far more tangible than the implications of most debates about Trump\u2019s second-term priorities. Trump, mindful of the independent following that Kennedy has brought to him, appears extremely reluctant to curb him. But even at last week\u2019s Finance Committee hearing<\/a>, several GOP senators sharply challenged Kennedy\u2019s direction \u2014 a rare moment of open Republican dissent to Trump.\n <\/p>\n \n And on Friday afternoon, Trump took a conspicuous step away from vaccine skepticism, telling reporters, \u201cYou have to be careful when you say people don\u2019t need to be vaccinated. You have some vaccines that just work.\u201d Trump was responding to a question about Florida\u2019s move to rescind school vaccination mandates \u2014 but his language could easily apply to Kennedy as well.\n <\/p>\n \n With the medical profession stirring in opposition, cracks opening in Republican support and polls showing that most Americans don\u2019t share Kennedy\u2019s hostility to vaccinations, Trump eventually may view his lightning rod HHS secretary as too great a threat to his own political health. The political system\u2019s antibodies against extremism have been gravely compromised in the Trump era \u2014 but they may be starting to coalesce against Kennedy.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link As Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. intensifies his drive to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-139176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/12-gettyimages-2233904395.jpg\")
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