There is much to say about the Trump administration in the United States, but as somebody who has worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry, I would like to concentrate on the unprecedented attack on vaccination programmes. Vaccines are an important issue for me. My late father spent his life with one leg shorter than the other due to childhood polio, the vaccine for which came in a few years later. My siblings and I were given every recommended vaccination, including polio, to ensure that nothing similar would happen to us. Indeed, for many decades, all major parties in western countries have been broadly pro-vaccination, and it has barely existed as a contentious political issue until relatively recently.
The appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr as US Health Secretary has shattered the political consensus on vaccines. What were once fringe theories are now given government backing. Last month $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines was abruptly cancelled, despite such vaccines saving vast numbers of people during the COVID pandemic. Vaccine scepticism has led to outbreaks of measles in parts of Texas, with several children becoming seriously ill and two tragically dying.
Many of the senior US health officials have recently been sacked or resigned in protest. The head of the Centre of Disease Control, Susan Monarez was dismissed for opposing vaccine policy. The head of the National Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Demetre Daskalakis, resigned from his post and wrote on social media, ‘I am unable to serve in an environment that treats the Centre of Disease Control as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than improve the public’s health.’
Of course, there is little we can do about events in the USA, but we can try to make sure that a similar situation cannot occur here. We should not think that the UK will never face a similar situation. The root of vaccine scepticism is the general belief, often encouraged by unbalanced press coverage, that ‘they’ (whoever ‘they’ are) are trying to poison ‘us’. This belief is by no means confined to the far right of the political spectrum and is common among many who would see themselves as on the left. Indeed, for many years Robert F. Kennedy Jr was a democrat and an active campaigner on environmental issues. Of course, there will always be a legitimate debate about which substances should be banned and which permitted, but I would make a plea for people to try to read scientific papers or reviews on such issues if they are going to comment on them, rather than simply relying on the media. While, at least for now, the USA seems to have said farewell to reason, there is no need for us to follow suite.