Lena Sun

All the ways your access to vaccines has changed under RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership at Health and Human Services has led to changes in vaccine recommendations and access, sparking concerns among medical experts.

NEW: RFK Jr has turned vaccine policy upside down. Here’s what that means for these shots. Me, @rachelroubein.bsky.social @laurenweberhp.bsky.social
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wapo.st/4mau4q4

Here is the link to press conference hosted by @blumenthal.senate.gov

Hi. I meant to include the link to the press conference today that featured their stories. Was presser organized by @blumenthal.senate.gov

6/ Tamika Felder, a cervical cancer survivor in Md., got sick in 2001. “Losing my fertility at age 25 felt like a death to me.” If the HPV vaccine had been available, Felder said her parents “would have made sure I was protected from that because who would want their child to get cancer one day?”

5: Jamie Schanbaum, who lives in NYC, lost both legs below the knee +her fingers after a 7-month fight with bacterial meningitis. She was 20 when she got sick on a college campus. “I just didn’t know I had to get a vaccine,” she said. “We don’t want anyone to know firsthand what meningitis is like.”

4/ Kathryn Alcaide, of Massachusetts, lost her infant son Brady to whooping cough. He was infected by someone who was unvaccinated but had no symptoms, she said. “It’s been 13 years. It’s still difficult to talk about it. It feels like just yesterday,” she said.

3/ Allison Miller, from Wisconsin, was 33, healthy, but unvaccinated, when she got the flu. In a coma for 3 months, she had permanent lung damage, lost her left leg. “I’ve spent the last decade rebuilding and reconfiguring my life, all because of what a lot of people consider ‘just the flu.”

2/ The Senate is holding a hearing on vaccine injuries. Vaccine advocates acknowledge many people who say they were injured have compelling stories.
So they held a press conference presenting the other side: Losing loved ones or suffering harm from the diseases vaccines prevent. @senblumenthal

As a longtime public health reporter covering the rise of anti-vaccine groups, I have seen them use personal stories to raise doubts about vaccines.
Today I saw immunization advocates push back by highlighting the stories of the toll of vaccine-preventable illness. A thread:

Under Trump, the government mobilizes in response to fringe theories Trump officials have assigned government workers and spent taxpayer dollars to address conspiracy theories and easily disproven assertions.

Trump administration officials have shown they’re willing to use govt levers—redirecting employees, spending taxpayer $, in some cases changing policy — in the service of conspiracy theories or easily disproven assertions. From Naftali Bendavid.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The federal health budget cuts are hurting states. “The fact that this is occurring at the same time we are seeing more measles cases in Texas than we have seen in more than 30 years makes absolutely no sense,” said top Dallas health official Philip Huang. End

Funding for state and local public health agencies, incl immunization programs, has been slashed. Public health workers have been laid off because of widespread budget cuts across federal health agencies, including CDC, which funds state and local health departments.

Measles outbreaks require vast personnel, time, dollars and clear messaging. NYC’s outbreak in 2019 cost $8.4 million with at least 550 staff involved in the response.

Anti-vax groups in Texas mobilized quickly. Many families turned to a prominent anti-vax doctor who offered unproven alternative treatments. HHS Sec RFK Jr praised that doctor and his methods in a visit to the region.

Declining trust in public health and science goes beyond vaccines. Pediatrician Nola Jean Ernest says many of her patients trust others who share their political views more than her. They have vaccinated their older kids. But not their youngest infants. “That really breaks my heart,” she says.

Texas has had the largest outbreak. The measles resurgence is a harbinger of things to come. “Once we see a resurgence of measles, we know that other diseases are going to come behind it,” says pediatrician Eric Ball.

Data from Johns Hopkins show the US hit a record 1,277 cases on July 4, exceeding reported cases in 2019, reaching largest number since 1992, when the US recorded more than 2,100 infections.

U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread Johns Hopkins University data reflects the public health reversal in defeating the vaccine-preventable disease since measles was officially eliminated from the U.S. in 2000.

NEW: A sad milestone. U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread. An enormous public health reversal of a vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vax movement gains strength. My story.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

UPDATE (and scoop): RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel to review childhood immunization schedule. Also: He has appointed a vaccine critic to CDC’s vaccine safety office. Me + @laurenweberhp.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com

This is good and important

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

The plan to vaccinate all Americans, despite RFK Jr. The extraordinary effort to create a parallel system of recommending and perhaps even providing vaccines faces major challenges.

To bypass RFK Jr., medical societies, local health officials and others are creating a shadow system to preserve vaccine access for Americans.

@lenasun.bsky.social & @rachelroubein.bsky.social take us inside the counteroffensive wapo.st/3TBmtVd

How medical groups may preserve vaccine access — and bypass RFK Jr. The extraordinary effort to create a parallel system of recommending and perhaps even providing vaccines faces major challenges.

NEW: The extraordinary effort behind the scenes by medical groups, state health officials, pharmacists, insurers and manufacturers to make sure Americans can keep getting vaccines covered by insurance. And bypass RFK Jr. Me + @rachel_roubein

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

CDC virus expert resigns after RFK Jr.’s purge of vaccine advisers Fiona Havers, who oversaw CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy.

NEW: ‘I no longer have confidence’: A senior physician and medical epidemiologist at @CDCgov who oversaw respiratory virus surveillance has resigned and raised concerns about the future of vaccine policy. My latest.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Defying Trump, National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet is still at work The president said he had fired the museum leader — setting up a standoff between the White House and the Smithsonian.

In defiance of President Trump’s announcement last Friday that he was firing her, Kim Sajet — the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery — has continued to report for work.

Friendship= when you and your friend pick sour cherries together on a hot summer day and she gives you most of her haul. The before and after photos.

Oops. Meant to link to THIS story. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

NEW: CDC blindsided as RFK Jr. overrules its covid-19 vaccine recs in a video post on X. Kennedy sowed more confusion with a “directive” that contradicted some of info in the video. My story.

Some breaking news:

FDA’s plan to limit covid vaccines worries some who won’t be eligible If coronavirus vaccines are restricted to seniors and those at high risk, parents of young children and relatives of medically vulnerable people face a higher bar for shots.

The FDA’s moves to limit updated coronavirus vaccines to those considered high risk worries those who would be left behind:

People who regularly visit elderly parents. Caregivers to the medically vulnerable. People who want to reduce the risk of long covid wapo.st/45q9pJu