WAR ON VACCINESVaccine Myths That Won't Die and How to Counter Them—Part 1
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has spent decades promoting vaccine skepticism. He has replaced scientists at different HHS such as CDC and NIH with vaccine skeptics and anti-vaccine activists. They have polluted the information environment with, and base their policy changes on, myths about the supposed risks of vaccines. Each of these myths has been studied extensively. Each has been refuted. And yet each persists, because misinformation travels faster than correction and because these myths tap into fears that are genuinely human.
In consulting rooms across America, physicians face a challenge that no medical school prepared them for. A parent arrives with a list of concerns gathered from social media, podcasts, and well-meaning friends. The questions sound scientific. The language borrows from immunology. The citations reference real studies. And yet the conclusions are wrong.
These parents are not ignorant. Many are educated, thoughtful, and deeply invested in their children’s health. They have encountered a sophisticated ecosystem of misinformation that exploits legitimate parental instincts: protect your child, question authority, demand evidence. The problem is not that these parents are asking questions. The problem is that they are receiving false answers.
The current moment has made this worse. The head of the Department of Health and Human Services has spent decades promoting vaccine skepticism and has now revamped the US childhood immunization schedule to have one-third fewer recommended vaccines. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which guides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has reversed long-standing recommendations without presenting new safety data. Measles, a disease eliminated from the United States in 2000, has returned at levels not seen in decades.
The information environment has never been more polluted, and the stakes have never been higher.
The most persistent myths about childhood vaccines dissected below and in part 2 [to be published tomorrow, Tuesday] are not fringe theories. They are the claims that appear most frequently in my clinical practice and in the broader public discourse.
Each has been studied extensively. Each has been refuted. And yet each persists, because misinformation travels faster than correction and because these myths tap into fears that are genuinely human.
Myth #1: ‘Vaccines Were Never Properly Tested’
The claim takes several forms. Vaccines were never tested against placebos. Vaccinated children have never been compared to unvaccinated children. Safety was monitored for only a few days. Each version relies on the same sleight of hand: narrowing the definition of “evidence” until only one impossible standard remains, then declaring that standard unmet.
The trick works by conflating regulatory paperwork with the totality of scientific evidence. When critics claim a vaccine was “never tested against a placebo,” they often mean that a specific Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filing for a specific commercial approval used an active comparator rather than saline as a placebo.
