‘Life-or-death consequences’: families in the US fear rollback of school vaccine requirements under RFK Jr

With vaccine sceptic as Trump pick to lead US health policy, parents and advocates anticipate devastating changes.

Apolitical battle over school-based Covid protocols in early 2021 quickly turned personal for one Colorado family, whose son’s cystic fibrosis – a life-threatening genetic disease affecting the lungs and other vital organs – made him susceptible to complications from the virus.

Kate Gould said the classroom became a dangerous place for her son after hardline conservatives took over the Douglas county school board and the district removed masking requirements.

Almost four years later, Gould and her family live in southern California – where they moved during the pandemic for the mask and vaccine requirements in place at the time – and they and other parents, advocates and health experts are gearing up for what could be the next front of the school culture wars: a broader attack on school vaccine mandates by the incoming Trump administration.

Currently, all 50 states have vaccine requirements for children entering childcare and schools. But with Robert F Kennedy Jr – who has peddled baseless conspiracy theories and once said: “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” – potentially at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, advocates and parents are right to fear a rollback of requirements, enforcements and funding, according to interviews with about a dozen experts.

Kennedy’s legitimisation and the different levers he could pull, experts told the 74, could have an immense impact on vaccination rates and the spread of preventable, contagious diseases in school-aged children.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 16 January 2025