RFK Jr. confirmation sparks vaccine misinformation, especially regarding children | Opinion

AI-assisted summary
• Diseases like measles and whooping cough can still emerge in unvaccinated communities.
• Doctors consider individual needs and do not automatically recommend every vaccine.
• Many parents who hesitate on vaccines are not anti-science but concerned for their children’s well-being.

With the confirmation of Robert Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human services, vaccines are a politically charged topic once again. For many parents it can be hard to know what to believe. As pediatricians who have cared for many children over the past 20 years, the most important principle is to let facts and data, not politics, be your guide.

Here are a few thoughts for parents trying to find their way through the thicket of often conflicting information. 

Vaccines (like any medicine) do have side effects, but the benefits far outweigh the risks

For instance, there is a remote chance of an allergic reaction with any vaccine — but it is extremely rare. On the flip side, a pediatrician on call in the 1980s would have seen sick kids infected with the bacteria haemophilus influenza (Hib) almost every night. Children would come in with meningitis, pneumonia or swelling of their epiglottis (throat) that could completely close off their airway.

Today, after three decades of Hib vaccinations, many younger pediatricians have never seen this infection. A common concern that pediatricians hear from parents is whether the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. It is a perfectly reasonable question, but thankfully it has been studied thoroughly — literally by following tens of thousands of children who did and did not get the MMR vaccine. And it turned out that there was no increased risk of autism in kids who got the MMR vaccine. 

The vaccine-preventable diseases you don’t hear about can still come back

There were 16 measles outbreaks in the U.S. in 2024 (up from four the year earlier). Before that, there was an outbreak of measles in Disneyland in 2015 that spread to seven states. In 2019 there were over 3,000 cases of mumps in the U.S. There were more than 32,000 cases of whooping cough last year.

All of these outbreaks happened in small pockets of unimmunized people. But the numbers pale in comparison to how it was before vaccines — in the 1940s, for instance, there were more than 200,000 cases of whooping cough yearly. We still see kids who are hospitalized with vaccine-preventable diseases, albeit in small numbers. These diseases are down but not out. Vaccines can help keep them at bay. 

Pediatricians do not recommend every vaccine automatically

Every decision to vaccinate has to consider the risks and benefits. For instance, there is a vaccine for typhoid fever but it is not needed for children in the U.S — there just is not enough risk here to warrant using it — so pediatricians only recommended it if a child is traveling to certain countries abroad. 

On the other hand, vaccines such as MMR, Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis, and Hib will benefit most kids in the U.S. But beyond the national guidelines, it is important to get individualized recommendations from your doctor.  Certain children with immunocompromising diseases should not get the MMR or chicken pox vaccine. What a parent should look for is a doctor who has reviewed at the research, knows their child, and can recommend the specific vaccines that make sense for them. 

Parents who do not vaccinate their children are just trying to do what they believe is best

We have never met a parent who chose not to vaccinate their child because they wanted to harm them — or other children. Vaccine-hesitant parents are not anti-science or uneducated. Many are simply trying to do the right thing. There are confusing mixed messages everywhere and it is easy to get flooded with misinformation. We hope health care decision-makers in government and elsewhere meet parents like these by listening, understanding, and trying to provide helpful information — and not with disdain. 

With information flooding us every second, it is natural to feel skeptical and uncertain.  But in this moment, we do not have an information problem when it comes to vaccines, we have a trust problem. Most parents will not have the wherewithal to read every study about vaccines and some have lost trust in broad, general recommendations from large institutions. They will ultimately need advice from someone they trust, and that trust has to be earned.

A good pediatrician accepts it as their duty to know the science, to know that individual child and understand that parental uncertainty is driven by love. Every family deserves a doctor who can help them cut through the noise. It is up to pediatricians to rise to the challenge and for parents to be open to that help. 

Suresh Nagappan, MD, and Nicole Chandler, MD, are pediatricians who live in Greensboro.