������Ƶ

In the past 50 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives around the world, the majority in infants and young children.

As physicians and parents, we are devoted to helping all children thrive, and we know that vaccines are one of the best ways to achieve this goal. Most readers have not seen a child die of a vaccine preventable disease. Pediatricians have.

Although it is fortunately rare, the devastation experienced by families who have lost a child because they were misled by disinformation about vaccines is heartbreaking.

Recently, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate well-known anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the post of secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. We are deeply concerned that the Kennedy nomination could place our keiki’s access to vaccines in jeopardy.

In 2019 Kennedy visited the Pacific island nation of Samoa to meet with anti-vaccine activists and promote anti-vaccine ideas. Within months, a devastating measles outbreak infected over 5,000 people, filled Samoa’s limited ICU beds, and killed 83 children.

Many Hawaii healthcare workers participated in an emergency mission to mass vaccinate the children of Samoa against measles, organized by then-Lt. Gov. Josh Green. RFK Jr. has not only denied any responsibility for spreading disinformation, but has also continued to promote harmful anti-vaccine messages, including falsely stating that “there is no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

The vast majority of parents in Hawaii are choosing to protect their children by following the recommended schedule of vaccines, all of which have in fact been shown to be safe and effective.

Regardless of what kind of insurance they have, the children of Hawaii deserve to be protected from diseases that today are rare precisely because vaccines have been such a spectacular public health success, allowing millions of babies to thrive and grow up.

The nomination of Kennedy, along with threats of budget cuts to the Medicaid program, means that cuts to the federal Vaccines for Children Program could occur, threatening the rights of tens of thousands of children in Hawaii to receive the vaccines they need. 

Fundamental Right At Risk

We recognize that Kennedy has won important environmental law cases and certainly support efforts to make our food supply safer.

However, we cannot risk a backslide in which our babies suffer terrible deaths or long-term health consequences because their fundamental rights to be protected by vaccines are taken away.

Placing an anti-vaccine politician at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services – which oversees critical government agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, among others – would be catastrophic for child health and risk eroding the confidence of countless Americans.

We urge Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz to vote against the confirmation of Kennedy and to share our concerns with senators on both sides of the aisle.

Additionally, the Hawaii State Legislature should take all possible steps to ensure our keiki continue to have access to recommended childhood vaccines.

Hawaii should be prepared to allocate funding for childhood vaccines in our state if federal funding is cut. Parents can take steps immediately to protect their children by making sure that they are up to date on all recommended vaccines and talking to their trusted pediatrician if they have any questions about vaccine safety or efficacy. 

The following medical doctors are co-authors of this Community Voice: Jennifer Espiritu, Kyra Len, Felicitas Livaudais, Erika Phelps-Nishiguchi and Tashya Whitehead.