Mia Khalifa does not hesitate to remain silent, so this week, her outrage was directed at the parents who, according to her, jeopardize everyone else. When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under its new leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted not to continue recommending use of the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine in children younger than 4, Khalifa went ballistic on X (formerly Twitter).
“It’s more important than ever to make sure your kids aren’t hanging out with kids whose parents are fucking morons,” she posted on her personal account, instantly translating the ultra Wonkish policy shift into a viral catchphrase.
Her tweet was more than virtual snark. It underscored the bubbling public unease over what experts describe as among the most radical overhauls of U.S. vaccine recommendations in decades.
In the Vaccine Panel Meltdown
The uproar began earlier this week after new HHS Secretary RFK Jr. removed all 17 of the previous members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and individually hand-selected their new members. Most of the new members have a history of questioning vaccine safety or spreading misinformation, quicky raising red flags among the medical establishment.
Thursday, the new committee surprised observers by casting votes to retract the longstanding recommendation of vaccinating toddlers with the MMRV vaccine. Then, on Friday, they doubled back by reducing formal recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Rather than issuing a full-throated recommendation of the vaccine, the panel instead strayed to: “It’s available, talk to your doctor.” They narrowly resisted issuing a prescription requirement for COVID-19 vaccination, a step critics argue would have reversed the clock of public health accessibility. Tensions spilled over at the meeting, and there were arguments over whether presented evidence was cherry-picked in order to inflate risks. Plans for new evaluation of hepatitis B vaccinations of newborns were hastily put on ice in the chaos.
Science and Politics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, again stresses COVID-19 vaccines continue to be the best weapon against severe illness and death. Information also shows that the MMRV prevented outbreaks of diseases once resulting in children’s hospitalizations and worse, safely.
But under RFK Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines, the discussion has come out of science and into frameworks of personal freedom. His critics fear marketing life-saving vaccines as “optional” will lead us toward public health disasters.
Some of the doctors observing the panel were appalled at the presentation of evidence being overwhelmed by ideology. One of the doctors summarized it “a manufactured debate dressed up as medical advice.”
