Reputable polling - including from President Trump's own campaign pollster - has repeatedly found that vaccines are popular, and for all of the power vaccine critics have amassed within the federal government, accommodating them is politically risky. It doesn't take much reading between the lines of recent events to gather that such vaccine skepticism is falling out of fashion as we get further into the election cycle.
Some 2,204 registered voters in the United States were asked how they viewed a host of political figures as part of a Harvard-Harris poll conducted between December 2-4. The highest rated figures, according to the poll, were Kennedy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D). For RFK Jr., 43% of those polled viewed him favorably, while just 40% viewed him unfavorably for a gap of 3% toward favorable.
Two weeks ago, by inserting what must be the most notorious asterisk in modern public health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caveated its long-standing position that vaccines do not cause autism. Under the direction of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a C.D.C. web page now contends that this is "not an evidence-based claim" and that research linking vaccines to autism has been "ignored by health authorities."
Dr. Ralph Lee Abraham, the Louisiana surgeon general who halted his state's vaccine promotion campaigns and delayed warning the public about a deadly whooping cough outbreak, has quietly been installed as the second-highest official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce this appointment. The news was first spotted by Dr. Jeremy Faust, who runs the Substack called Inside Medicine.
"Of all the specific initiatives that you guys have worked on effectively, the most important thing is that your team is willing to ask questions that people in government haven't been asking in a long time,"
Shares of Tylenol maker Kenvue bounced back sharply at the opening bell Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump promoted unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines, and autism. "Don't take Tylenol," Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the White House news conference Monday, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen in the U.S. or paracetamol in most other countries.
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CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten revealed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is America's favorite among President Donald Trump's key officials though the numbers for all are in the negative. On Thursday, Enten joined CNN anchor John Berman as Kennedy went through a fiery hearing with the Senate Finance Committee. Enten reported that despite Kennedy's controversial vaccine skepticism and moves to influence the CDC he remains more popular than others in the administration.
