Vaccines were once celebrated as proof of the great heights that humanity could achieve. We handed out Nobel Prizes for their discovery, built parades around eradicated diseases, school bells rang, church services gave thanks and we watched entire generations grow up stronger, live longer, and free from fear. They were a symbol of progress, of science in service to life itself. And then, somehow, they became a battleground. Facts bent, motives questioned, and one of our greatest triumphs reduced to a talking point in a political and cultural war.
We can disagree in a democracy. We should, that’s the point, that’s what makes us better. Arguments that are honest, informed. Arguments where individuals present and are held accountable to the facts regardless of where they point. These arguments (or seemingly a more controversial word – debate) serve to sharpen our policy and strengthen our trust in our scientific and democratic institutions. But there is a line between a hard question and discussing developing and evolving facts vs. simply reckless claims. When leaders talk about newborns getting “82 vaccines in one shot” or point to a water glass to imply vaccine doses are the size of a Big Gulp; that’s not vigilance. That’s theater. That’s noise. And theater, repeated enough, begins to pass itself off as truth. False theater from a trusted leader, a trusted advisor, when that theater has life and death impact is a catastrophic breach of responsibility and trust.
We’ve seen what happens when measles finds a soft spot. One case turns into a classroom, a city and unchecked eventually a country and a pandemic. Contagious before the rash, roughly 1 in 4 needing hospital care by a system already on the brink of collapse, one in every thousand developing brain swelling and 2 in every 1,000 dead. Thousands of preventable deaths every year. Even worse it represents a complete breakdown of the social contract. The contract that says I’ll do my part to protect the community, and the community will protect me. The contract that says I will stop at a red light, pay my taxes, I won’t litter, aid those who can’t take care of themselves. This morel breakdown doesn’t just impact those who choose to ignore it. They are shifting the risk and the price onto people who never agreed to pay. People who upheld their end of the contract. Babies, chemo patients, asthmatic kids, the elderly.
We’ve watched science do its grubby, glorious thing over and over. Test, retest, verify, correct, improve. Vaccines aren’t perfect (nothing in medicine is), but the scoreboard is definitely lopsided: fewer outbreaks, fewer funerals, kids with futures; when small risks pop up, the systems we built they go into action. Doctors, regulators, researchers adjust, which isn’t a cover-up, it’s grown-ups doing the job. So why all of the churn and noise? I suspect attention, mostly. Fear sprints laps in our society and the algorithms stand on the sidelines to hand it water. Then we have politics, the politics of fear. Slap team colors on public health and start tackling aachj other while the virus runs free. Unfortunately it seems to have become power 101 – write the script where the hero just happens to be the guy holding the mic. Leadership, though, isn’t a mic drop. It’s learning from and owning the consequences of the decision, not just simply harvesting the applause.
Let’s just talk plain for a minute. When a president or his crew pump out claims that are not just wrong but cartoonish, we get to ask: Why? What’s the play? There’s always a play. Maybe it’s simply stupidity, maybe it’s market manipulation, maybe it’s a pregame for a McCarthyism reboot with a side of a Project 2025 style power grab with political appointees parked in science chairs. Fear in the headline, cash in the cart, cartoonish facts in play. Either way the bill comes due and it comes due fast. Public health turned into a purity contest, doctors second guessed by political agendas, researchers muzzled, teachers walking on eggshells, science scrubbed from the walls of the internet and libraries swapping books for lists. Regardless of the motives the results are the same. Anxious families, divided towns and real science and solutions shoved behind a sound byte at the expense of the health of our citizens and their future.
We used to expect more from the Oval office. Humility coupled with facts, loyalty to the American and global institutions that keep us safe, keep us standing. The American people weren’t spoken to in sound bites, memes, tweets and TikToks. We were given a clear and concise agenda. We were told “here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t. Here’s how we’ll find out.” The populous were treated like adults. With respect and integrity. We honored the nurses pulling double shifts and parents just trying to keep their kids safe with facts. Not memes. The old rules still hold: do your homework, listen before you speak, aim to fix what is broken and tell the truth.
Let’s close with some facts. Children do not receive “82 vaccines that we give simultaneously”. Children do not receive vaccine volumes that are “twice the size of a jar” or a glass of water. According to the CDC 2025 Immunization Schedule infants receive protection against 14 different diseases.They receive 20 to 30 injections over the first year and a half of their life. Those injections protect against some of the worst diseases and viruses to plague mankind. Many of which were once thought to be eradicated. Many that were once pandemic-level threats that killed or disabled millions of people. Hepatitis B, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Polio, Rotavirus, Influenza, MMR, Varicella, Hepatitis A, Covid 19. In total they receive roughly about 3/4ths of a tablespoon over a four to six year period. That’s less than one third of a single baby bottle. By the way, a standard glass of water, 8 ounces, is nearly 240 mL of liquid. There is no separate shot for measles, which I suspect, prevents it from working “much better.” and, yes, the Amish do vaccinate their young and, yes, their are cases of Autism in the Amish community.
When the “facts” presented to us by those we entrust to do the right thing, to protect our interests, to help build a better future are so glaringly wrong and used as a tool for division and fear what is the real agenda? Why are we paying the price?
