Leaders | Jabbers and nuts

RFK’s loopy approach to vaccines endangers Americans

Donald Trump’s health secretary undermines global public health, too

A protester with a sign saying "Vaccines save lives" is removed as Robert F. Kennedy junior testifies during a confirmation hearing in January.
Photograph: Getty Images
|3 min read

When it comes to vaccines, President Donald Trump’s instincts have sometimes been sound. In May 2020 he launched Operation Warp Speed, which came up with inoculations for covid-19, based on a new mRNA technology, at an unprecedented pace and scale. By one estimate, covid vaccines averted 18.5m hospitalisations and 3.2m deaths in America in two years. And Mr Trump wisely got himself jabbed. So why is he now letting his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy junior, dismantle the country’s vaccine-making ecosystem?

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Vaccine madness”

From the June 28th 2025 edition

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