Protecting Our Children: Why Evidence-Based Vaccines Matter

Oct

2025

Dispatch RELEASE

Protecting Our Children: Why Evidence-Based Vaccines Matter

In June of 2025 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ACIP.

This committee provides guidelines that have been the gold standard for what vaccines insurance companies will pay for and what providers recommend to patients. The committee was comprised of infectious disease specialists, global health specialists, and vaccine researchers. The vetting process for these appointments has traditionally been rigorous taking sometimes up to 4 years for approval.¹

The replacements so far have been chosen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr who has no medical degree or health care background. RFK has spouted anti-vaccine sentiments. He has a past medical history that includes heroin addiction. He does not believe in germ theory.

I am a PA, Physician Associate. I worked in general pediatrics for 5 years. I have worked in an urgent care the last 12 years where, among other things, I diagnose and treat sick babies and children.

Vaccines protect against diseases that cause morbidity and mortality (sickness and death). The current pediatric vaccine schedule as of 10/8/25 as I write this, was put in place based on our population having herd immunity. “Herd immunity is when enough people are immune to a disease that it can no longer spread easily.

To get herd immunity, lots of people need to get vaccinated. This helps protect people who cannot get vaccinated for some reason.2” Herd immunity can also occur from contracting the disease.

Let’s discuss some diseases vaccines protect us from. Measles first. The current evidence-based guidelines as of 10/8/25 recommend 2 doses. It is given at 12 months and 4 years. It is part of that famous MMR or measles, mumps, rubella vaccine that anti-vaccine people like to claim causes autism. There is no evidence for this. Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases on the planet. The two-vaccine regimen has 97% rate of protection from measles. Complications from measles include pneumonia, encephalitis-which is an infection of the brain, convulsions, vegetative state, and death.

Measles can also cause immune amnesia. This is when the measles virus kills an important part of the immune system called the memory B and T cells. All those cold viruses, flu viruses, and stomach bugs that a child or adult has suffered through and built up a good immune response in order to fight it off the next time would be gone. This would be like starting daycare or kindergarten all over again.

There is no treatment for measles other than supportive care. Measles is caused by a virus. Antibiotics do not make it go away. There are have been 4 cases of measles in Virginia according to the VDH (Virginia Department of Health) in recent weeks. Babies under 12 months of age are at great risk as they do not receive the measles vaccine until they are 12 months of age and measles cases are spreading across the country.³

Mumps is part of the MMR vaccine. Mumps can cause meningitis, deafness, and orchitis. Orchitis causes testicular pain with swelling of the scrotum. In rare cases it has caused infertility. It is also caused by a virus and the only treatment is symptomatic. Antibiotics do not make it go away.⁴

The pneumococcal and HIB (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccines protect against bacterial illness. These vaccines are given at age 2, 4, 6 months and again at 12 to 15 months of age. There is a group of family practice physicians, pediatricians, and ER physicians who are retiring now, but some are still practicing medicine that will talk about how devastating pediatric health was before these two vaccines. These vaccines protect against pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis, and death. These physicians will discuss how many lumbar punctures they performed on babies and young children before the introduction of these two vaccines. A lumbar puncture tests for meningitis, which is an infection of the brain and spinal fluid. It is an invasive procedure. A needle is inserted into the lower back to draw out fluid from the spine.

Prevention, when possible is the best pathway to pediatric health. Vaccines provide us with that prevention.

The best health care that we give in this country is evidence based. “Evidence-based medicine is about making the best possible decisions in patient care using the best available evidence. It’s about ensuring that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals don’t just follow tradition or intuition, but rely on actual scientific studies and well-tested data to guide their actions.^5”

In 2021 the American Academy of Pediatrics released long awaited pediatric fever guidelines using evidence-based medicine. They are divided into various age ranges and by vaccinated vs. under-vaccinated/unvaccinated status. When a baby or child has a fever, the medical provider must determine if the fever is caused by a virus that will go away on its own, a bacterial infection that is easily identified and treated with antibiotics, or a more invasive infection such as meningitis or sepsis that will need further workup in a hospital. These decisions are complex; the testing is invasive.

The fever guidelines and the vaccine schedule were written over years using evidence-based medicine. If fewer children are vaccinated for these harmful and deadly diseases, we lose herd immunity. These diseases will be prevalent in our communities. More infants and children will get sick. How will our fever guidelines hold up after RFK has hacked away at our vaccine schedule? Testing for these harmful diseases includes blood collection, lumbar puncture, and urinary catheterization. We will see more pediatric hospitalizations and deaths.

It is not good medical practice to miss harmful bacterial illness in the pediatric population. But neither should the medical community perform invasive testing on every pediatric patient with a fever.

Again, babies do not receive an MMR vaccine until 12 months. They do not receive any vaccine other than hepatitis B until 2 months. Herd immunity in our communities protects babies, both from illness and invasive testing. A decision not to vaccinate yourself or your children affects your entire community.

Insurance companies pay for the recommended vaccines from ACIP. If vaccines are dropped off the recommended schedule, will the parents who want to have their children immunized be able to afford it? Their inability to access vaccines will affect us all.

It will harm children and infants in this country to alter this vaccine schedule without using evidence-based medicine. Expertise matters! Attacking science and vaccines does not make our country healthy again. Children and babies died before vaccines. Walk through an old cemetery and do some research.