Vaccines Save Lives

RFK Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary, and chairman of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, just announced the rollback of funding for mRNA vaccines. This move puts the lie to his claims (under pressure from senators at his confirmation hearing) that he would support vaccines for all Americans. Despite the Secretary’s woeful ignorance and disregard for humanity here, vaccines are scientific, evidence-based, and, in fact, work.

Before vaccines came into being, our child mortality rate was through the roof. Infants and young children died of (now preventable) diseases like polio, whooping cough, measles, and even the flu. When first available, vaccines were a godsend to parents who had seen their children suffer and die from these diseases. Now, as misinformation spreads, these long-dormant diseases are returning.  Children are once again becoming sick and dying from measles and whooping cough.

Vaccines work by exposing your immune system to a tiny, damaged form of a virus. Your immune system learns to recognize that virus, and produces antibodies in defense. That way, if you are exposed, your immune system knows what to do to protect you. Vaccines can both prevent illness and lessen its severity if a disease is contracted.

mRNA vaccines work a little differently.  They contain a specific protein that instructs the body to create certain kinds of antibodies directly.  mRNA vaccines are faster to produce, and have been working wonderfully, as evidenced by the COVID and RSV vaccines. They have saved thousands of lives.

Many people are immunocompromised, and vaccines are less effective or not recommended for them.  They may have a bad reaction, or be too old or too young for some vaccines.  Those folks gain protection via “herd immunity.”

Herd immunity is generated when a large percentage of the population is vaccinated, and therefore immune, to a disease. So, if Person A is sick and passing around germs, people around them who are vaccinated are likely to be immune.  And Person B, who’s unable to be vaccinated, is more likely to be insulated by the healthy and vaccinated people around them.

As vaccination rates drop in the United States, herd immunity drops along with it. It is effective only if a certain percentage of people get vaccinated – usually above 95%. With current U.S. MMR (measles, mumps, rubella combination) vaccination rates hovering around 92% (a decrease in recent years), more people are getting sick, and those who can’t get vaccinated are now at higher risk.

Decreasing funding for new vaccine research is the last thing we should be doing now. If we as a country want to continue important medical research, protect our public health, and truly Make America Healthy, we need to continue researching and developing vaccines.  They exemplify the adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Scientifically proven, vaccines are cost-effective, easy to administer, and life-saving.

The best way to protect your family, friends, neighbors, and community, is to become part of the herd. If you can get vaccinated, you should.  If you have questions about vaccines, how they work, and what’s right for you, please reach out to your family doctor—they will provide an honest, evidence-based response, free of political shade.

Rachael Cowan
Systems Change Advocate, Stavros CIL