For more than two centuries, vaccines have been humanity’s most effective shield against viral disease. In 1800, Boston physicians began using Edward Jenner’s smallpox inoculation; by 1809, Massachusetts had mandated vaccination. Within decades, a once-dreaded killer was under control. The 20th century brought similar breakthroughs: Jonas Salk’s 1955 polio vaccine ended a crippling epidemic, while later vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, Hib and HPV slashed death tolls and spared generations of children.
Globally, vaccines prevent 4 million to 5 million deaths every year. In the United States, routine childhood immunizations since 1994 have saved over a million lives. Seasonal flu vaccines avert tens of thousands of deaths, while COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 3 million American deaths by 2022, with thousands more lives saved since. Vaccines are not just medicines – they are civilization’s most powerful guarantee against epidemics.
Yet today, that legacy is being dismantled.
In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. terminated 22 federally funded mRNA vaccine projects, cutting nearly half a billion dollars. Kennedy argued mRNA vaccines are ineffective against respiratory viruses and that older platforms are safer. The science tells a different story. mRNA vaccines proved to be highly effective against COVID-19, and their flexibility makes them essential for future pandemic preparedness. By gutting these programs, the administration has weakened America’s ability to confront the next outbreak.
Even more alarming was the purge of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In June, Kennedy dismissed all 17 members – national experts in immunology and infectious disease – and replaced them with individuals lacking relevant training, some tied to anti-vaccine movements. For decades, ACIP provided evidence-based guidance for national vaccine policy. Replacing scientists with ideologues marks a profound break from science-driven governance. Former federal biodefense director Rick Bright called this a “strategic misstep” with long-term consequences.
In May, administration officials presented Congress with a report citing AI-generated “studies” to question vaccine safety. Discredited researchers were also rehired to recycle false claims linking vaccines to autism. When government spreads misinformation, trust collapses. Confidence in the CDC has already plummeted. Measles – once eliminated – has resurged, causing over a thousand cases and multiple preventable child deaths this year.
These moves are part of a wider assault on public health. The FY 2026 budget blueprint proposes cutting CDC funding nearly in half, alongside reductions at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 20,000 staff members are slated for layoffs, including thousands of CDC scientists. The agency has suspended its flagship epidemiological bulletin, severed ties with the World Health Organization, and removed public guidance on vaccines, chronic disease and reproductive health.
This hollowing out of infrastructure leaves communities exposed. Mobile vaccine clinics have closed, outbreak preparedness has weakened and U.S. leadership in global science overall is slipping.
Last week, CDC Director Susan Monarez was dismissed after refusing to endorse unscientific directives. Four deputies resigned in protest. Kennedy then installed Jim O’Neill – a former biotech investor with no medical training – as acting director. At the same time, the FDA authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines but restricted free access to seniors and high-risk groups, leaving most Americans under 65 to pay over $140 per dose. By narrowing access and sidelining expertise, the administration is turning vaccination from a universal safeguard into a privilege of wealth and ideology. Some states, such as Connecticut, are now seeking ways to preserve evidence-based immunization policy independent of federal directives.
Vaccines save lives and reduce medical costs, as well as lost wages because of increased sickness and recovery times. Childhood immunizations alone save billions annually. Dismantling vaccine programs is not just misguided – it is dangerous. Without reversal, the U.S. risks returning to an era of routine epidemics, preventable deaths and shattered trust in science.
The choice ahead is clear. The history of vaccines is the history of progress: smallpox eradicated, polio nearly eliminated, measles controlled, millions of lives saved. That progress is now at risk – not from viruses, but from politics.
America must restore evidence-based decision-making, reinstate independent advisory bodies and reinvest in vaccine science. Anything less is a choice for disease over prevention, politics over science, and death over life. This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders published an op-ed in The New York Times through which he demanded the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sanders argued Kennedy was “endangering the health of the American people now and into the future,” and bluntly declared, “He must resign.” We could not agree more.
Vaccines work. Abandoning them does not.
Concetta C. DiRusso, Ph.D., is the George Holmes University Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus – University of Nebraska, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Professional Associates at Fort Lewis College. Paul N. Black, Ph.D., is the Charles Bessy Professor of Biological Chemistry Emeritus – University of Nebraska, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Professional Associates at Fort Lewis College. Black is a Durango native; both live in Durango.
