09/04/2025
We’re excited to share a special blog post from Dr. Farber.
VACCINES, SCIENCE, AND HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS)
“That’s what I love about science. There’s no one right answer.” – Zach on The Big Bang Theory, 2010.
I may have retired, but I’m still keeping up with pediatrics. Today I wish to discuss a little bit about what is going on in this country as regards science, and vaccines in particular.
Audiences may have laughed at Zach’s ignorance back in 2010, but at present science is under attack. Many people no longer hold facts in high regard. If a fact doesn’t fit their world view, their answer is to ignore or deny it, rather than adjust their personal narrative.
Science, including medical science, deals, as much as possible, in proofs and truths, so it is suffering.
Looking at medicine and science, there are two key points I want you to remember. The first is that in medicine, one almost never achieves 100%. Thus, ci******es cause cancer, just not in everyone; knowing someone who smoked every day and died of old age doesn’t mean that ci******es don’t cause cancer.
The second point is that medical knowledge is usually incomplete, and we have to do the best with what we have at the time. When COVID first arose, we didn’t have much data, but based on what we knew, we advocated masks, social distancing, shutting down certain businesses, and later, being vaccinated. These saved millions of lives. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was slow to ease up on restrictions later. This wasn’t due to willfully misleading the public, but rather because there was insufficient scientific knowledge to clearly point to one choice over another, and the CDC chose to be cautious, incorrectly as it turned out. (I advocated ahead of the CDC for a more liberal return to school policy in my Coronavirus 29 blog, but that doesn’t mean I was unequivocally correct to do so). As more data came in, the CDC changed its position, but not before its reputation took a hit.
Medical research budgets in this country are being slashed. For example, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) will no longer support research on mRNA vaccines such as the one for COVID, despite their promise. There will still be new antibiotics, imaging machines, vaccines, medicines for cancer and other chronic conditions, etc. However, they will increasingly come from Europe and China (which also means they will be coming here later rather than earlier). We will see a brain drain in this country, and America will no longer be viewed as a world leader here.
Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees both the CDC and NIH as part of its function, will be less reliable as a source of medical advice. The leadership in these positions is rapidly switching to non-scientists (such as the current head of HHS, Robert Kennedy), or former scientists who are willing to give up being objective in return for a job. Susan Monarez was fired as head of the CDC less than a month after her appointment because she wouldn’t compromise her scientific principles. I’m sure her replacement will be more compliant.
Let’s look specifically at vaccines. Robert Kennedy is known to be a strong anti-vaxxer. As I noted in an earlier blog, in 2019 he helped convince the people of Samoa not to get the MMR vaccine, resulting in 83 deaths in this small island nation. He shut down research on mRNA vaccines because, and I quote, “these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID.” This is clearly false, and indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which answers to him, approved the newest COVID vaccine again last month. However, as noted above, denying inconvenient truths is very popular nowadays.
I admit that the COVID vaccine is only mildly effective at preventing infection (but see my earlier statement about achieving 100% in medicine). However, it is quite effective at preventing hospitalizations and death in the vulnerable population. For otherwise healthy children who are not in a risk category, I do feel that the main benefit is in protecting others a child might come in contact with, such as elderly grandparents or obese people (a risk group for COVID). As such, for healthy children, although I do encourage the vaccine, I agree that it Is less important than others, such as the flu vaccine.
Looking further at vaccines, Mr. Kennedy is currently having an ‘expert’ panel prepare a report on autism for later this month. The panel is packed with people without relevant scientific experience, along with some members who do have a scientific background but are known anti-vaxxers. Numerous studies, with hundreds of thousands of children, have shown that autism isn’t caused by vaccines. I will predict now that the report will ignore those and cherry-pick small, poorly done studies and opinion pieces, and conclude that vaccines can cause autism. However, this won’t be a scientific paper, no matter the claim. Science involves taking an idea and seeing where it leads, not starting with an endpoint in mind and twisting data to reach a desired conclusion.
By way of contrast, C. Everett Koop was the surgeon-general under President Reagan. President Reagan didn’t support s*x education except for teaching abstinence. Dr. Koop, following science, went against the president and advocated for comprehensive s*x education in schools, and made his position well known. As an aside, he wasn’t fired for this, but those were different times.
If we can’t trust the CDC and HHS and the like in the future, who can we turn to? The best bet is with independent organizations that are willing to use science, as properly construed, to determine best practices. For immunizations, for me that means entities such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will be my main go-to.
In conclusion, I would like to indicate there is one area where Robert Kennedy and I are in complete agreement. I will let his sworn statement of May 14, 2025, speak for itself: “I don’t think people should be taking advice — medical advice — from me.”
