Jonathan P. Baird

One of the less-publicized aspects of the Trump regime has been its war on science and public health. The Trump mission would appear to be wrecking science. The regime has gutted the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, by ousting all 17 independent scientists and medical experts who comprised the Advisory Council on Immunization Practices. Since January 2025, CDC has lost just over a quarter of its federal employee workforce. That is an almost irreplaceable braintrust of knowledge and experience.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, fired the CDC Director Susan Monarez last August after she refused to accept political interference with the agency. RFK Jr., an individual with zero medical credentials, makes decisions based on his subjective feelings – not science.

We witnessed a ridiculous spectacle on August 10 when Trump signed an Executive Order about vaccines. He called for splitting up the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots. He also instructed the Department of Justice to sue states that fail to provide wide medical and religious exemptions for mandated school vaccinations.

There is no new evidence showing the MMR vaccine doesn’t work. The MMR vaccine has been incredibly effective for decades. One thing that neither Trump nor RFK Jr. mentioned was that there are no separate vaccine shots for each of the three MMR diseases. They don’t exist.

We are currently in the middle of a raging measles outbreak. Back in 2000, the disease had been declared eliminated in the United States. More cases have been recorded this year than in any year since 1991. Nearly 2300 measles cases were reported last year and the total number of measles cases in 2026 has already surpassed that. Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says:

“This essentially is a public health failure, and it’s avoidable.”

Trump’s Executive Order makes no sense. It can only create confusion as there are no separate MMR vaccines. Separate vaccines are not close to happening as drug companies would have to go through a long process creating and testing vaccines and holding clinical trials.

Too many people are not getting vaccinated with the MMR vaccine which explains the measles outbreak. I think anti-science attitudes are causing and could cause a tremendous loss of life. That happened in the past before the MMR vaccine became widely available.

The anti-vaccine movement has been entirely enmeshed with the far right. Attacking science in the name of health freedom is part of MAGA fascism. Just the idea of many more shots for separate vaccines is almost a guarantee of more sickness. Such a policy would require many more doctor visits, something that would result in less vaccine coverage. Adding appointments and needle sticks translates into missed dosages.

For anyone who watched Trump’s performance around the anti-vaccine Executive Order, you had to note his stating vaccinations were the size of soda bottles. He talked about “vats of vaccines” being pumped into children’s bodies. Doses of childhood vaccines are generally about a tenth of a teaspoon.

Trump also baselessly concluded that rising rates of autism were connected to vaccines. That has been extensively studied and debunked. Vaccines don’t cause autism. Also the U.S. is not an outlier in the number of vaccines given, Vaccines protect children.

What is not appreciated by the health freedom advocates is the critically important role vaccines have played in expanding life expectancy in higher income countries. I saw an infectious disease specialist, Dr. MarkAlain Dery, say that the two most important reasons humans live beyond 40 to 50 to 70 to 90 are vaccines and clean water.

Trump’s Executive Order will likely kill people. Measles is no joke. There is a condition called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis that can happen 7 to 10 years after someone contracts measles. The condition is like a time bomb and causes a drastic neurological decline that is fatal. Getting the MMR vaccine is the best prevention.

I think the reason Trump is talking about vaccines is to distract attention away from his many failures including the war in Iran, his failure to address the economy and the affordability crisis and his continuing effort to hide the Epstein files. With the midterm elections approaching Trump is desperate to change the subject away from these failures. He knows that if there is a blue wave and Democrats sweep, investigations will begin into his bottomless corruption and scandals.

Starting with COVID-19, vaccine refusal became a leading cause of loss of human life. More Americans died from COVD-19 vaccine refusal than died from diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease based on CDC data. Vaccine denialism around measles is a continuation of this pro-death trend.