Vaccination Efforts at Risk Under RFK Jr.'s HHS Tenure

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, as Health and Human Services Secretary. This comes as a measles outbreak in Texas widens to 58 people and as Louisiana’s top health official says the state will no longer promote mass vaccination. We talk to pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Adam Ratner about his concerns about the nation’s vaccination program under Kennedy and Trump, the impact of misinformation on public health, and why measles is a harbinger for other public health crises. Ratner’s new book is “Booster Shots: The History and Future of Measles Vaccines.” Guests: Adam Ratner MD, infectious disease specialist and pediatrician https://www.adamratnermd.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:09.0	From KQED.
1:27.7	From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:28.7	I'm Mina Kim.
1:32.5	In a speech to his new health and human services staff yesterday,
1:37.8	Robert F. Kennedy said he planned to investigate childhood vaccines, among other things,
1:39.3	nothing would be off limits.
1:42.0	This is a measles outbreak in Texas grows,
1:47.2	and as Louisiana's top health official says the state will no longer promote mass vaccination.
1:54.3	Pediatrician, an infectious disease specialist, Adam Ratner, is worried about the nation's vaccination program under Kennedy, and has long been worried about measles as a harbinger of other public health crises.
2:00.7	Ratner joins us after this news.
2:11.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
2:14.4	A measles outbreak in a West Texas community with low vaccination rates has grown to nearly
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