As Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hearing to head the Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled to begin Wednesday, health care officials have been prepared to educate the public on vaccines and fluoride. Kennedy was the chairman of the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit group, though he recently announced he resigned from the position. While in that role, he has spread fear and distrust around vaccines for years. The Children’s Health Defense filed lawsuits against the federal government over vaccines, including the authorization of the COVID-19 shot in children. If confirmed, he has promised to stop collecting fees on some of his vaccine lawsuits involving the U.S. government, according to an Associated Press analysis of government ethics forms filed for his nomination. He has pushed the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and has promoted other conspiracy theories, such as that COVID-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. He later said those comments were taken out of context. If confirmed, he will still get royalties from books he’s written, which have spread falsehoods about vaccine safety and other health issues. His books are notorious for containing photos of people who allegedly died from a vaccine, when in reality they died of natural causes or even suicide. Kennedy has insisted that he is not anti-vaccine, saying he only wants vaccines to be rigorously tested, but he also has shown opposition to a wide range of immunizations. In a 2021 podcast, he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines. Health department prioritiesVincent D. Johnson/Chicago TribuneCarrie Thornberry, left, administers a set of vaccine injections for Teresa Huisenga of Highland at the Lake County Health Department’s Immunization Clinic, in Crown Point on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Post-Tribune) No medical intervention is risk-free. But doctors and researchers have proven that risks from disease are generally far greater than the risks from vaccines. Vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades — they are considered among the most effective public health measures in history. Blase Polite, Chief Physician for the University of Chicago facility in Crown Point, said he has worked in public policy for many years, and he’s learned that there are things people say they would do while running a department and then the things they actually do. If Kennedy were appointed, Polite said there would be a lot of scientists, doctors and other health professionals helping him with decision making. “I suspect more of it is rhetoric than it’s going to be actual reality, but something we need to keep a close eye on,” Polite said. “I do worry that any kind of rhetoric or misinterpretation of the science is going to cause a lot of people to shy away from these things that could potentially save their lives or their loved ones’ lives.” Lake County has some of the lowest overall vaccination rates in Indiana for children 3 and younger, and in February 2024, the county reported the state’s first measles case in 5 years. The health department is working to improve immunization rates with some of the $4.8 million in Health First Indiana funding it received to improve health outcomes. Vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise since false information spread in the mid-1990s by a doctor from England who published a paper in the Lancet journal blaming the Measles, Mumps and Rubella, or MMR, vaccine for autism cases. Even though the paper was discredited and the doctor lost his license to practice in his country, paranoia about the vaccine has meant rates for MMR and other vaccines have declined. Dental assistant Leslie Hernandez applies fluoride varnish to preschooler Jad Ahmed’s teeth as the Mobile Care Chicago dental clinic visits Ridge Lawn Elementary School in Chicago Ridge, Nov. 22, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) Polite said the medical community has concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines because they only work if a substantial number of people are vaccinated. Vaccines for pneumonia, RSV, polio, and others have saved “countless lives” over the years, he said. “We don’t think going after vaccines is the right science, and it’s not in the best interest of the public,” Polite said. “We’re just really hopeful that as more information comes in and as he is surrounded by people who have focused on this their entire life, that likely a lot of this stuff will be modified pretty significantly and not put into action.” Children have a strong immune system, Polite said, which means their immune systems are more susceptible to accepting a vaccine. As people get older, they are less likely to fight off diseases, like chicken pox. “That’s the big worry. If you have a large segment of the population that ages and has not been exposed and not been vaccinated and then they do get exposed, they are going to be in big trouble,” Polite said. Defend Public Health, a coalition of more than 700 public health professionals, scientists and activists, signed an open letter last week urging Senators to oppose Kennedy’s confirmation, saying his “unfounded, fringe beliefs could significantly undermine public health practices across the country and around the world.” That’s in addition to more than 15,000 doctors, who were organized by the Democratic-affiliated Committee to Protect Health Care, urging senators to reject his nomination. The vaccine policy can’t be “let people do what they want” because being in a society requires protection from deadly diseases, Polite said. If it became the policy, Polite said there wouldn’t be an immediate impact, but over time more and more people will get sick and some may die. “You can’t have a large number of people who are potential carriers of deadly diseases. We think the public health risks of that would be catastrophic,” Polite said. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance likely won’t come to fruition, Polite said, because its implication at the local level and to schools hasn’t been thought out. “It’s being fueled by a lot of rhetoric and by a lot of bad science,” Polite said. The concern mounted with Trump’s move to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, accusing the group of “mishandling” the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists worry that it will hamper the U.S.’s ability to prepare for the next pandemic and stymie international collaboration. Fluoride Kennedy has also stated President Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water. Fluoride, which occurs naturally in water, soil and air, strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. There’s no federal mandate requiring fluoride to be added to the water supply, and about 63% of Americans live in communities that have added fluoride to the water, according to the CDC. Officials lowered their recommendation for fluoride levels in drinking water in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, which can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids. In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. But the National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water. The call to remove fluoride from drinking water stems from poor and false science, Polite said. “The data is clear. It’s done a good thing. It’s prevented a lot of problems,” Polite said. Fluoride has helped decrease the number of cavities, which are essentially infections that could cause greater bodily harm if left untreated, Polite said. For example, some patients developed heart disease after bacteria from an untreated cavity traveled through the blood stream, he said. By discussing the removal of fluoride, Polite said the administration is sending a message that oral health isn’t important, he said. “We know that oral health impacts much more than just the mouth. It impacts the entire body,” Polite said. The challenge public health officials face is educating the public on the harms prevented by vaccines and fluoride, Polite said. Vaccines have helped eradicate countless diseases, like polio, and increase life expectancy, but those benefits are hard to properly visualize or quantify, Polite said. Fluoride has protected oral health, which helps prevent other diseases, he said. “If people can find a harm … that always catches attention,” Polite said. “What you never focus on is the harm prevented. The challenge for the medical community is to really emphasize the harms that we prevented and what the world looks like if we don’t prevent those harms.” Post-Tribune archives contributed. [email protected]