The United States’ retreat from evidence-based vaccination policy is accelerating vaccine hesitancy at home and abroad. As misinformation gains official backing, the consequences for public health are already becoming visible – and Australia is not immune.

With a flurry of disparaging words Donald Trump, the president of the country that for so long had been the major financial supporter of the World Health Organization, cast aside the last remaining links with the cash-strapped organisation owing the WHO $260 million. Meanwhile the JFK led anti-science war on vaccination strategies continues.

JFK declared that his chronic hoarseness was caused by the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine and his handpicked vaccination advisory committee – rejecting decades of excellent science – withdrew support for a number of vaccines and recommended that the current compulsory immunisation against preventable childhood illnesses of children about to start school be ended.

Rejecting decades of science a paediatric cardiologist with no expertise in vaccination science, but nevertheless the current Chair of JFK’s advisory committee on immunisation practices, declared that all vaccinations should be optional.

The truth is that, unarguably, vaccinations have saved more lives than any other strategy for safeguarding one’s health.

I well remember as a 12-year-old the frustration caused by the closure of cinemas because of the danger of contacting polio. Pictures of victims reduced to living in an iron lung for mechanical provision of breathing were everywhere. The development of an effective vaccine was a wonderful breakthrough.

I also remember my time as a young doctor working in the ED at St Vincent’s Hospital when a 16-year-old girl presented with a fever, confusion and a rash on her arms and legs. Within an hour her skin rash was bleeding and a few hours later blood vessel clotting in her leg was so severe amputation was being considered. She died just 24 hours after admission. The teenager was infected with meningococcal bacteria – so often a killer, especially of young people.

What a blessing to now have vaccines available to thwart this most menacing type of bacteria.

In Australia vaccination against meningococcal bacteria is recommended and free for children under two, with a second injection recommended for teenagers. In the US, JFK’s experts have withdrawn these recommendations.

Right now in America, there is an epidemic of cases of measles and whooping cough – both very serious and unpleasant diseases. This is clearly due to falling rates on vaccination associated with the poor advice from Kennedy’s Center For Disease Control and the augmentation of fear mongering on social media.

The American Medical Association is reporting that family doctors, most of whom continue to recommend the full range of immunisations, are meeting more and more resistance from parents scared by the misinformation coming from government sources.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is running a campaign urging parents to have their children immunised against influenza, cases of which are flaring in the US. It’s almost unimaginable that the government would withdraw this advice.

The previous incarnation of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US, staffed with some of the best scientific minds available, reported that between 1994 and 2023 vaccination prevented six million Hepatitis B cases and 940,000 hospital admissions, four million Hepatitis A cases and 78,000 hospital admissions, and 30 million rotavirus infections and 800,000 admissions to hospital. The Trump incarnation of this organisation is withdrawing support for these measures.

There is understandably, much concern about the global implications of of US health policy shifts.

Since Kennedy and his unqualified advisors have attacked the use of vaccines, ‘vaccine hesitancy’ has become an ever increasing global phenomenon. When misinformation penetrates the heart of public health policy in an influential country like the US, it emboldens anti-science movements everywhere. Reports in the UK press last week tell of a speech given by a prominent British vaccine skeptic who is a close friend of Robert Kennedy, who drew completely unfounded links between Covid vaccination and cancer within the royal family.

Modern science is a collaborative exercise involving scientists from different countries pooling their individual expertise. With the withdrawal of US funding essential for many of these, there are increasing reports of long-standing collaborations being dismantled.

What about Australia? We have an evidence-based policy wherein we recommend 16 vaccination protocols for our population. However rates of vaccination have fallen for the last four years and continue to do so.

Our social media is awash with vaccine skeptics. Its on social media that we need to counter this misinformation with a campaign designed for specific segments of the community (e.g adolescents, parents, older Australians etc) as well as using TV and radio messages that are reassuring, emphasising the serious consequences to oneself and the community if vaccines are not seen as invaluable aids to good personal and community health. Perhaps this could be the first major project of our recently activated Australian Centre for Disease Control?

There is a lot of infectious disease information on the organisation’s website, but how many Australians will seek information from that resource? It needs to provide infectious disease information as recommended above.

We should remember that we had a huge upswing in anti-vaccination sentiment during the Covid epidemic. Misinformation resulted in hundreds of people marching on Parliament house demanding an end to Covid vaccination requirements.

Covid vaccination definitely saves lives but illustrative of all the problems is the appalling low uptake of Covid vaccination boosters every six months as recommended for older Australians, with only 20 per cent to 32 per cent of people aged 75 and over having received a recommended booster in the previous six months. For those aged 65–74, approximately 20 per cent to 25.6 per cent have received a booster in the past six months.

Less than half residential aged care residents are considered adequately protected, with data showing around 49 per cent having received a recent booster, though some reports indicate that about a fifth of homes have less than 10 per cent of residents boosted in the past six months.

Older Australians are much more likely to have regular flu shots (88 per cent – 92 per cent in some surveys) compared to regular Covid boosters. Recent research suggests that the reasons for low uptake are related to concerns about side effects and the belief of many that they have sufficient immunity.

The struggle now is to find ways to counter the misinformation that is depriving so many of of the enormous benefits of vaccination.