Days after Kennedy revealed that COVID-19 vaccines would be struck from the list of recommended shots for healthy children and pregnant women, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention walked that back slightly — saying children could get the vaccine after consulting with health care providers.
But Kentucky Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says the unorthodox vaccine announcement by Kennedy set a worrying precedent, adding everyone should be "very concerned."
"What we seem to be witnessing now and experiencing now is the arbitrary substitution of personal preferences or opinions for that scientific rigor, for that fact-based approach to making sound medical recommendations, and I think it leaves all of us exposed," he says.
The dispute at the top of federal health agencies led to the resignation of a CDC official overseeing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations this week.
Stack says Kennedy's end run around the traditional process has raised a number of questions for anyone seeking medical advice: "Is the guidance currently being offered the right guidance? Is it supported by science? And will insurers pay for immunizations for patients if the federal government doesn't include them on the normal vaccine schedule like it has long done?"
To be clear, as a physician and health commissioner, Stack says he hasn't seen any reason to alter his recommendations to patients.
"I strongly recommend you get your children all of the routine recommended childhood immunizations and that if you have any questions related to that, please seek expert guidance from your pediatrician," the health official says.
Asked if Kentucky health agencies may step in with their own guidance in the future, Stack tells WUKY that's not out of the question.
"We will continue to make recommendations that we believe are soundly based in science. And yeah, I think we'll have to look, as we go forward, when do things rise to a level that we have to provide our own explicit recommendations specific to Kentuckians, so that hopefully they can have confidence and rely upon that guidance when they make their decisions," he says.
One recent recommendation Stack wholeheartedly supports is guidance by the CDC urging all international travelers to ensure they are vaccinated against measles.
"One person on an airplane could infect the entire airplane just on a one-hour flight," he notes. "If you get immunized though, the vaccine — which is safe and does not cause major adverse harm to anybody — two doses during your lifetime, it has a 97 percent effective rate of preventing you entirely from getting measles."
Read more about who should get vaccinated for measles.