President Trump and RFK Jr. Might Have a Plan to Completely Ban the COVID-19 Vaccine

When news first broke that President Trump was planning to name Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his Secretary of Health and Human Services, many were understandably concerned about what that appointment could mean for the future of vaccines. RFK Jr. has made his skepticism towards vaccines a core part of his brand, and he's taken steps since Trump took office to change how the vaccine system works in the United States.

Rumors have also started to spread suggesting that Trump and RFK Jr. could ban vaccines for COVID-19 altogether. Here's what we know about whether there's any truth behind those rumors:

The rumors that Trump was planning to ban vaccines for COVID-19 stem from an interview Dr. Aseem Malhotra gave to The Daily Beast in which he suggested that the HHS secretary was planning to pull the vaccines from the market.

Malhotra is a close associate of RFK Jr., so there's some reason to suspect he might be right about the move, especially given RFK's history of vaccine denialism.

This comes just days after several of the leading medical organizations in the country announced that they would continue recommending the vaccine for children under 2 years old and pregnant people, directly contradicting RFK's move earlier this year to stop recommending the vaccine for healthy children and those who are pregnant.

Whether RFK is planning to pull the vaccine altogether remains to be seen, but what we do know is that he does not believe in its effects as strongly as many experts.

If Trump's administration does wind up pulling all vaccines for COVID-19 off the market, it would be a remarkable turnaround for his administration.

During his first term, Trump initiated Operation Warp Speed, a cooperative effort between the government and pharmaceutical companies that led to the development of hugely effective vaccines against the virus at a record pace.

Although there have long been stories that suggest that the vaccine has killed people, the scientific evidence suggests that it has saved the lives of many, many more. Even the CDC, which is now under the control of the Trump administration, has published studies indicating that the vaccines work at preventing severe cases of COVID and have limited the number of deaths the disease has caused.

What seems like the clearest consequence of the potential decision to ban the vaccine, then, is that more people could get sick from a virus that we have the technology to prevent. RFK Jr.'s skepticism is rooted in studies that have long since been debunked, but they have not prevented him from continuing to espouse theories that are not supported by scientific evidence.

Whatever you think about his broader goals to fight back against pharmaceutical companies and encourage Americans to live healthier lives, there would be real consequences to eliminating a vaccine that the overwhelming majority of evidence suggests is effective.

After all, it was Trump's own adminisitration that developed it.