With the CDC and FDA under the heel of vaccine denier Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his acolytes, Gov. Hochul was absolutely correct to issue her own executive order allowing all New Yorkers to get the COVID vaccine at pharmacies even as the federal government has issued anti-science guidance limiting access to the shots.
Normally, it makes sense to tie a state’s vaccination program and guidance to the recommendations of the federal health officials. But that was when HHS and its subagencies were normal. Those days are now over, with the machinery taken over by the dangerous and unqualified quack RFK Jr.
The impact of vaccines is cumulative. Safeguarding public health does not require each and every single individual to receive inoculation if they, for example, can’t for some medical reason or otherwise. It is undeniable that the more people in a population who are vaccinated, the greater the immunity will be for the population as a whole, including those who have not gotten the shot; it’s a simple question of mathematics and the nature of these pathogens and their spread.
What that signifies from a practical standpoint is that our leaders should be doing everything possible not just for vaccinations to be available in theory, but for as much of the population as possible to have ready and easy and low-cost access to vaccines, along with the widespread awareness that getting vaccinated is not only simple but crucial.
We can’t pretend to know all of the reasons that this country has seen such an uptick in levels of vaccine hesitancy — they run the gamut from a splintering of trust in institutions and greater conspiratorial thinking to the very real fact that pharmaceutical companies have not always acted in the public’s best interest — but we do know that, for all the noise that they make, anti-vaccine fanatics are still a minority of the population.
RFK and his minions who’ve forced their ideology on our public health infrastructure might act like they are acting on some kind of righteous mass mandate, but the truth is the majority of Americans want to protect themselves against deadly diseases in the most efficient way we have, through the time-honored and scientifically sound practice of vaccination.
What these leaders in D.C. are attempting to do is not populist, but anti-populist; they are acting against what the public wants, and it is the responsibility of leaders like Hochul to stand in the way, to protect their constituents’ health and their freedoms. We hope that her action spurs similar efforts in other states where the Trump administration’s actions have made vaccines more difficult to get via the regular channels.
It is unfortunate that not every state is willing to take these steps to protect their populations. Some, like Florida, are going the opposite way and discouraging widespread inoculations, including for childhood shots. In a matter of months, we will see the results of that: states like ours will better weather the expected fall spikes of flu and COVID and other diseases. The populations of recalcitrant states like Florida, sadly, will not fare quite as well, and people will be sickened and die, while also putting the rest of us at greater risk.
Perhaps New Yorkers should give some thought to how much we want to visit or do business with the latter.
