If you want to defend vaccines, then stop trying to silence the debate

If vaccine advocates are so confident in the evidence, why are they working so hard to avoid a public debate?

In The Washington Post’s recent piece, readers are offered a glimpse into the extreme lengths some groups are prepared to go to preserve the vaccine status quo—even as public trust continues to erode.

The panic was triggered by the fact that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced all members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and some of the new appointees have expressed reservations about the current vaccine schedule.

Rather than wait to see what decisions this reformed committee might make—or engage with it in good faith—powerful medical associations, pharmacists, state health officials and vaccine manufacturers are reportedly working “behind the scenes” to bypass ACIP altogether.