Dear Friend,
In case you missed it, Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the Sunshine State is aiming to become the first in the nation to repeal all vaccine requirements, likening them to “slavery.”
Ladapo, who personally manipulated a 2022 scientific study, has called increasing vaccine resistance “reflections of God’s light against the darkness of tyranny and oppression.” Speaking at a conference Wednesday, the state’s leading public health official predicted his cancellation of public health mandates would receive the blessing of God and said: “Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don’t have that right.”
(Although he is, apparently, retaining his authority to remove fluoride from drinking water.)
If that’s not enough hypocrisy for one week, on the very same day, Texas lawmakers passed an anti-abortion “bounty hunter” bill allowing private citizens to sue for $100,000 anyone, anywhere, who manufactures, distributes, or provides abortion pills. So much for bodily autonomy!
Of course, restricting Americans’ access to life-saving health care is neither gold-standard science nor “medical freedom.” It’s the imposition of an extreme, antiscientific, and often religious ideology on all of us — no matter the human toll.
Since the 1980s, every U.S. state has required childhood immunizations against preventable communicable diseases like measles, mumps, polio, and chicken pox. Even as religious exemptions have spread across the states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates these requirements have prevented over 500 million illnesses, one million deaths, and nearly $3 trillion in societal costs.
But just like the infectious diseases it promotes, harmful anti-science disinformation is not confined by state borders. In D.C. this week, the Senate Finance Committee grilled U.S. Health Secretary and long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who boasted his leadership has been “unbiased, politics-free, transparent, evidence-based science in the public interest.”
Really? Is it “in the public interest” to slash $500 million in grants for mRNA vaccine research? Was it “politics-free” to fire all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) or “unbiased” to install prominent anti-vaccine activists? Does “evidence-based science” include citing fictitious studies while instructing CDC officials to alter real ones?
Just last week, Kennedy fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, for, according to her, refusing to preapprove the recommendations” of his newly-stacked panel. He then replaced her with an unqualified former investment executive for Peter Thiel (who recently wavered when asked whether humanity should endure).
In an op-ed this week, Kennedy took credit for “quickly ending” this year’s Texas measles outbreak, even as it’s continuing to spread among under-vaccinated, religious communities in other Southwest states. In fact, measles cases have surged to the highest level since the U.S. reached elimination status in 2000. Over 1,400 Americans are currently infected, 92% of whom were unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
And yet, during this week’s hearing, Kennedy again endorsed the idea that “mRNA vaccines cause serious harm, including death.” He also said he didn’t know how many Americans had died from COVID, though that did not stop the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — also overseen by Kennedy — from recently imposing severe restrictions on who is authorized to receive COVID booster shots. In over a dozen states, major pharmacies have announced they will only administer the vaccine with a doctor’s prescription, even to high-risk individuals.
The consequences of these reckless, ideological attacks on science and public health will be dire. American Atheists knew this back in November, when I wrote: “[Kennedy’s] stance on vaccinations goes far beyond healthy skepticism; it’s a dangerous cynicism that threatens to harm not only those who buy into it, but… entire communities, including our atheist community, which reports one of the highest rates of vaccination among the entire population.”
History tells us where abandoning science leads. After the 1918 flu pandemic, public fear was exploited to fuel fascist movements in Italy and Germany. This administration is following a familiar playbook — discrediting experts, installing ideologues, and manipulating outcomes — all of which will predictably result in preventable illness, unnecessary deaths, and an even darker political future.
American Atheists will continue to defend science, demand transparency, and promote reason over the religious extremism that would drag us back to the Dark Ages. If you’re able, please support our work with a special gift today.
In solidarity,
Nick Fish
President
PS: These developments — as well as the formation of new, interstate coalitions to preserve vaccine access — show just how critical American Atheists’ state-level advocacy and coalition-building is. From opposing dangerous religious exemptions to promoting health care transparency, our Secular Advocacy Teams are fighting back across the country to protect Americans’ rights and well-being by ensuring the policies that govern us all are based on facts, not fallacious disinformation or faith-based dogma.
American Atheists is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, nonprofit educational organization that relies on the support of members like you. Contributions are tax-deductible. Our Federal Tax ID Number is 74-2466507 and our Combined Federal Campaign number is 52217.
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