Opinion: Elected officials need to take a stand to protect public health

As a registered nurse who has worked in hospitals and clinics throughout Southern California, I have had countless conversations with patients and families who have questions about vaccines. My patients want to make the best choice for themselves and their families. 

In consulting our patients, public health professionals often look to the federal government for trusted, scientific guidance. Unfortunately, the unnecessary changes in the childhood immunization schedule under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have created confusion and eroded trust at a time when the importance of vaccines could not be clearer. 

For the first time since 2020, California is home to an active measles outbreak. Our state is also seeing a spike in whooping cough infections. This is not the time to turn away from vaccines and the critical protection they provide. 

But that is just what the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did when it cut the number of diseases it recommends children from 11 to 17 in America get vaccinated against. This change, however, was not made after a thorough and rigorous scientific review because the science itself has not changed. 

The changes to the childhood immunization schedule have since been blocked by a federal judge, in part because of lack of qualifications for the 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that Secretary Kennedy appointed in 2025 after dismissing all previous members. Now Secretary Kennedy moves to change the qualifications, which would no longer require those making decisions about our country’s immunization practices to have the same expertise they previously did. 

This will not make us healthier.

Vaccines are rigorously tested and monitored to ensure that they are safe and effective.. They have prevented an estimated 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and over 1.1 million deaths among children born between 1994 and 2023. And the majority of Americans support their availability.

Now families have to navigate conflicting information and renewed fears of vaccine-preventable diseases, all while just trying to protect themselves.

Amidst all this, California needs elected officials here and in Washington D.C. who will stand with healthcare providers and ensure families continue to have access to life-saving vaccines. 

No one can stay on the sidelines while doubt and confusion about vaccines that have decades of evidence demonstrating their safety and effectiveness is spread. 

As a nurse and medical professional with over 34 years of experience, I can confidently say that vaccines work. Every vaccine recommended by MDs that I have worked with has been rigorously tested, continuously monitored and proven safe. Secretary Kennedy’s actions are not grounded in science and it is children and other vulnerable populations who will pay the price. 

It’s time for California’s leaders to speak up to protect our communities.